The safety-pinned button on my lanyard even said so. Highly trained and qualified, I'd gotten the button, my Certificate of Course Completion, and a twenty-five cent an hour raise to prove it. To the unknowing masses, I was certified to use both the Inverness and Studex Ear Piercing System. To those who knew better (including myself) I was the piercing equivalent of a tattoo scratcher.
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact [email protected] Studio Hot Topic I started working for Hot Topic in October of 1998. They were just beginning to push ear piercing, and allowed employees to conscientiously object to training and piercing. At that time, no employee was required to pierce ears. By February 1999, ear-piercing business was starting to make the company some serious money. After all, what "cool" person wants to sit in Claire's and listen to boy bands while they get butterfly earrings put in their lobes when they can listen to Blink 182 and have some uber-goth-punk kid pierce them with Maltese crosses? In order to complete my training as an Assistant Manager, I would have to compromise my beliefs and be trained on piercing with a gun. Weighing the value of my beliefs against the value of being able to afford my apartment and other expenses, I took the piercing course. After studying laboriously for half an hour, I was allowed to pierce a Styrofoam cup. My manager then coerced a fellow employee into letting me pierce their ears, one cartilage and one lobe piercing. With the small exceptions of the head of the earring being stuck in the "sterile" cartridge, and my not knowing you had to squeeze quite a bit to get the stud through the outer cart, everything went as well as could be expected. I was happy to have a raise and promotion, and the company still didn't require all employees to pierce. And then things started to get ugly.
Body Jewelry started selling more as well. At the time, Hot Topic was dedicated to selling what it regarded as the highest quality SSS jewelry. As a regular reader of BME and rec.arts.bodyart, I knew the quality was really quite poor. I contacted the buyer in charge of Body Jewelry purchasing to suggest they sell internally threaded jewelry. I also suggested they sell some sort of aftercare related items such as tea tree oil or sea salts. After several months of correspondence, I was told we wouldn't be able to sell anything other than the ear piercing solution because they couldn't find "cool" enough packaging. Also, in response to my (and many other employee requests to sell higher quality jewelry) Hot Topic began selling threadless barbells with acrylic beads. Company policy released during the same time dictated we were no longer allowed to recommend or refer customers to body piercing or tattoo studios. We were not allowed to dissuade customers from buying any product based on concern of quality. We were not allowed to suggest any aftercare method other than the use of the ear piercing solution. "If it's good enough for your ears, why can't you use it on your navel?" was my District Manager's big selling point. Sales in ear piercing continued to climb, and by August of 1999, all employees were required to pierce ears. Contests were created, rewarding employees for their ability to sell ear piercing. Later, all employees who sold a set of earrings and aftercare got a $2 commission. Ear piercing was the highest selling category in the store, followed by body jewelry. Employees continued to voice complaints regarding the quality of the jewelry, and corporate answered our calls by sending barbells with sterling silver skulls on the end. Employees complained about being required to shove 20gauge studs through customer's ears, and corporate responded with the Ear Piercing Barbell (a 16-gauge barbell with one attached ball, and slight threading at the other end.) It was still rammed through the ear with the pressure supplied from a gun and hand, but the backing was plastic, and meant to be replaced with a ball by the customer.
Reality sank in. My piercings, various hair colors, and manner of dress were just as much a part of my work uniform as the khaki cargo pants and button down shirts they required employees to wear at the Gap. The body jewelry showing up for sale at the Icing was just as horrid as what was in the display a case in my store. I sold out. I worked for the Man. With as much fervor as Hot Topic pushed the selling of body jewelry and ear piercing, I was just as adamant about dissuading people from purchasing jewelry or getting their ears pierced. I devised ways to tell people of safe establishments to get pierced at "I can't recommend you go to a certain shop, but I get my work done at ____, and the employee over there goes to ______." More often than not, after I'd explained the benefits of professional piercing versus gun piercing and added a few worst-case scenario stories, customers were thanking me for being honest. Unfortunately, corporate HQ didn't feel the same way. A stockholder was in the store during one of my "anti-gun piercing" crusades and emailed a complaint to the home office. I was written up for disobeying company policy, and put on probation for 6 months. I was told in no uncertain terms should I ever make any statements that would cause a customer to question the quality of any item sold. I was given a "final warning" when my response was "Well, if we sold higher quality items and didn't participate in unsafe piercing methods, I wouldn't feel compelled to make such statements."
After two years of employment with Hot Topic, I decided it was time to move on. I could no longer use a magic marker to dot someone's ears, load a pink cartridge into a plastic gun, and hear the sound of someone's cartilage pop. I couldn't stand there silently when customers came in to buy body jewelry to carry upstairs and get pierced in the dressing room of the local skate shop. No longer willing to be part of the profit machine, I handed in my preprinted credentials, and left the ranks of "Master" behind.