Anyone can do it! I do have a paid account, but I could still see icons when I had a regular free account. They may have changed it to an opt-in thing rather than a default setting, but it's simple to change. Go to your inbox and at the top right it says "Manage Settings". Click that, and under "Friends & Communities" there is a line that reads One of my friends uploads a new userpic. You can change the settings to notify by your LJ inbox.

And thanks for the info on the tumblr dash! I will set that up.

The belly one, IIR, was Rodney, although I don't remember now exactly what it looks like! And I should've checked before, but alas, I did not. *facepalm* I always give credit as well.