January 18, 2005 Acupuncture Neon Sign, East Village
You see a lot English signs in downtown New York City in front of shops offering acupuncture, massage and East Asian
medicinal and health treatments. The closer to Chinatown one gets, the more frequent the signs appear,
until, in Chinatown itself, the English mostly disappears from such signs altogether. In any case, they tend to disappear into the landscape of
street-level advertising. This neon
version in the East Village, however, caught our eye. The shop is closed, but the sign is alive with electric energy.
We might walk by this sign in daylight and never notice, but at night the neon effectively plants an idea in our heads.
That said, a few years ago we tried acupuncture while travelling though Asia. It was an interesting
expereince for a first timer, curious and open-minded, but we didn't feel any better afterwards, healthwise or otherwise, and
so we hadn't really given acupuncture any further thought until we saw this sign.
Ivan G. Corsa Photo
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