This week’s is about the time I got a really bad sunburn…
Two summer ago I went into the t-shirt making business with a few friends. We all made up our own designs, and using a small iron on press, sold our creations at those street fairs you see all over the city.
One day, we had a spot that had no shade whatsoever and the sun was in full effect. We arrived early in the morning, and by noon, I had already developed a sunburn. Since there were no mirrors around, I needed my friends to point this out, and since I had no means to check, I never saw to what extent I was burnt. And my attitude was “hell, I’m already burnt, nothing I can do about it now” and hence I did nothing.
By three o’clock it was insanely hot, and there hadn’t a single cloud the entire day. And apparently my sunburn was considerably worse. One friend who has just arrived noted “Jesus fuck dude, you are seriously red!” My face was feeling a bit warm, so I decided to step into a McDonald’s to check it out, plus use the bathroom. I knew something was up when almost everyone stopped what they were doing to stare at me. And they didn’t exactly display much tact… “Yo, look at this guy! His face is all fuckin’ red!!!”
Once I got inside the bathroom and looked in the mirror, I finally realized that my face was a deep dark scarlet, as if it was covered by a thin film of blood. The fact I was also wearing a red shirt with pretty much the exact same color made me look even stupider. I felt like a total jackass, but once again, since the damage was done, I had no idea what else to do. Even at this point, the notion of going to a drug store and getting some ointment, or even buying a hat, didn’t cross my mind.
I went back and continued selling for the rest of the day, but instead of people asking about my shirts (I was quite proud of the designs, especially the one featuring a masturbating raccoon) they all had to point out that I was the same shade as the devil (mostly old people said this).
By evening, we had wrapped things up, dropped our stuff off, and had dinner. I was still pretty embarrassed by my physical appearance, but dealt with the humiliation and unwanted stares as best I could. But then I noticed something: my face was starting to ooze. I asked others in my company, who were also sporting sunburns (though nowhere near as severe as mine) if they were experiencing the same thing, but none were. After dinner, we all went back to the apartment to chill, but my face was leaking even more so. Cracks on my face were developing and yellow puss was oozing out. I then decided to go home.
I went to bed, hoping that everything would be alright. I wanted to put something on, like a medicated cream, but at this point I was living in a shitty part of Jersey City where there were no drug stores open late at night, so I couldn’t get anything on the way home. The next morning, my face was literally a mess; it was like all the skin had melted. Most of my face was scarred and peeling, but the worst part was the nose; every inch was covered with, and dripping, yellow puss. And man did it hurt like hell. I seriously looked like a burn victim.
I hopped online and discovered that I had sun poisoning. If I had money, I would have gone and seen a doctor to receive treatment, but I was also poor and unemployed at the time. All I could do was go to the local ghetto drug store and get cheapo skin ointment (and witness genuine looks of horror on the faces of the cashiers) and hope it would work. I did my best to stay indoors as much as possible to stay out of the sun’s rays, even though I really needed to be out on the streets going to job interviews.
I forced myself to become a hermit for days, but it paid off; eventually, my face began to heal up, at least most of it. But not my nose, and after two weeks, I was becoming extremely worried. The thing was, I had my nipple bitten in half (which is another story for another time), and the way it reacted was the same exact way as my nose was behaving. Every morning, I would wake up with a hard candy-coating like shell (think M&M’s) on my nose from all the puss that had accumulated and congealed overnight. When I washed my face, the coating would slide off my face (often as one whole piece) and the skin underneath would be pink and raw. And in just a few seconds, it would begin leaking puss all over again, and start to drip. I was in hell.
It took about three weeks, but eventually it did heal (thanks to a very delicate balance of rather costly, but decent, ointments and sour cream, believe it or not), and all seemed fine. Though ever since then, my skin has become ultra sensitive to the sun, but especially back then. Just five minutes of exposure was enough to make my face ketchup red for hours on end (which was particularity bothersome when I went to San Diego later that summer).
On a side note, the whole story of my face made the rounds amongst all my friends, and one had a parent who worked for Avon. She felt so bad that she sent me a bottle of primo sun screen (which even had a touch of bug repellant). I took it with me when going to Coney Island for the Siren Music Fest (which this year happens to be this upcoming weekend). The whole morning was overcast, but not wanting to take any chances, so as soon as some rays started to shine through the clouds, I put a healthy amount on my face. My main concern was being presentable for later that night; I had a date with a girl whom I saw briefly the Christmas prior. Things were called off in the early spring, but seemingly back on track, so I wanted to look good for the first date in months.
But then my face turned red all over again. I couldn’t understand it, until a friend looked at the bottle and pointed something out…. instead of it being high grade sunscreen with a touch of bug repellant, but it was actually high grade bug repellant with a touch of sun screen. And there were specific directions to NOT APPLY ON FACE. I felt like a retard, and looked like one too.
As for the date later that night, it turned out to be a total bust. When all was said and done, her face was almost as red as mine, though that had more to do with her being a lush.
