Patrick
Master of the Rings
Patrick Bartholomew is the owner of the London Piercing Clinic in London, England. The following interview was conducted via email in October 1996. Patrick may be reached via email at [email protected]

Patrick, you seem to be largely an unknown quantity in international piercing, though you are spoken of with respect in the UK. 		Yes, I stay out of piercing politics since I discovered too many of the lunatics running the asylum. I prefer to do my own thing my own way -- and thus maintain standards that others either find unnecessary or are too lazy to obtain.


You sound a little unhappy with the British piercing establishment. 		In this country piercing is mainly in the hands of tattooists who see it a lucrative sideline -- alongside selling tattoo balm or tee shirts. So long as the method used works, and the person parts with money, they care very little for piercing. In the late eighties I was accused of being a `pervert' and a `shirtlifter' by a number of Name British Tattooists. Within a year I noticed that they too had joined us `pervert/shirtlifters'. Money seems to have a spongy effect on a lot of morality, conscience, and ethics. I am afraid that I do see these people as exploiters of the genius of the few serious and very good piercers this side of the Atlantic.


How would you rate British piercing? 		I believe that my old friend and mentor, Allan Oversby, who was known professionally as Mr. Sebastian, was probably one of the finest piercers who ever lived anywhere. I carry on his legacy as best I know how, but there are few other innovative piercers of any consequence east of New York. The good are acceptable, the not so good are abysmal.


Do you belong to any associations or guilds? 		No, I refuse to give legitimacy to any that exist over here. One outfit offers a course for three or four hundred pounds which consists of a morning watching their unelected chairman do a couple of piercings. He then issues a fancy certificate and a kit consisting of fifty pounds worth of near worthless junk and you have a boil in the bag professional piercer ready to ply his/her trade on the trusting public. Another offers to train `Cat-walk' piercers -- doing piercings favoured by the super models, this one is for about 700 punds. It is absolutely hilarious -- except I get a damned large portion of the repair work to sort out. All this trust is based on a worthless certificate of competence.



How do you rate or judge a piercer? 		To me a Master Piercer is one who can do any piercing! And I do mean any piercing. I was accused some years ago of riding on Alan's reputation. I put out a challenge that I would do any piercing named by any other piercer in public, provided that they would do the same. I went further and promised that whatever they claimed was their best piercing I could do as well, and probably better. Needless to say I received no takers. When I see super work from the likes of Jon Cobb, I know a master when I see one. I don't think I would like to have to compete with him... (laughing) but I would if I had to.


You say you can do any piercing, would you like to explain? 		Yes, having a sound knowledge of the skin and its physiology, my own skills with needle, scalpel, and suture, I can figure out a way using this ability to do anything. I know the dangers involved and I have all the equipment in my clinic to solve all problems that could possibly arise. To duplicate someone else's work is simple, obviously the first important point is they have succeeded in doing it, so the fact that it is possible is established, from there on one works out a technique that one is familiar with, and after careful planning you go for it.


Is there any thing you would not do? 		Yes, anything that I feel has very little chance of eventually succeeding, anything that will end in permanent and/or crippling injury, or anything that I feel the client could not live with for the rest of their lives.


You mentioned once that you did a uvula piercing and that you took it out within a short time believing it was a failure. 		Yes, my client, Crudelia, started to gag uncontrollably after the anaesthetic wore off, so I whipped it out pronto, and scratched this one up as one of my no-no's. I am most impressed to see Jon succeeding.


When did this all start for you? 		I moved to England in 1987 from Southern Africa where I had been, amongst many other things a mercenary medic, and it must have been in the early seventies that I carved my first ivory peg from the tusk of a Warthog and put it through the nipple of one of my army buddies. I suppose I did about a hundred plus piercings during the seventies and early eighties. All simple basic noses: ears, navels and nipples. I was blessed with the luck of a child in using the ivory as my jewellery medium, it proved to be hypoallergenic. When I got to England I was some what unemployable being over 40, so I set myself up as a tattooist. I worked 7 days a week, always had a smile, made a good cup of coffee and was the prince of good fellows. I was a lousy tattooist though, and it was due to an old friend of mine from my African past asking me to do his nipple that I came back into piercing with a will.


Is this when you met Mr Sebastian? 		Yes. I found out through the grapevine that he was the best in the business, and started to pester him for information. He refused to tell me a darned thing in those early days, and it was only when he realised that I had the potential ability and the ethics that matched his expectations that he helped me. Initially by telling me what not to do, rather than what to do. He was not prepared to accept the responsibility for my `cock-ups' -- nor would I have expected it of him. Mr Sebastian was a very private person, he worked solely by word of mouth, he did not even have business cards, and right up to the end he was permanently booked up for appointments. He loved his friends and his clients with equal passion. To Alan they were his life. How I miss that gentle voice on the phone saying "I have to go now, I have a trembling lad on the table here waiting for me do unspeakable things to him", and how I remember being one of those lads, smiling on his couch, in the total faith of his great genius.


Did you make many mistakes during your early days, or have any thing you could not deal with? 		Almost! Yes, almost. Apart from the usual learning curve where my early positioning was not what I would use today, I have never had a piercing that has ever been a risk to my client. I think out every smallest detail before I act. However it does not pay to be blase or complacent. I once had a bleeder that came to me, and neglected to tell me of his problem on the grounds that `I may refuse to pierce him' - too bloody true mate. My God did the little bleeder bleed. I did a PA which must have caused the donation of almost a pint of `claret' to my central nervous system. What made it worse, he was French, and I do not speak French. In the end a homeopathic practitioner friend of mine put together a cocktail of arnica, ipicac and traumeel, which worked a treat. Stopped the bleeding almost immediately. I still keep this to hand, along with the adrenaline etc. to stop bleeding. I also have my cauteriser which works well when all else fails. I have no qualms in using what ever it takes to do a job.




What do you see as your signature piercings? 		That has to be the chest bars, the Mega Pec Piercing. Though I am prouder of the large scrotum piercings that I have done, going in at over 15mm thick. These were more of a challenge. I enjoy seeing results that very few others are capable of. It is all pure ego I guess. I had a client once who's fantasy was to have a hole in his scrotum through which he could put his penis. I cut the hole with a 1 inch gasket punch and blanket stitched it around a plastic cotton reel. Within a fortnight his fantasy was fulfilled. Sadly I have no photographs of this, he was a very private person. Unfortunately he died some time ago from self strangulation. He was a good lad.


What experience do you have in implants, bifibulation, etc.? 		Lots, most of this, however, is illegal here in the UK, so I can not go into detail in this interview, I am always be available to discuss these things with clients by e-mail or land line. Implants I usually do with 8mm hematite beads, these work best for me, and I rarely do more than one at a time. Like Mr Sebastian before me I will tell you what not to do, not what to do.


What future do you see for piercing? 		Provided that there are still adventurous people with the urge to explore their own limits and those of us skilled enough to join the expedition, we are in for a fascinating, if rocky, ride. So long as there are people trying to protect us from ourselves, and the unscrupulous trying to exploit us, the ride will be rough, but what society accepts to-day, it would have castigated us five or ten years ago with a vengeance. I still believe that the cutting edge of BM technology and advancement lies in the anals of the gay community, where adventurism is a way of life, rather than something to be attempted with trepidation.


Are you gay? 		I am neither hetrosexual, nor homosexual, I am just sexual. I was 17 before I wised up to the existance of sub females. Before that I started at about 12 as a sub, by 15 I was Dom, and now I am a S&M Dominant, who never mixes business with pleasure. As you may have gathered I am mortified if I ever hurt a client. I am married to Mistress Delta, a Domanatrix (who also subs with me), and we have a number of male and female slaves who live in from time to time. Life has been good to me over the past 49 years, and I trust that it will continue to do so.


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