“You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world’s problems at once, but don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.”

~ Michelle Obama

I have a personal belief that the piercing industry and community is in a very unique and wonderful position regarding our history. Since piercing as a modern phenomenon began less than a century ago, we have the ability to learn firsthand from the forefathers and mothers that made what we do possible. We can talk to them in person about the failures and successes they have seen to date, and use this to better ourselves and our craft. At the same time, our industry is young enough that each and every one of us has the opportunity and chance to make the same type of impact on our industry going forward. We may mourn the loss of those that have taught us and paved the way, but as they leave vacancies we will need leaders, shaman, healers, and teachers to step up to lead the next generation of piercers.

In this issue we give thanks and look over some of the highlights of our young industry’s history. Please note this is not a full nor extensive anthropology of our history, but merely a highlight reel if you will. It is an issue to make you feel nostalgic, but more importantly it is an issue to make you contemplate the culture of our industry and where we are going. This is a topic we plan to tackle more in depth in our next issue (the first of 2019.)

If history has shown us one thing it is that compla- cency and apathy will get us nowhere, that a popular- ity contest is one that no one wins long term. During November and December, the Association of Professional Piercers held our 2018 Board of Directors election to fill three upcoming vacancies. We want to thank our participating Members who let their voices be heard and helped us reach quorum. We are also excited to announce that, as of our 2019 Conference in May, these three Board positions will be filled by Becky Dill, Cale Belford, and Monica Sabin. It will be wonderful to see the direction our organization and industry will take with the help of these strong guiding forces.