Does the skin pattern in fake leather (leatherette) originally come from a real cow?
Did someone take an impression of real leather in order to emboss this into plastics, or is the texture created using some chemical method?
Here's an example of the texture I mean: http://www.automobiletrim.com/images/vinyls/heavy.jpg
You sometimes see it in car dashboards etc, I assume to provide grip and reduce the appearance of marks.
I assume cows would have unique skin patterns, much like fingerprints. If real cow skin patterns are used, would that make the cow immortalised in texture form?
You're right. The original and unique fauxcow (p. faow cow) texture was taken from a German cow called Fidel in the early 1930s. This cow (technically a bull, but with the same skin texture shared by all bovines) was selected by Hindu priests as it was believed that he carried the immortal soul of Mahatma Gandhi. This was considered odd at the time considering that Gandhi was alive and well as of 1948, but just as god(s) move in mysterious ways, so do souls through the esoteria of reincarnation.
So this, the holiest of cow skin textures was used far and wide until 1971, when a legal dispute broke out over royalty and copyrights (dubbed in the press at the time as a 'Cowpyright Dispute') many fake-fake-cow textures began to proliferate on the 'black and white' market. These cheap copies were created from imprinting many non-bovines, for fear of retaliation from the truly violent and vindictive 'Pro-Gandhi Vendetta Militia'. Toads, snakes, limas, merecats and labrador puppies were common targets for replica cow skin textures. Sadly the process was invariably cruel and often fatal, but in a twist of irony, animal rights activists hunted down and killed those in the fauxfauxcow trade. Some of these textures still exist today in cheaply manufactured goods and Ford automobiles. The original design however is said to bring peace and harmony to products manufactured by those companies that can afford the exorbitant licensing costs. Hinda (Hindu owned Honda) even claim that if you are run down by one of their cars featuring the original leatherette motif, you are assured to be 'reincownated' in a higher caste.
So in answer to your question, yes: While the original soul of the Gandhi-cow (bull) invariably lives on in some mystical form, all those that have been touched in some way since (probably a violent high-speed encownter) have also been assured a place in cowtopia.
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