How I started Piercing

I get asked this question so much that now it has kind of turned into a bit for me. I thought since this was going to be my first ever blog post, I should start right at the beginning of my career. This is not a how-to on scoring an apprenticeship but it may help lead you in the right direction.

I started my piercing apprenticeship in June of 2021 in a shop in Chattanooga, TN. I won't name the shop because I really don't harbor anything against the shop, but what I say may put it in a not-so-great light. Whenever I started, I did not actually meet my mentor/ the owner until a couple of weeks into it. A friend I had at the time had made it into this particular shop for a tattoo apprenticeship and in all honesty I thought "Well if this dipshit can do it, so can I." So I hung out at the shop getting tattooed by multiple of the artists there. I asked if they would consider taking anyone else and sure enough, one of the junior artists, Logan, said he liked me and that he would ask the owner.

A day later I was told all I needed to do to get a spot would be to pass a blood-borne pathogens test from the state of Tennessee and pass the body art license test from the health department. I did it. Woohoo!

So now I had someone to teach me, right? Not exactly. Like I said, I didn't even really meet my mentor until about two weeks into it. So what did I do those two weeks I was there? I watched what our senior piercing artist did and copied her. That may not sound half bad but you need to realize that I had not really been taught ANYTHING. And when I say 'senior piercing artist', I am actually meaning my friend Rachael who had been piercing about 10 days longer than I had and had received the almost same exact amount of training. This truly was the deaf leading the blind. I remember on more than a few occasions we were told to "just watch a youtube video in the back before you do it". And that was our training.

It didn't take long, a few weeks maybe two months, before I was the ONLY PIERCER AVAILABLE in that shop because Rachael had started to tattoo and decided to no longer pierce. This sounds bad... because it is. At this point, I was the shops full time piercer but I was still working a full time welding job. I had not been taught about proper sanitization (I ran things through the autoclave but didn't really understand it), I didn't really know all the different types or styles of piercings, I didn't really grasp the concept of gauging or proper sizing of the jewelry, I didn't get lengths. Here, the term 'keloid' was tossed around MULTIPLE times a day and we would tell people that alcohol was the best way to clean.

So it wasn't GREAT.

I would often not know what to tell people when they asked me questions and so I would just use the little information I knew to help people. I remember one time I was piercing someone's tragus, I think, and they said to me "Well I trust you because YOU'RE the professional. Holy Shit. You're right. It doesn't matter that I wasn't taught anything. You are coming to ME for answers. I have to know it all. My name is on this piercing. This is what I want to do for my career and my response is "I wasn't taught". No one cares. The client trusts you and you don't know if you're even doing the right thing? I felt shame in that moment. The client never knew that I was thinking that but it was when I decided to really lock in.

Over the next couple weeks I went HARD in the paint trying to find any and all information piercing related. I discovered PiercingsByScott on youtube which led me to TheModifiedWorld that led me to discovering the APP (Association of Professional Piercers). Then I started to read The Piercing Bible first and second edition by Elayne Angel. Then I read Running the Gauntlet. Then I discovered @RyanPBA and Luis Garcia and The Piercing Wizard Podcast with Ryan and Lola. Then it went even further and started taking APP online courses and watching supplemental information and learning about anodizing, bevel theory, proper aftercare, STERALIZATION PROTOCAL. The list goes on.

After being at this shop for about 9 months, I had gotten a job offer from The Helm Tattoo and Piercing which would effectively double my current pay grade. I took the job. Here at the Helm I have really flourished. The people I used to look up to are now my coworkers. I have been able to expand my jewelry selection and brought all of it to implant grade. I have been able to save an purchase my very own Statim sterilizer. I am now getting to take on my own apprentice, my brother, David. This has been a real blessing and Piercing has really changed my life for the better.

I will always try to continue my knowledge and techniques in order to grow not only for myself but for the betterment of my clients and friends. In order to tattoo or pierce, you really have to be driven If you aren't, you will not grow. You always have to keep a student mindset. There are currently multiple piercers around who have been around for years longer than I have been but I regularly correct their mistakes.

Just because you started at the bottom, doesn't mean you have to stay there.