Brian Skellie, for those not familiar with the name, is a piercers piercer. He was a huge contributor to the freehand piercing movement ( a term he would like to see done away with and replaced with “piercing with less tools”). He brought the statim autoclave to the attention of our industry and is our resident expert on the subject. I could go on and on, but I will leave it at this Brian Skellie is not only one of the most informed piercers in the biz, but by far one of the most willing to share his information with his colleagues. Even if you, or your piercer has never dealt with him directly, if they use modern freehand and/or disposable techniques their information that got them to that point most likely originated from Mr. Skellie.
So please, take a moment and wish this man a happy birthday!
Plus, keep your eyes here peeled, because one day when his and my busy schedules (on different time zones) line up, I will be doing an in depth interview with him for Modblog. I am thinking this will likely be the most insightful piercing interview on BME since the Tom Brazda interviews from the late nineties.
BME/News and Modblog highlight only a small fraction of what
HAPPY BIRTHDAY 🙂
happy birthday brian.
Happy birfday ya skelliwag!!!
Happy Birthday! Thanks for making the piercing thing credible… It’s people like you I point to when others question the whole thing.
I have birthdays too. say it to me as well please.
Jon P.
Happy birthday 🙂 also, an interview would be great!
Happy birthday, Jon P, one for each year of your blessed life and a bonus one to grow on!
Thank you for the kind words! I look forward to our interview and further interactions.
Aww, he pierced my friend’s ears when she was scared to have it done at 25!
Hahaha, that other Jon P’s a bit douchey, but I guess we’re all selfish in our own particular ways. Happy Birthday Brian!
Oh great. Now there are 2 Jon Ps?
Oh and Happy Birthday Brian!
Yes, Rob! There is I, an actual Jon P. I was a member of IAM under the name original_sly. I spent many a good year enjoying the camaraderie of IAM before past events led me to (rashly, I suspect in hind-sight) exit stage-left and drop off social networking completely.
I was the one who spent time trolling ModBlog, keeping everything Maori-related very politically-correct and trying to correct factual inaccuracies. But as Prof. Diarmaid MacCulloch says in his latest book, A History of Christianity: “Some may sneer at this as ‘political correctness’. When I was young, my parents were insistent on the importance of being courteous and respectful of other people’s opinions and I am saddened that these undramatic virtues have now been relabelled in an unfriendly spirit.” (p.14)
I do believe that in moments of arrogance, I might have rubbed some people the wrong way. Those who are not used to debate and the give-and-take nature of healthy discourse probably find dissenting opinions unnerving. So I gather that the “other” Jon P is trying in troll-like fashion to discredit anything I might have said or yet say, which makes it hard to tell when I’m actually saying something seriously or playfully.
And none of the above changes the fact that in this oft-times cruel and harsh world, Brian has out-lasted all those who fell in the past year to become another year older himself. No mean feat, I say!
Nga mihi mo to ra whanau, e Brian!