Re: loosening up.
You can pretty much accomplish all necessary image manipulation by raising very aggressively in late position.
Good players will not really change their image of you much.
Bad players will peg you as a maniac for opening K4s in the cutoff. I promise you after showing down some nit will offer, 'He raises K4 offsuit, what an idiot, if you keep playing like that you're going to lose all your money, blah blah blah blah etc.' And that's not a typo, I can't tell you how often my hand becomes offsuited after the loser in the pot has told all his neighbors about it four times.
I sometimes also raise low suited connectors up front in a tight game, which even the good players will lift an eyebrow at. You have to play very carefully postflop to judge when you can push those hands through, however.
I limp loosely after terrible players with hands like QTo or J8s, if you end up showing down with one of those again you'll be marked, since no one remembers what the situation was preflop.
In other words, playing loose _and_ aggressive IN SOME UNUSUAL SITUATIONS will be more than enough to convince unsophisticated players that you are very bad at poker and will allow them to justify coldcalling with KTs on the button. Horray.
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