Mon 23 Oct 2006
61A Outbound, Oakland. Saturday night.
A college female student with a cheek piercing sits down near a drunk woman:
Drunk Woman: Hey, did that hurt? [points to Girl’s cheek]
Pierced Girl: Uh, yeah, but not that bad.
Drunk Woman: Hmm. [stares for a while] I like that; it’s cute. How much did it cost you to get that done?
Pierced Girl: [avoiding eye contact] Umm, like 30 or 40 dollars.
Drunk Woman: Really?! That’s cheap! Where’d you go?
Pierced Girl: Oh, not around here; in Philadelphia.
Drunk Woman: Ahhhhhh, so you went out of state to get it done. Yeah, it’s way cheaper if you go out of state. Like me: I got my lip done and my tongue pierced twice [sticks out tongue and shows her], but I went out of state to get it done, and that’s why it was so cheap.
Pierced Girl: [nods, trying not to laugh]
Drunk Woman: Yeah, if you’d-a gotten that done in-state, it’d prolly be like 70 or 80 dollars.
Pierced Girl: Oh, yeah.