At A Glance Author aniorange Contact aniorange@bme.anon IAM aniorange When Five years ago Artist Sadly, I do not remember Studio A shop downtown Location Eureka Springs, AR. Things where going slowly on the body modification front for me. I was going though changes in health, in lifestyle, and in workplaces. I had taken quite a few piercings out, and was in the process of rebuilding my collection. My septum and tongue piercings had survived thus far as well as two different ear piercings. I had my labret pierced to quench my thirst for new metal, at least for a while. There where also other things going on in my life.
The biggest event was my marriage. I had decided to tie the knot with a woman I loved. We had this loose idea that we where going to have out honeymoon in Eureka Springs Arkansas. No where in that plan had we even thought about getting pierced. There was some joking around about getting tattoos since we where going out of Oklahoma. It is still illegal to get tattoos in Oklahoma sadly. We passed a few shops on our drive to Eureka Springs and made small talk about stopping to get tattooed. For one, we really did not have that kind of money to spare and for another we had no ideas of what to get. Well, I had a small idea, but it had yet to be developed. We also completely tossed out the idea of some tattoo with her name on me or visa versa. I personally think it is bad luck to do such a thing.
Well, we drove up to Eureka Springs and had our fun. We stayed at a nice log cabin, eat out, and took carriage rides. Of course we went shopping down the main street. This was not the first time we had been there. One place we went into we ended up striking up a conversation with the guy behind the counter about a tattoo place. He had told us there was one nearby but out of town. He had a card from them and gave it to us. Then he also told us he thought there might be a new place opening up down the street and around the corner above a sort of food court.
We left without giving these two places much thought, at least at the time. Time went on however and something started to enter my mind. Not a tattoo, but giving my smiley one more try. You see I had had it pierce multiple times before. It all started at Dogstar Tattoo, and went on to 23rd Street Body Piercing in Oklahoma. The placement was never to my satisfaction, but I was not done trying. I thought perhaps we could look into the shop above the food court and see if they where up to piercing me.
I did not say anything about my idea at first to my wife. I continued to think about it. I believe we where sitting around thinking, ok what do we do now? We have been here for a while and had shopped most all of the shops. Tourist traps are fun till you spend too much time there. I made the suggestion that we go and get my smiley pierced. I do not think she was all that thrilled with the idea, but she went along with it. We went downtown and found a place to park and walked to this food court. For some reason, even though we had been up and down these streets several times before, we never really noticed this particular place and food court before.
We went inside and found some stairs and headed up them. At the top was a doorway to a small tattoo and piercing shop. Sadly I cannot remember the name of the place nor can I find the business card I took home from there. I used to have a collection of them. There was just and guy and gal there. I walked in and asked about getting a smiley. The guy perked up and seemed excited about doing it, but admitted he had not done one before. How familiar. I suggested he could practice on me it all I had to do was buy the jewelry. I also informed him that I had it pierced a couple of times before and it seemed to migrate crooked. I was trying to find someone to get it right. The piercer went for it.
He laid me down in sort of a dentist chair and got things ready. I did not pay a lot of attention to his setting up. The mood was very light. The piercer was a bit nervous but I was not. I was actually cracking jokes to lighten the mood. The piercer had the young lady that was there put on some gloves and hold my lip up as he pierced me and he slid the jewelry in behind it quite easily. Things went a bit slowly. There was barely any pain at all, just a slight pinch. It was very slight much like always. The piercer still seemed nervous as if I where going to disapprove and turn out to be mad, but I was not. We made some rather nervous small talk. I thanked him and paid and my wife and I went about our way. Sadly I do not remember the name of the piercer. I also do not remember the name of the shop. I could swear they gave me a business card, but I cannot find it. I have done searches online and can not find them. I am left to believe they are no longer there.
I was excited to have my smiley back one again and hoped things would turn out better this time. We went somewhere to pay too much for some Listerine to keep it clean. My upper lip became a little sore. The area right behind my septum was the sorest, but it faded after a week or so. I kept my mouth clean with Listerine, washing after every meal or drink. Healing was totally uneventful.
We headed back home a couple of days later as our honeymoon came to an end. I kept looking at my smiley to see how it was going. Much to my dismay, things where going much the same as they had before. I would smile and notice that the ring would slide off to one side. It tended to favor one side over the other. It did not take long for me to become frustrated with it and take it out this time. Why did I have so many problems with it staying straight? Everything would always start off great. The piercing and healing where always so uneventful. I just could not understand it. I was sad to see it go once again, but was really starting to think that this piercing just was not meant to be. I guess I just still needed some time. Some time to think.