Posts by Jezebel Voule

Point #72: Receiving the Josh Prentice Award – Jezebel Voulé

2 Comments read Awards & Recognition, Conference, Issue 72

Jezebel Voule headshotJezebel Voulé
APP Administrator

 

It’s easy for me to sound like I have found religion when I talk about volunteering. For me it has easily saved me. It gives me a focal point in which I can see the immediate return of my investment (time) and makes me feel like I have a reason for being. I’ve always been a volunteer. However, volunteering for the APP has been different for me. It is the first time that I have felt, not only like I was a part of the greater good—a community—but also a family. Every year I get introduced to new family members I did not know existed, just like distant cousins at a family reunion. Some of them end up becoming so close to me that they become siblings. The APP and what it stands for is the first thing I have experienced that I don’t mind testing my boundaries for. Sometimes to a fault. That’s okay because that is what families do for each other; they support your aim to test your own limits and are willing to catch you when you fall.

The behind the scenes of the APP Conference is very much like that. Each volunteer tends to reach so far that they can overextend themselves and fall. Not because they were asked to but because they want to help so much that it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. As years have gone by, I have seen myself and those around me grow exponentially. I have seen the control freaks loosen their grips, the multi-taskers admit to their limits, and a plethora of other character strengths find out that sometimes there is too much of a good thing. Most of the volunteers do not just volunteer one week out of the year for APP, but rather for several months. Some even work on a weekly basis. The reason could be because we are either addicts or mad. However, I think it’s because we love it. That love makes us want to be as close to it as possible and so we devote our time and energy throughout the year. Just so we can be a little bit closer to all the things we love about volunteering for the APP.

This year I won the Josh Prentice Award as a recognition of all the time I have put into the APP. It made me think about my journey. Not just as a piercer but as a person. Just like many, my first few Conferences were filled with doubt. I started by being overwhelmed by the thought that I would do everything wrong. That was a feeling I got from the moment my feet touched the Las Vegas soil my first time. A scholarship had gotten me there. During that week, I felt inept in my classes and I was intimidated on a career level by everyone I met. I was thankful to work because it was nice to be useful to the industry in at least one way.

My following year, at the Tropicana, I was excited because during this year—my second—I began to make bonds with people. I had really grown over the year but still knew that I was not who I wanted to be as a piercer. This was also the year I found out what I liked doing the best; I loved having to talk to people that I didn’t know and forcing myself out of my personal bubble.

The years following had many little adventures. One year I unloaded the entire Conference by myself. Not because I had to, but because it was something I could do. I knew that when help arrived the help would be willing and able. Back then the Conference was smaller, and by the time everyone else showed up, when they were expected, I was already done unloading. That memory is one of my favorites because it makes me remember how bull-headed I can be, but also how determined. There are also memories of first meetings with those whom I consider family today; becoming not just a Conference family, but real family. I am now fortunate enough to spend Christmas and other holidays with those who hold a valuable place in my heart that have transcended the Association of Professional Piercers. At some point, I realized I was no longer the intimidated girl that arrived at my first Conference, but was now someone that people could look up to. Most importantly when I look back on my life as a volunteer I can look up to myself. I have become my very own role model.

I have become a better piercer because of Conference, but I know even more that I am a better person because I am a volunteer. I am thankful for that privilege. I am thankful to all those that volunteer around me. Not just those that take shifts to help Conference run smoothly, but those that volunteer information; those that are willing to ask questions that at least one other person was trying to get the nerve to ask; those that are willing to escort someone to their room that has exceeded their limits. To all those that make an impact on another either directly or indirectly I am thankful for you.

Point #65: Changing Myself While Changing Others

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Jezebel Voule headshotBy Jezebel Voulé
TRX

What has been your favorite piercing moment? It is a question that has haunted me since the first time I was asked. An echo of this makes the voice in my head always think “maybe this piercing will be the one that defines my piercing career.” Several people have shared their defining moments with me: some of these turning points involved meeting their piercing idol while, for others, it was defined by where they worked, who they worked with (or worked on), and, in some cases, a paycheck. The ways people have been affected by their careers are as unique as the individuals who had the experiences.

Most days there are no moments that change me, or at least affect me in a drastic way. I take a client in, bond with them and then let them go, hoping that we connected enough for them to return to me for their next piercing experience—or, better yet, remember my name to bring me more clients to bond with and release.

However, when asked about my favorite moment there is one I always relive. An older lady, at least seventy years old, came in to get her earlobe pierced. We took a moment chatting but as I started to get set up for the piercing she stopped me. “I need you to know that I have Hep C. I understand if you can’t pierce me.” After asking if she had talked to her physician about getting a piercing I smiled and said “Thank you for telling me but I have no problem piercing you. I take many precautions so that both my safety and yours are taken care of.” She was shocked that I didn’t respond like she had expected. She thought I would react poorly and then proceed to treat her as a leper, sending her on her way. Both she and her wife were overcome with joy. It was something she had wanted to do for a long time but had been afraid to get because she would have to expose a secret that had given her so many other bad experiences. (I later found out how much that experience changed her perception of herself. She, for a moment, felt like she was human rather than a disease and not worth common decency. I had felt like I had changed the world, and for her I had.)

Recently another experience left the same type of lasting impression on me. While at Omega Red Studios a man came in asking questions about his daughter. She had cancer and, as a result, had made a “bucket list.” On that list was a lip piercing. He wanted to help her fulfill her wishes and asked if I would be willing to perform such a task on her. I had replied that I would be willing, after I knew it was okay with her doctor. The next day he came back with a handwritten note. Skeptical that the doctor was in on this idea I Google searched the doctor and found out everything I could about not only her but the entire hospital. I talked to lawyers, her doctors, and parents about what I expected, what they should expect, and the young girl’s expectations. I did not hold back on making demands on what I would need to make a safe and positive environment for her. Many of them were personal things to increase my comfort. After all, my safety is just as important as hers.

It took three days to come to an agreement on piercing her. After speaking with the doctor we decided the nostril would be a more acceptable piercing rather than the lip. I learned that the reason there was so much passion behind her parents getting this one thing done was because she had just received a dire prognosis. The likelihood that she would be alive long enough to even see her piercing heal was slim. She had fifteen things that she wanted to do before she died. Her parents chose this task, as it was most obtainable, and came in search of me. Completing one of her bucket list tasks was important in helping her fight the feeling that all was lost for this fourteen year old whose life was on a count down. The before and after effect on her life was immediate. She went from a child who looked and acted sickly to a young girl who wanted to walk around with her father as she felt a kind of rejuvenation.

***

These moments have stuck with me, as it has been these moments that have pushed me to realize how much I could help the world just with a tiny prick of my needle. Sometimes a navel piercing is more than a belly adornment, it is a story—a celebration—of a woman reclaiming her body. It amazes me how much a person can be changed from something that, for me, is just a way of life: the impact of one life to another. Everyone has different reasons for loving their job. So please take a moment and relish yours.