Kelly King, owner of Ace Body Piercing, is leaving the community after 19 years of business in downtown Ellensburg. Within the next three months, King is moving on from Ellensburg and will be closing the shop to pursue other endeavors.

King is originally from California, but grew up in the Yakima area as well as around Lake Chelan. She moved to Ellensburg to attend CWU in 1994 and received a degree in philosophy. She also studied anthropology, almost earning a second degree before leaving CWU because of financial reasons.

An opportunity arose for King to open her own shop shortly after she left CWU. The previous owner of the space was relocating and desperate to sell, so King bought the space, starting her own piercing business with only $5,000.

“We started with a case of jewelry,” King said.

Ace was originally combined with Old Skool’s, a neighboring business that sells records, thrifted clothing and other antique items. Carol Cox, the owner of Old Skool’s, said she has known King since they were both 14, which amounts to over 40 years.

“She’s been in business a long time and has served the community very well,” Cox said. “I’m happy for her though because she’s moving on and hopefully on to better and bigger things.”

King customer base consists mainly of college students, but she also gets many customers who are travelling through Ellensburg. She said she is happy to assist anyone with anything they need when it comes to piercings, and she loves to converse with her customers. King also said she loves the feeling of trust between her and the customer. She prides herself in her ability to calm people down and realize that they are in control of the situation.

“People come, they want this change and I’m the specialist that gives it to them,” King said. “So it’s one of those relationships where they’re putting some trust in me and my job is to help them through this ordeal, because a lot of people are very afraid of the pain. You face that fear, and you do the piercing, and typically the result after is laughter. I really like that aspect of the job.”

While she enjoys her job at Ace, King said part of the reason she is leaving is due to the development of carpal tunnel, which she believes is her body telling her that she should pursue other avenues. Another factor in her moving on is to combat the constant anxiety and stress in her life.

“I know it sounds crazy, but I have a dream to have less stress in my life,” King said. “I’ve been doing this 19 years so I want to do some new things.”

King said that she doesn’t want to feel like she has to hustle every day of her life, and she wishes to reduce the constant barrage of pressure in her daily routine. She said things like bills and responsibilities can make someone feel constantly overwhelmed.

“Even in our downtime, we’re worried about our problems,” King said.

King is also leaving Ace to focus on her writing career.

“I have some diverse interests and I also really like writing,” King said. “I’m really excited about the change.”

She said she loves to write to relieve stress, because she is able to go with the flow, she only has to write when she’s feeling creative and she can take downtime when she needs to. She plans on spending a year to finish and promote a children’s book, which she will be writing and illustrating herself.

King is also a songwriter and is currently working on music with Star Anna, a local artist who has put out several albums over the last few years. King currently has three songs that she has produced with Star Anna on Bandcamp, a website where artists can share their music and be directly supported by their fans.

King said that she will also be exploring other interests after moving on from Ace. King has an interest in acupuncture, meditation and Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT). EFT draws on various alternative medicine theories including tapping and acupressure as a treatment for physical pain and emotional distress. This has inspired her interest in alternative medicine and acupuncture as a means of stress relief, and she has even brought some of those techniques into her profession. King has recently started offering a piercing related to acupuncture, called a daith. The daith piercing is located in the ear’s innermost cartilage fold. The piercing is designed to hit a pressure point which helps to ease both anxiety and migraines. King said the response to these types of piercings has been overwhelmingly positive.

“The amount of people that it has helped is amazing,” King said. “I have done people that have started crying because their migraine of ten days immediately went away when I pierced them.”

Aside from music and writing, King also wants to explore EFT as an alternative career.

King said what she will miss most about owning the store is having the opportunity to strike up a conversation with people from all walks of life.

“I feel like the job is sort of like being a bartender where people will just sit down and start talking to you and I love that part of it,” King said.

King said that there is a possibility she may reopen the shop in the future, but she does not have any set plans to do so. She said she wants to focus on her new direction and see where it takes her.