Tell me a bit about yourself...I'm an ex-piercer. I started piercing at **** ***** *** in 1994. I was totally into it. It was fun, and I really wanted to do it. When I left college, I decided to do it. I didn't want to be stuck in something I hated, so I thought it was the perfect job, even though I knew it wouldn't make me much money. We were all just there because we loved it. After working for free for eight months, **** offered me $300 a week. I thought "$1200 a month! What will I do with all that money?"
But later money did become an issue...I think the first time I realized that it wasn't just for fun was when ****** would say "This is just a fad, and when the time comes I'll move on the the next money-making fad." I was there for four or five months, and we decided to add tattooing. We opened a new studio named *********** ********, and our competitors also opened a fancy new location. That's when the scene changed -- money became an issue, and all the shops knew that there was a lot of it to be made. We were all guilty, but for me, and for ***, it was still for love of piercing. Eventually it got more stressful and I moved downtown, and I asked for a bit more money. But I still loved piercing.
As time went by I ran got into conflicts with *** who didn't appreciate the people working for him, and became increasingly unhappy working at ***** *****. I was at another studio, ******* *****, and they offered me a sweet deal making far more money, and the opportunity to set up my own studio however I wanted (since I was the only piercing). Needless to say, I took it.
Everything was great at first. I got to be part of a world tour, all my supplies were always stocked, and more money flowed through that studio than anywhere else in ******. I thought this was my chance to finally really make it. But the clientele had changed -- when I first started, people got piercings because they were really into it. But now, people were just getting it because they'd seen a really cool poster. I did my best to make the people who didn't care, care a little bit more, but my selling out had already started. I started realizing that things were getting extremely perverted -- the attitude of the shop was "just shut your mouth and poke the hole". At that point I was still into piercing, just not into piercing there. It wasn't until a year and half into working at **** ***** that I actually wanted to quit piercing. I thought I'd always do it, for myself, just not as a business, but in the last three months I was so disgusted with it I couldn't any more. I'm at the point now where there's a piercing that my girlfriend wants, but I can't pick up a needle again. It's weird for me now. I used to love piercing...
While you were piercing, did you see other piercers mistreat their clients?***** at *** *****'s clients would come in and complain all the time. They'd ask me questions like, "is it normal for the piercer to play with your clit before doing your hood piercing?" I'd ask them, "what do you mean by playing", to make sure they weren't talking about marking or anything like that. She said "I KNOW what it feels like when someone plays with my clit -- he wasn't doing any marking." I've had lots of girls tell me that they've had to take their shirts off, and even their bra, with the explanation that it was needed for sterility. I've never made a girl take a shirt off for a piercing. I've heard from about ten different clients over the last year.