I look around today at the kids in magazines, ears stretched, piercings shining, tattoos barely healed. They are eager for what they think will be the backbone of their life, this modification industry. They dive into apprenticeships, hoping this will be all they need in life...to make it big as a modification artist. This is the life they will live forever they think, this is the road they will walk until they are old.
At A Glance Author Meagan Kreiner Contact [email protected] IAM serpenttitties When N/A I remember when I was 18. I was right there with them. I had to be pierced, tattooed. I had to stretch. And moreover, I had to pierce others. I felt it was my calling, my passion. Everything.
When I walked into a shop the first time after I was 18, I wanted a tattoo, and ended up snagging an apprenticeship to pierce. It was a great deal I thought...$300 and I could be a piercer. I cleaned out my trust fund leftovers from college, and began observing the piercer work. I was at once fascinated and horrified by what went on. I loved to be around the shop, smelling the green soap, hearing the machines buzz and whine, to see the piercings, but something was missing.
The piercer I was working for was disgusting. A huge filthy man only interested in seeing underage cunt. It's true. I cannot tell you how many 15 year old girls had their hoods pierced that summer, or their nipples, or whatever they wanted for that matter. I was told to keep quiet about it, but it happened every day. There were drug deals going down left and right, lots of E going around. I knew this wasn't the ideal situation, but I stuck in there, even when I was told that it was ok to use dirty instruments on clients. We would take a pair of ring openers, really snap ring pliers, and toss them in a jar of water/bleach solution between clients. It didn't matter...nothing did but the money.
I remember eating lunch in the autoclave room with the rest of the crew...so enticing, an ashtray perched atop the autoclave. Yummy.
I was abruptly fired with accusations of theft. It was really that I had shot down the piercer's come ons, and he didn't like it so well. Ah, well, shit happens as the saying goes.
I ended up in a different part of the state, and was hired at a shop to be the sole piercer. Now mind you, I had NO experience, but I figured, what the hell?! I pierced like crazy..lots of tongues with the good old fashioned 14 gauge 7/8 externally threaded barbell. I did ok, never maimed anyone, but was fired from there as well after calling the boss a cheapskate. Again, tough shit.
Eventually I got myself on the right track. I went to educational seminars, I got on with a highly respected studio, and I turned out to be a damn good piercer. I was living the life I dreamed of when I got the opportunity to actually run a piercing business. What could be better?! I was able to set my own terms, work how I wanted to, be my own boss. I ordered only the best jewelry, Anatometal, Neometal, Industrial Strength. I was ethical and kind. I was meticulously clean, I was a very popular piercer, and I was proud. I knew this was what piercing was supposed to be. That is until the focus shifted off of piercing, and onto heavier mods. Kids were coming in asking about pocketing, and scalpelling. About punches and implants. Things that were admittedly out of my league.
I found myself unable to meet the demands of the times. I didn't want to mess with punches, or scalpels, just to do a piercing. Why? The traditional way was working fine. I didn't want to cut chunks out of people, or burn them with cautery pens, or any of it. I simply wanted to pierce. Was that so wrong? In this industry's eyes, yes. I was obsolete. The skills I had honed over the years now yesterdays news. I wasn't cool..the guy up the street doing uvula piercings was cool. I was no longer the person to go to, the girl the next town over who did scalpelled navels was...What the hell happened?! Ha ha...
So here I am, one of those kids grown up. Tattooed, stretched and pierced, but jobless as the more extreme generation has ushered us out.
I wonder where they will end up, and how long it will take. Will they be subject to the same fate as we were, being moved over in favor of the more surgical. Will actual surgeons replace them next, and our culture be lost to textbooks and journals?
I understand that things evolve, and no, I am not against the progression of this art. I simply find myself wondering if we are going to lose everything that the old school has fought for in order to bring about a new era, only to lose that as well...
I gave my heart and soul to this life, and at heart, I will always be a piercer. It will always make me smile to recognize someone I pierced and have them hug me and thank me, years later. Will this next wave feel the same?