Piercing Holes in the Mainstream

One doesn't have to possess a keen sense of awareness in order to notice the increasing popularity of body piercing. The other night at the grocery store I received a big smile from the check out clerk who had a labret piercing and an abundance of ear work. The day after Thanksgiving when I went holiday shopping I received the same response in a clothing store from one of the employees sporting big gauge plugs and an eyebrow ring. This example of increased encounters with piercees in public has me wondering where the artistic craft I love may be headed.

Body piercing is many different things to many different people. Reasons for getting pierced range from the spiritually profound to those seeming outright superficial. Regardless, I have noticed that no matter what one's impetus for taking part in the piercing ritual, the final result leaves piercees feeling attached and proud of their new body art. This is one of the reasons I welcome the explosion of body piercing in the "mainstream".

There is no prerequisite to get body pierced. You don't have to be boys with the Sex Pistols' Johnny Rotten, a diehard Ozzy Osborne fan, a supermodel or a member of some underground cult. In fact, I'm not quite sure why body piercing became some sort of exclusive mark that displays one's "coolness", "rebelliousness", or "hardcoreness". As an appreciator for the types of piercers and piercees in the renowned book Modern Primitives, I believe body piercing to exhibit an enigma related to human experience -- a rite of passage in which every sentient being should take part sometime during life's journey.

Unfortunately, this universal application of piercing as a body art has been perverted (among other things) by contemporary American culture. For example, indigenous tribes who take part in body piercing do not somehow decide to stop utilizing the experience once "too many" people get pierced. Rather, the high population of pierced people reflect on their piercing as a common experience with which they can thread a bond. In my opinion, in the future there will be those who take out their piercings strictly because it's becoming "mainstream". It is also my opinion that these people never truly took the time to meditate on what it was to pierce their body.

Another potential consequence of "mainstream" body piercing is the one I referred to in my opening paragraph: friendly exchanges with random people. Until a year or two ago, I would say that most piercees were so busy trying to radiate a "hardcore" image that they just created all types of unnecessary negativity. Don't get me wrong, I have an aggressive darker side, but I wasn't walking around using my piercings as an excuse to find myself "too bad-ass" for everyone else. As a piercer, one of my greatest annoyances are megalomaniac piercees. The pierced guy who is more "punk" than you, the pierced girl who is more "goth" than you, or the pierced pretty face who is more "ultra-cool" than you -- all merely facets of the same nauseating energy. In my opinion, as more people enjoy the body piercing ritual there will be more positive energy brought into the scene.

One of the coolest examples set for me was that of my mentor during my piercing apprenticeship. My mentor, Mike Erwin, took the time to remind me that although I may pierce 30 people in a day, the piercing is my clients' most important event of the day --possibly even week or month. This mindset keeps me constantly remembering just how excited I was during all my piercings. I was just some kid who was curious, and it turned out to become something I love and have built a career around. In fact, even the most pierced people had to start somewhere. I've seen Britney Spears wannabes transform into full project piercees. And that person who seems to be a mega-bad-ass, the one you think has all their internal philosophies as tight as Plato or Neitche, I pierced that person when their mom brought them in to get their first "major" piercing -- back when they first started listening to heavy metal and wearing black t-shirts.

At the core, whether I'm piercing a 120 pound girl who wants to be like Christina Aguilera or my best boy who is all tattooed-out and pierced-back, when I line up my needle, check the angles, ask my client to take a "nice deep breath" and push the pin, the piercee disappears for a moment -- lost in a fleeting pinnacle of pleasure and pain. And after the needle breaks the exit hole I can't help but, for a fraction of a second, gaze into the piercee's eyes to witness that experience which we both now share.

That's the deal. All of us who are pierced share something. And, in my opinion, this shared experience will make for some positive changes in our culture. It's about time to watch the egos fade away to some other fad where the ever-elusive quest for "coolness" can continue. I openly welcome the smiling faces and thank you's that have increased with the rise in piercing popularity.

So, if you actually love the art and not all the crap that can be found in any rebellious or fashionable trend, be chill to that kid with the eyebrow ring or navel jewelry. You never know. One day you just might walk into their piercing shop and sit down on their table …