punk in the eu yes, but grunge I haven't see much of when I was there, nor tatoos, maybe some in germany nothing like here, and almost not at all in france. and the gays are not at all up to date as of a couple of years ago anyway, with like the gay uniform these in the USA these days: baseball caps, with t-shirts on guys showing off their bodies and long sleeve t-shirts with a short sleeve shirt over it for guys hiding them, etc the whole tending towards "livin large", as Ralph Rugoff wrote, what I guess you'd call "alternative" - the post grunge 3rd-generation-homo pseudo-str8 styling that has been very much the gay urban style for the last decade really, that wasn't there yet, that I saw, as of 2004, at all. Germany in particular is very funny cause there are some real gay fashion throwbacks (as there are here as well) and then also particularly German (and British too I suppose) rigid dress codes adhered to by some of the gays there. i.e. mainly the skinhead look which suits so few of the Germans that adopt it, but is absolutely de rigeur for so many: shaved head, nylon bomber jacket, high boots and "Londsdale" logo sweatshirts. The Lonsdale logo is like a total turn on in Europe, in Germany, Berlin certainly. Here in the US nobody would get sexually excited over the Londsale logo.
Anyway, for my taste colored nail polish is... too queer! I am not a straight woman but on most guys it turns me off. Men's hands are so different from women's it just doesn't make sense to me. And the "masculine" colors... just don't make great nail polish period. Maybe with a full arm tatoo the effect would be different. Also like nsamedi I bite my nails, which is too bad cause I do have purty hands. Lately I have been tending spontansously towards what someone pointed out to me - I hadn't seen him doing this - is the recent Karl Lagerfeld look of ring encrusted fingers. I have a long way to go though, don't own anywhere near enough rings yet, but totally am enchanted by that idea, for me, although I certainly wouldn't dress the way lagerfeld does otherwise. For three years I adhered to this manifesto "we are against beastly human haircolor" and was always using manic panic and punky color and fudge. I found it really rough going amongst the gays who largely did not accept it, and often, of course, I would get a sort of negative vibe from non gays. I sometimes go a very natural blonde for the "Sue Lyons look" blonde with dark eyebrows, but. . . haven't had the urge to go blue in awhile, but I should do it again sometime. Midnight Blue (with my roots done in a ligher blue) was sort of my signature color and sometimes people would see my gay personals online profile and write me little hateful notes about being the blue haired freak and stuff. My rule about unnatural haircolor though is that you have to keep it up. EVery two weeks at the most it's necessary to strip it all off and start over again. Which is nice cause it's an occasion to go from blue to green, or pink and orange, or up to 8 or more colors at once. I hate the washed out colored hair punky thing; non-mammalian color must be kept vibrant! The thing about such gestures is you turn off a lot of people but at least the people you attract are probably going to be the right people.
Now im liking the silver polish more. It isnt as noticable as black, and I would ewen say that its more "mature". Discreet and stil gives a nice edge. I used it at my work places christmas party and mached it whit my silver tie bar, and the boss (woman) came to me the next day and complimented that I was really stylish 
