She decided to dive in headfirst after seeing Lady Gaga in concert.
"Her freak empowerment message made a special kind of sense for me," Smith said. "I figured if she can wear meat dresses, I can be a giraffe woman."
A friend of Smith's customized the rings and soldered them around her neck.
"He managed to do it safely, though I did get burned a little," Smith said. "I don't have the normal range of motion I once did. It makes driving a little hard, but my peripheral vision has improved."
Smith estimates the rings have stretched her neck to 10 to 11 inches long. If there is a medical emergency, a screw that holds them together can be removed and free her.
As far as she's concerned, they are permanently attached.
"It took a while to learn to sleep with them, but now if I take them off, my neck feels limp," she said.
Another problem: neck sweat.
"If it's summer and the air conditioner isn't working, my neck starts to sweat and I start to smell," she said.
