Tell me a bit about yourself...

I've been piercing professionally for about four years. I've been getting body modifications, including tattoos and scarification, for about seven years. It's a lifestyle for me. It's what I think about pretty much 24 - 7.

What bothers you most about the industry?

I think the one thing that bothers me most is that people don't really understand the concepts of sterilization and cross-contamination. They know they have to 'clave their stuff, change their gloves, and all that, but they don't really know why. I've seen people from all different shops... they do it without understanding -- I see them scrub their instruments wearing gloves, but then move them to another room without gloves. Or they'll touch cupboard doors and other things. They'll set up for a piercing and get the tools out without gloves, or looking for beads through public jars wearing gloves during a piercing. Piercers have a responsibility to have a complete understanding of what is sterile, and too many don't. You have to assume that everyone that comes in your door has Hep-C, Hep-B, HIV, and God knows what else! Piercers are more worried about being cool than being sterile. Sterilization has to be the first concern.

Do clients make these mistakes too?

Yes, clients seem to think that as long as the needle comes out of a package that it's OK. It's not. If the piercer touches all his bottles after the piercing, then they've been contaminated. And then the next time around, you've got cross contamination. It might be a brand-new autoclaved needle, but it can be contaminated. Customers are way too trusting. Health officials are just as bad. They walk in, see you have an autoclave, and walk out again. Any idiot can have an autoclave, all you need is the money -- but you need to know more. In tattoos, does the tattoo artist bag his tools? If he does, great, but when he's tattooing, does the clip cord drag across the tattoo? If it does, you've got blood being passed between clients. I've seen tattoo artists even laugh about this -- I don't think that tattoo artists worry as much about the client as about the art itself.

What mistakes do customers make?

They want everything for cheap. They worry about cost first, and then quality and safety.

The navel crowd doesn't understand the concept of body modification. My walls are completely covered in photos of different tribal peoples and cultures -- I continually get "those people are so fucked up" or "that's so sick" or "what the fuck were they thinking when they did that". I try to tell them this has been around for thousands of years and it's not that different from what they're doing. Then they pretend that it's OK. I've had people say about a guy on the wall with a septum piercing "he's fucked up... but your's looks fine" when they realize that I have one. That's insulting me... that "...but your's is OK". They don't understand that it's the same thing. If anything, it's less sick that these tribal cultures do it, because it has a lot more meaning to them. We just get it done because it's cool.

Do people realize the change that piercing makes in their appearance?

People will come in and say, "I want this really cool eyebrow piercing", but as soon as the jewelry is through they'll say "I don't think it looks right". Even though I've put it right where they wanted it, with the exact jewelry they wanted. They have an image in their mind, but not on themselves. Usually I can see this in advance, and do tell them, but they never listen.

How does it make you feel when you do a piercing on someone, and you find out that it was the wrong thing for them, and you've been involved in causing them mental pain?

A long time ago I would have felt guilty, but now I understand that it's their responsibility to feel guilty, not mine. I'm there to facilitate a piercing and to make it a good experience. But I can't plan their life for them.

What's the worst that you've seen happen in this industry?

About three months ago the police interviewed me in the course of an investigation in another Toronto piercer. They talked to me since they knew I wasn't biker affiliated. They asked if there was any kind of drug or solution that would alter the client's mind -- to numb them out. I showed them benzocaine, and lidocaine, and topical prilocaine, but that isn't what they were asking for -- they specifically meant mind numbing. The police told me that there'd been a piercing party and the client was numbed out -- the piercer was fondling them and playing with them, and they were aware that they were being molested, but couldn't move and had no control over it. I told them that's nothing that we'd normally use as piercers. That's the last I heard of it.