NEHA, Day 2

8 am: After a hurried breakfast at the hotel (in which Didier spilled more of his food down the front of him than he ate) we arrived at the opening of the expo. Most other attendees were complaining about the early start time. I’m still on East Coast time; I was up at 4:30 am.

The second day was much less busy than opening night, but the people Didier and I spoke to at length were no less appreciative of our presence or the work that we do. We spoke to representatives from Arizona, New Mexico, Florida, Alaska, Georgia, New Jersey, Washington DC, Utah, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Alabama, Indiana, Michigan, New York, Maryland, Ohio, Illinois, Nebraska, Colorado, Montana, British Colombia and Great Britain. (This may not be a complete list, but this is what Didier and I could remember by brainstorming in our hotel room.) Many of these people are directly responsible for either the inspection of body art establishments or the policies or legislation that governs and informs those inspections.

The most memorable thing I heard was from a woman from Montana, who talked about regulations and inspections in her state. She thanked us for our efforts—as an organization—and closed by saying, “We couldn’t have done it without your help.” I was almost knocked over by the power in her words.

The stated mission of the APP is to disseminate information about body piercing to piercers, health care professionals, legislators, and the general public. As piercers, we will most likely never all fly the same flag, and the crusade to educate the public is just at the beginning of a long and hard road. But health care professionals now know who we are and where to find us—my trips to the annual conferences of APHA (the American Public Health Association), ACHA (the American College Health Association), and ADHA (the American Dental Hygienists’ Association) have proven that to me. The reception that Didier and I received at NEHA showed that we have are succeeding with legislators as well. “We couldn’t have done it without your help” speaks volumes.

2 pm: The expo closes, and Didier and I pack up the booth and load the car. (The temperature gauge in the car says 116 degrees; we can’t tell if that means outside or inside the car.) We head to the Post Office to ship what few supplies we have left—along with the booth—to San Diego in preparation of the APHA conference the end of November, and then drive the hour to the airport for Didier to catch his flight. I don’t leave until tomorrow morning, so after dinner I head back to the hotel to finish my blog of the trip and prepare for an early bedtime. I will not be leaving the comfort of the room or the air conditioning again until I leave for the airport tomorrow morning—I have to return the rental car before 6 am, so I’ll be up at 4:30.

[This and the proceeding posts will be compiled into a future article for The Point: the Journal of the Association of Professional Piercers. Subscriptions are available for $10 a year and free PDF’s are available at safepiercing.org.]