Snakes and Earrings Read online

  A

  N O V E L

  1

  DUTTON Published by Penguin Group (USA) Inc. 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.SA Penguin Group (Ganada), 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Ganada M4V 3B2 (a division of Pearson Penguin Ganada Inc.); Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England; Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephens Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd); Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Gamberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd); Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi - 110 017, India; Penguin Books (NZ), enr Airborne and Rosedale Roads, Albany, Auckland 1310, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd); Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24

  Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England Published by Dutton, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Originally published in Japanese as Hebi nipiasu in January 2004 by Shueisha, Inc.

  First printing, May 2005 1

  3

  5

  7

  9

  1

  0

  8

  6

  4

  2

  Copyright © 2005 by Hitomi Kanehara Translation © 2005 David James Karashima All rights reserved REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBL1CATION DATA Kanehara, Hitomi. [Hebi ni piasu. English] Snakes and earrings / Hitomi Kanehara. p. cm.

  ISBN 0-525-94889-9 (alk. paper) I. Tide.

  PL855A528H4313 2005 895.6'36—dc22 2005001594

  Printed in the United States of America Set in Adobe Garamond Designed by Katy Riegel PUBLISHER'S NOTE

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author s rights is appreciated.

  This book is printed on acid-free paper, (oo) 2

  "Know what a forked tongue is?"

  "One that's split in two?"

  "Yeah, like the tongue of a snake or lizard. Except sometimes . .

  they don't belong to a snake, and they don't belong to a lizard."

  He deliberately removed the cigarette from his lips and stuck out his tongue. Its tip was clearly split in two, just like that of a snake. Then I watched, transfixed, as he lifted the right tip of it, then skillfully grasped his cigarette in the crux of the "V."

  "Whoa.. "

  This was my first encounter with a forked tongue.

  "Why don't you give it a try too?" he said.

  And without thought, by instinct alone, I nodded.

  Getting a forked tongue is normally something done by crazy people. They call it "body modification." But that didn't stop me from listening intently as he explained how it was done.

  Apparently, you begin by getting your tongue pierced. You then gradually enlarge the hole by inserting bigger and bigger tongue rings. Then, when the hole has been stretched to a certain size, you tie dental floss or fishing line in tight loops running from the hole down the middle of the tongue. Finally, you cut the remaining part of the tongue that's still connected using either a scalpel or a razor blade. In fact, some people don't even bother going through the whole pierce-and-tie process at all—they just slice their tongue in two with a scalpel.

  "But is it safe? I mean, don't people normally die when they bite their tongue off?" I asked.

  "It's safe. You cauterize the tongue to stop the bleeding.

  Anyway, that's just the quick method. Personally, I started with a tongue ring. It takes time, that's true, but it's worth it for a cleaner cut."

  3

  The idea of a cauterizing iron pressed against a bloody tongue made my skin crawl, though I'm no stranger to body modification of a kind.

  My thing until now has been earrings. And to describe my earrings, I guess I should begin by telling you how they're measured. The thickness of body jewelry is generally measured in gauges; the lower the number, the larger the hole. Starter earrings are usually either I6g or l4g, which is about 1.5mm wide. After 0g comes 00g, which is about 9.5mm wide. Anything over a centimeter wide is measured in fractions of gauges. But to be honest, once you go over 00 you look like a member of some kind of tribe and it's no longer really a question of looking good or not. As for me, I have two 0g earrings in my right ear, and my left ear is lined with 0g, 2g, and 4g earrings from the bottom up.

  As you can imagine, it was painful enough stretching the holes in my ears; I couldn't begin to imagine how much it would hurt to do the same to my tongue.

  I used to wear I6g earrings until I met a girl two years older than me named Eri at a club one night and I fell in love with her 00g earrings. When I told her how cool her earrings looked, she gave me dozens of her old ones, ranging from 12g to 0g, saying,

  "Once you go this far, you can't wear smaller ones anymore."

  Going from 16 to 6 was easy, but going from 4 to 2 and then 2 to 0

  was a real stretch. Blood oozed from the hole and my earlobes became swollen and red. The constant, thumping pain lasted for two or three days. I also inherited Eris philosophy of not using expanders, so it took me three months to get down to a 0g. I was just thinking of moving on to 00g the night I met the guy with the forked tongue. I was addicted to stretching, and I guess that fueled my interest in his talk of tongue splitting. I noticed that he seemed to be enjoying himself too.

  4

  A few days later I went with Ama the snakeman to Desire—a kind of punk/alternative store in a side-street basement just off the shopping and entertainment district. The first thing that came into sight when I walked in was a close-up shot of a vagina with a pierced vulva, and the walls were lined with photos of pierced scrotums and tattoos too. Further inside, there was a range of regular body jewelry and various accessories on display. There was also a selection of whips and cock cases. Basically, it was a store for perverts.

  Ama called out and a guy popped his head out from behind the counter. He was about twenty-four or twenty- five and had a curled-up dragon tattooed on the back of his shaved head.

  "Hey, Ama. Long time no see."

  "Lui, this is Shiba-san. This is his store. Shiba-san, this is my girlfriend."

  To be honest I didn't really consider myself Ama's girl, but I kept my mouth shut and bowed anyway.

  "Ah, I see. You found yourself a cute one."

  I felt slightly nervous.

  "We're here to get her tongue pierced."

  "Is that right? So even Barbie-girls get their tongues pierced, huh?" said Shiba-san, eyeing me curiously.

  "I'm not a Barbie-girl."

  "She wants a split tongue too," said Ama, laughing teasingly, as if he hadn't heard what I had said. I remembered once being told at a body jewelry store that the tongue was the most painful body part to get pierced, second only to the genitals. I was beginning to wonder whether it was a good idea to let a guy like thi
s do it.

  5

  "Come here and let me see your tongue," said Shiba-san.

  I stepped up to the counter and stuck out my tongue. Shiba-san leaned slightly forward and said, "Well, it looks pretty thin, so it shouldn't hurt too much."

  I felt a slight sense of relief.

  "But when you order grilled beef, isn't the tongue the toughest kind of meat after the stomach?" I asked. I had been wondering all along whether it was really safe to put a hole through such a tough part of the body.

  "Good point," said Shiba-san. "Well, it'll definitely hurt more than getting your ears pierced. I mean, you're putting a hole in your tongue. That's bound to hurt."

  "Don't scare her, Shiba-san. If I could do it, Lui, I don't see why you can't."

  "Not to mention you fainted. Anyway, bring that tongue of yours over here."

  Shiba-san pointed past the counter and smiled at me, and I noticed that he had a crooked smile. He had piercings in his eyelids, eyebrows, lips, nose, and cheeks. So much so that they hid his expression, making it almost impossible to tell what he was thinking. I also noticed that the backs of his hands were covered in keloid scars. At first I thought they might be the result of some kind of accident. But as I looked at them out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that each burn was a circle of about a centimeter wide—about the size of a cigarette end, if you know what I mean. Basically this guy was completely mad.

  Ama was the very first person of his type that I had gotten to know. And now there was Shiba-san, who didn't have a split tongue, but did wear a facefiil of piercings that gave him an intimidating look. Ama and I followed Shiba-san into the back room. I sat down on a pipe chair that Shiba-san pointed me 6

  to and looked around the room. There was a bed, some unusual looking tools and, of course, shady photos on the walls.

  "You do tattoos here too?" I asked.

  "Yep. I'm a tattoo artist myself. Though I got someone else to do this one," said Shiba-san, pointing to his head.

  "I got mine done here too," said Ama.

  The night I met Ama, we had hit it off talking about forked tongues, and he had taken me back to his place. Ama had taken photos of the entire tongue splitting process, from stretching his tongue hole to slicing the tip in two with a scalpel. I had looked through the photos one by one. Ama had stretched his tongue hole to OOg, so he only had to cut about 5 mm with the scalpel, but it still bled a surprising amount. After that, Ama had shown me an underground Web site with video footage of the tongue-splitting process. To Ama's amazement, I watched the footage over and over again. I didn't know why it excited me so much. Later on that night I slept with him. And afterward, as he showed off the dragon tattoo that stretched across his upper arm and back, I told myself that I would also get a tattoo, once my tongue was split.

  "I want to get a tattoo."

  "For real?" Shiba-san and Ama said at once.

  "Cool. It would look great. Tattoos come out much better on women than on men. Especially young women. You can tattoo really detailed drawings on such fine skin," said Shiba-san, stroking my upper arm.

  "Shiba-san. First things first. The tongue stud."

  7

  "Oh, right." Shiba-san reached forward and grabbed a piercer in a plastic bag off the steel rack. It was an ordinary piercing gun used for ears.

  "Stick out your tongue. Now, where do you want the hole?"

  I stuck my tongue out and pointed to a spot about two centimeters in from the very tip. With a practiced hand, Shiba-san wiped my tongue with a piece of cotton and put a black dot on the point I had indicated.

  "Put your chin on the table."

  I did as I was told and bent down with my tongue still sticking out. Shiba-san placed a towel under my tongue and placed the stud in the piercer. But the moment I saw the stud, I slapped Shiba-san's arm and shook my head.

  "What's the problem?"

  "That's a 12g, right? You're not going to start me off with that, are you?"

  "Yeah, its a 12. I mean, you don't see people wearing 16 or 18

  on their tongue, do you? It'll be fine."

  "Please use a 14."

  I pleaded with Ama and Shiba-san and convinced them to use a 14 instead. I always used a 14 or 16 for starter earrings.

  Shiba-san placed a I4g stud in the gun and said, "This is where you want it, right?"

  I nodded slightly and tightened my fists. My palms were already sweaty, slimy, and uncomfortable. Shiba-san positioned the piercing gun and pushed the tip against the towel. He slowly slipped the piercer over my tongue. I could feel the cold metal stud on the back of my tongue.

  "Ready?" asked Shiba-san gently. I glanced up and gave a little nod. "Here it comes," he said, and put his finger on the trigger. His words made me picture him having sex. I wondered 8

  if he warned girls of his climax with the same soft voice. The next moment there was a clamping sound, and shivers much greater than those of an orgasm shot through my entire body.

  Goose bumps shot up my arms, and my body went into a slight spasm. My stomach tightened and for some reason so did my crotch, where I felt an ecstatic, tingling sensation. The piercing gun snapped open, releasing the stud. Free once again, I grimaced and slipped my tongue back into my mouth.

  "Let me see," said Shiba-san, turning my head toward him and sticking out his tongue.

  With watery eyes I stuck out my now numb tongue.

  "Looks fine. It's in straight and in the right spot."

  Ama came in between us and stared at my tongue.

  "You're right. Good for you, Lui," said Ama.

  My tongue was burning and I found it difficult even to speak.

  "Lui, right?" said Shiba-san. "You sure can take pain. I hear that girls have more tolerance for pain than guys. Some people faint when they get sensitive parts like the tongue and genitals pierced."

  I nodded and indicated without opening my mouth that I understood. Dull and sharp pains hit me in short waves. I was glad I had listened to Ama and come here. If I had tried doing it myself as I had initially planned, I probably would have given up halfway. I was given some ice for my tongue, and I could feel the excitement gradually drain away. Once I had calmed down, Ama and I browsed through the body jewelry in the store. Ama got tired of looking at the body jewelry and walked over to the corner where the S&M goods were on display. I found Shiba-san, who had come out of the back room, and leaned against the counter.

  "What do you think of forked tongues?" I asked.

  9

  Shiba-san shrugged and said, "I think it's an interesting idea, but unlike piercings and tattoos, it involves actually changing the shape of the body. I wouldn't want to do that myself. I think only God has the right to do that."

  For some reason his words were very convincing, and I gave a big nod. I tried to think of all the different types of body modification I knew of. There was foot-binding, waist-tightening with a corset, and neck-extension practiced by some tribes. I wondered whether or not braces counted.

  "If you were God, what kind of human would you create?" I asked.

  "I wouldn't change how they look. But I would make them as dumb as chickens. So dumb they'd never even imagine the existence of a god."

  I looked up slightly at Shiba-san. He'd said the words nonchalantly, but his eyes were laughing with mischief. This guy, I thought, was bizarre.

  "Can you show me some tattoo designs sometime?" I asked.

  "Sure," said Shiba-san with a smile, his eyes filled with kindness. His eyes were unnaturally brown and his skin was white. Almost as white as a Caucasian.

  "Give me a call anytime. Even if it's just to ask a question about your tongue stud." Shiba-san wrote his cell phone number on the back of the store's business card and handed it to me. I took it and thanked him. I shot a glance toward Ama, who was examining a whip that he had picked up, and slipped the card into my wallet, the sight of which reminded me that I hadn't paid.

  "I should pay," I said. "How much is it?"

&nbs
p; "Don't worry about it," said Shiba-san as if he couldn't care less.

  10

  I put my elbows on the counter, rested my face in my hands and watched him. He was perched on a stool on the other side of the counter. He seemed to find it annoying that I was looking at him and he tried not to meet my eyes. Without looking at me, he said in a deliberate tone, "Looking at your face gets the sadist in me all revved up."

  "Well, I'm a masochist, so perhaps I'm giving off that kind of vibe," I said.

  Shiba-san stood up and finally looked me in my eyes with great tenderness, as if he were looking at a puppy. He leaned forward to bring his eyes level to mine, pushed up my chin with his thin fingers, and smiled.

  "I'd just love to stab this neck with a needle," he said, looking as if he would burst out laughing any second.

  "Sounds like you're more a savage than a sadist," I said.

  "You're right there."

  I didn't expect him to know the English word, so I was a little taken by surprise.

  "I didn't think you'd know that word," I said.

  "I have quite a vocabulary of grim words," he said, and smiled his shy, crooked smile. Completely mad, I thought, but I couldn't suppress my desire to let him do with me whatever he wanted. I put my arms on the counter, cocked my chin up, and let Shiba-san stroke my neck.

  "Hey, Shiba-san. Stop hitting on my girl." Ama's goofy voice cut in between us.

  "I'm just checking out her skin. For when I do the tattoo."

  I had gotten used to walking the streets alongside Ama. He wore three 4g pointed earrings in his left eyebrow and another three in his bottom lip. And as if that didn't make him stand out 11

  enough, he wore a tank top that made his dragon tattoo visible and his red hair was cropped so short on the sides that it looked like a thick Mohawk. When I first saw Ama at that dark techno club, I thought he looked scary. It was my first time in a club that played music other than hip-hop or trance, as most other clubs I'd been to with friends had been events. Until then I'd pretty much thought all clubs were the same. That night, after I had parted from a friend, a black guy speaking heavily accented English talked me into going. It was a club all right, but totally different from the kind I was used to. I'd become tired of the unfamiliar songs and was sitting at the bar drinking when I saw Ama dancing in a weird kind of way. He stood out, even in such a strange crowd. Our eyes met and he walked straight up to me and I remember being surprised that even people like him try to pick up girls. We made small talk for a while, but then he got me interested with his forked tongue. I remember being mesmerized by his slim, serpentine tongue, and even now I don't really understand why it attracted me so much.