Being A Professional Body Piercer
At A Glance Author Mike Contact [email protected] Artist Mike McQuade Studio The Love Shack/ Unity Body Piercing Location TomRiver, N.J. Oh yeah, I love my job! I spend my days poking holes in people, or so people think. Yeah it's a great job and I do love it but there's so much more to it then that. I've studied anatomy and first aid, I've completed a year long apprenticeship, I've learned from others, I've learned from myself, and now I'm busting my ass to make a name for myself and the shop I work for. This summer will be my fourth year in this business and I've done literally thousands of piercings since August 5th 1996, I've studied sterilization techniques, and have taken the Ocean County Health Department's cross contamination test, I am also on a sub-committee with my counties board of health to develop all the laws and standards in our county for professional body piercing. I take pride in what I do. I enjoy making people happy and helping people feel better about themselves because of their new piercing. I work in a very competitive area for body piercing, my shop is at the Jersey shore near Seaside Hts. Where there are easily 5 piercing shops in a one mile radius, probably 10 or more in 10 mile radius. So what it comes down to for me is keeping the cleanest shop around by using hospital- like sterilization and putting out perfect piercings every time, bottom line. Around me there are a lot of "hacks" and piercers with low/no morals, I know personally of 16 and 17 year old girls getting genital piercings and nipple piercings from other piercers in my area without parental consent, and it sucks that I turn away every single 17 year old girl that wants her naval pierced and comes into my shop without a parent or guardian, because I know she's just going to go down the road to get it done and wind up getting mad at me. So not only do I lose a customer but my competitor is going to get repeat business because I look like a jerk to this girl, but I have to be the one with the morals, right? It's going pay off in the long run, right?
Everyday before I start piercing I soak my entire room, walls, counter, and floors with madacide. I scrub and mop the entire room, I bag and autoclave all the tools I cleaned the night before. I do all this to make sure all of my customers are getting pierced in the cleanest possible environment. Before every piercing I do I spray my counter down again as well as my piercing chair to prep the area. All my tools are set up on a sterile tray. After the piercing is done I again spray down all my surfaces to get rid of any possibility of cross contamination. I honestly would eat off of my floor if I had to, to prove a point.
In Ocean County, New Jersey there are no standards or laws regarding body piercing at all so any moron can pick up a needle and poke some holes in people. That scares the crap out of me, so when the board of health sent me a notice that they were going to be holding a meeting in regards to developing the laws and standards I was ecstatic. There is way too much shady business going on in this industry. As piercers we no right from wrong, it's pretty cut and dry. I mean honestly people we know better then to pierce underage kids without parental consent, we know better then to do genital piercings on underage kids period, and we know better to nipple piercings on underage girls period. We just know better and that's the bottom line! Yet I know of many instances where all these things still happen around here and I can't wait for all the laws to implemented to eliminate a good amount of my competition and bring some class back to this industry.
All day everyday I deal with the hardest part of my job, turning away underage guys and girls. It's really difficult to turn away paying customers but I copy identification of everyone I pierce and if the person being pierced is underage I copy the I.D. of their parent or legal guardian. So everyday at least 10-15 underage customers come asking if their friend can sign for them or if their sister can sign for them and I have to say no because I'm the one playing by the rules and someday "Unity Body Piercing" will a nationwide franchise because I do things the right way, right? Well it still suck that my competitors are getting so much business from me doing things right! Me doing things seems to be paying off real good for them. Good things come to those who wait, right?
It's not an easy job, but I give it my all and make sure I'm doing the best I can every time. So that's really all I can do, right? Well, ladies and gentlemen, I have to go "poke a hole in someone" so until next time, stay safe and keep "beautifying the world one needle at a time". If anyone would like to contact me in regard to this article or about being pierced I can be reached at " The Love Shack" or call (732) 573 1010
1502 rt. 37 east
Tomsriver, NJ 08753