WASHINGTON — Three years ago, Kimberly Smedley was arrested in a D.C. hotel for illegally injecting her clients’ buttocks with silicone.
Two years ago, she pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 37 months in prison. She was released after serving 17. And today, Smedley, 47, relays her account in her memoir, titled “The Backside of the Story.”
“When you go to prison, you have a lot of time to sit and think about things,” says Smedley. “And I had some time to really sit and think and to reevaluate my thoughts and to think about some of the mistakes that I’ve made in my life.”
Smedley was introduced to the world of contraband silicone injections in 1999. The Atlanta-based cosmetologist accompanied a friend and co-worker on a trip to Chicago, where she learned about his side-job: injecting silicone into clients who wanted to enhance their hips, breasts and backsides.
At first, Smedley says, she didn’t participate in the black-market injections — she would just sit there with her friend.
“Once he finished working, we’d go shopping, out to eat — it was just a little getaway for me,” she says.
And while she didn’t assist in the procedures, Smedley says she wasn’t against receiving her friend’s services.
“Once I learned he was doing the buttocks enhancements, I was so eager to have mine done that I actually allowed him to inject [me],” she says.
At the time, Smedley, who says she always struggled with self-esteem issues, was not concerned about the health dangers of the silicone procedures.
“I was just interested in getting what I wanted and being able to feel better about myself,” she says. “Especially in the African-American community, men are really into the huge butts
