Friendship or partner rings which have been engineered to contain a tiny tunnel that encircles the band. This tunnel has an entry hole on the inner surface that rests against the finger.
To “activate” the ring, a short segment of hair donated from either themselves or their partner, is inserted into the hole. The hair strand is pushed in until it disappears totally inside the ring, from where it cannot be removed without a destructive process. A small transparent window on the inside allows it to be viewed under magnification.-- xenzag, Oct 24 2006 Essence of Lincoln http://www.beaufort...museum/mourning.htm"Abraham Lincoln had 250 memorial rings made with locks of his hair to distribute after his death to his friends." After the Ford Theater incident these might have been deemed rather grisly mementos. [jurist, Oct 24 2006] Ashes to Diamond http://www.lifegem.com/Possibly the most your dead-beat relative was ever worth! [MikeD, Jan 27 2009] Most rings worn daily are subjected to lots of dirt, moisture and general abuse. What keeps your "tiny tunnel" free from moisture and presumable decay of the contents? Wouldn't hermetic sealing and guaranteed incorruptibility of any DNA properties inherent in the hair strands be important to the wearers of such rings?-- jurist, Oct 24 2006 Yes, a bun from me also. Might I subsitute the hair with blood and then seal it?-- zeno, Oct 24 2006 You could put some of the ashes of a passed loved one in the ring.-- Chefboyrbored, Oct 25 2006 That's a neat one, and loads less creepy than those braided hair chain thingy's. We found one in my grandma's possesions and even though it was really well preserved, it still felt icky to touch it (The idea, not the actuality).-- PollyNo9, Oct 25 2006 Why just hair? Why not blood? Or stem cells?-- Alx_xlA, Jan 26 2009 Simplicity-- xenzag, Jan 26 2009 Assuming a gold ring, just make a small recessed spot of 24k gold that includes the port. Once the hair is in place the user could manually push that gold inward to seal it. (High purity annealed gold will deform under a fingernail).-- MechE, Jan 27 2009 [Chefboyrbored], here is a classy variation to that theme ... {link}
[+], love the idea [xenzag]. I have a few .308 casings discharged in combat and a few chunks of copper from discharged enemy EFPs that I pryed out of the hull of our truck. I plan to melt it all down and fashion a ring out of this material.-- MikeD, Jan 27 2009 random, halfbakery