Touch

Hair

"The first time a student walked into my classroom wearing a 'blue jay', it did startle me. Royal-blue slabs of hair were brushed and sprayed straight up along the sides of his head, a long jelly roll of white hair fell forward over his eyebrows, and the back was shiny black, brushed straight up and plastered close to the head." -Diane Ackerman

I really enjoyed the visual created by the blue jay hairstyle. While it does seem like "alot to fuss with", the expression created in it is admirable. Hair is used as an expression as well as having it's own practical uses, which is inspiring in it's own right.

Animals

"Touch is a powerfully important sense among animals, for whom the slightest touch of an object or another animal triggers responses. One need only watch the body whims of a house cat..." 

-Diane Ackerman

The best way to train a cat is by training them to touch a pole, or stick, then give them a reward. After completing it enough times, the trainer can add in a specific sound that the cat will also respond to, usually the word, "touch". This is fairly easy to train into a cat, since they naturally check out the stick, and by rewarding this behavior, the cat will complete it more often. Cats are finicky, and won't do anything they don't want to, so training a cat can be difficult, so the movement and reward has to be specific, otherwise they won't follow through with further training, and this is an easy behavior to train a cat to do on command.