Lighters
Hunters
This is the one, not the cam 4 one i got in berlin, i dropped it, it stated to leak and no longer works but had to keep it, it was hidden away in a dump box and mixed it up with the other lighter. I do not recall if this lighter was free or not. I think it may have been as I did not smoke at the time. Or I may have handed over a couple of euros in exchange for it. At the same time a friend who I was with brought some fetish slogan socks. We were in the bar / kink part of a gay sauna; the main sauna was attached but ran as two distinct venues. It was Berlin fetish week, my third consecutive time there, my friends first. The event creators had placed a foam machine into a decent sized shower room. Spent the night with one really attractive guy who I ended up contracting gonorrhea off when he rimmed me while I lay in a leather sling. This was at a point where I was not on PrEP and had a rule about condoms only for penetrative anal. This was somewhat undermined as this rule did not stretch to oral. I recall really wanting to bareback in the foam room. I had 99p sandals on in the venue, they stuck to the wet floor and broke apart after several steps.
Yellow
I really like the colour of this lighter, which is a bit of a shame really. I found it on the table in the garden area at the pub i work for. i went straight there after a day hiding at the School of Art. I left the house at half eight in the morning and only got back around seven pm, to get away from the landlord. She had finally come over to my flat to clean and paint over a very very mouldy ceiling. And, i did not want to interact with them in any way. Two days previously they made me take the rainbow pride flag out of my window.
She shouted. I cried when i was alone. Her reasoning was that it made her sad. As well as; it was dangerous to a car which was parked 30 meters away and at a different house, there is a no flags rule (villa flags, gay flags, Ukraine flags or even Christmas flags apparently) and that it was her house and she says so.
I remember feeling greatful for being able to cry, it was the first time in three years.
The flag had been out of my window for months, probably even over a year. My mental health was used an an excuse for not mentioning it earlier. I was not expecting this sort of behavior from a friend who turned into my landlord.
..I have been reassured it is definitely not a gay thing.
Black clipper
I was once asked to be a part of a two day outdoor performance at the botanical gardens. I went around dressed in what I believe to be a world war two uniform, cruising the outdoor gents with a friend. It was the first time meeting in person though we had chatted before online. This event has so many good stories but they are for another time. The lighter was given to me by a member of the crew. After the after party they invited me over to their hotel where we gave each other oral, smoked some fags and I pissed over them. They later told me they were monogamous. I recall getting home way after the sun had fully risen. The tracking number stickers on the lighter are from an online scam I almost fell for. I was a bit pushed for cash and had bills that needed paying, so I decided to sell my VR headset. An impulse buy at the time. I liked it a lot but really needed the money. I posted an advertisement on social media. I received a message asking to buy it for more than the asking price. I was blinded by my need to pay the bills and shipped it off to them before receiving any form of payment. Then came the whole please send me £400 and I’ll send back what I owe you. I ran to the post office and luckily my parcel had not left yet and I managed to get it back. I later sold the device to CEX.
514
This lighter is my favourite style to use, adjustable flame size, one button and refillable. And it’s in my favorite colour. The vinyl numbers on the side were from my MA degree. At the time the [local department store] building was being done up, and they had an artist in residence design the scaffolding cover in collaboration with a local art gallery. I am pretty sure it was only to justify some sort of tax relief. As members of the school of art we were asked to make some Birmingham related artwork. And, to give some free workshops alongside the main artist. Who after seeing them around the SOA a few times I came to the conclusion they were a bit of a rude prick. Materials for the artwork and workshops were reimbursed if they were ‘within reason’ but the concept or labour was not. I submitted an artwork titled £15.14. It was a wooden board with three things glued to it. A package of seawhite student coloured pencils, the artist designed card packaging for the pencils and a 14p packet of instant noodles. The cost of everything on the board totaled £15.14. Safe to say I had quite a few dirty looks and funny comments from the store staff. The dirty and half worn away sticker on the back of the lighter tells me I have been holding onto and using this one for a while. Or at least a few really drunk nights with. I am pretty sure the amount of glitter stuck to the dirty label means it has been to Manchester pride with me. Along with coming with me to work on set as an extra for some queerish tv shows.
Light green / blue –
I remember this one from the particularly rounded bottom and tad bit of lighter fluid left, this one is not refillable. This was left at my student accommodation room during my first year of BA. The night previous I went out to Hurst Street and drank and danced with a friend of mine. He is a tory politician; he has fun winding me up about how great the right is and I have fun telling him he is talking out of his arse. A friend of his was there who also drank and danced. After getting absolutely sloshed I invited the friend back to mine for the night. We fucked. I think this must have been on a Monday. There used to be £1 disco bingo and £1 drinks at the village inn with the drag queen Queeny. When Queeny used to do drag. When gay town was safer for the queers and when you could purchase something for a quid. I recall bumping into the friend with my friend a week or two later. Dancing and drinking, the friend kept snogging my friend. According to my friend it was to make me jealous. From that point I wasn’t interested.
Red with black paint
I am not 100% sure where I got this lighter from. I do not usually use it, I know it holds some sort of negative connotation for me. The smudge of black acrylic paint on it means it would have to be from a time when I either had a lot of free time or was feeling particularly low enough to paint. I seem to only paint when I am far deep into the shadows. Almost clawing back at a ‘happier’ time when I painted a lot, as if going back to when I felt most creative would prove to myself a lighter frame of mind. I see myself looking back through a rolodex of memories. Is it from when I had to move back in with my abusive manipulative twat of a farther? From painting that found lump of concrete bright pink in my cc home? No, that was pink. So, it must have been over the first lockdown. Could it be from when I just started to smoke, an excuse to go outside and harm my lungs a bit? I think it was, I remember making my devil horns in the kitchen and covering them with black paint.
Blue lighter clipper light blue
Met up with my ex with the intention on smoking funny fags and shagging all night. Met up at my old Art school, went to the shop to get some snackage and went to the local reservoir to smoke in the summer sun. After walking the long way around, avoiding families, to find the ideal picnic spot, we discovered neither of us brought our lighter. I looked around to decide on who to ask to borrow theirs. Ex suggested the group of girls and not the group of homophobic looking lads. I dismiss this comment but approach the girls first. They don’t have one, then someone alone, they don’t have one as well. I get called over by the group of guys and they lend me a jet lighter lighter. I go back and we start to picnic. A short time after one of the guys comes over and hands Ex a blue clipper. Ex looks at me, “serves me right to stereotype.” The lighter was then gifted to me when we returned to my flat.
