Category Business Practices

What I wish I knew
about opening a
piercing shop.

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about opening a
piercing shop. read Business Practices, Lifestyle


By Lola Slider, Forest Piercing, Glasgow

They say sixty percent of new business fail in the first 3 years. As my
studio approaches it’s 3 year anniversary, I wanted to look back over this
time and compare it to the 9 years prior I spent working in someone
else’s business, and share some of what I’ve learned about that transition from
independent piercing contractor to business owner.

Going it Alone…

Are we ever really alone in our endeavours? Are we ever truly without help and
support? Opening your own business it can feel like nobody understands what
you’re trying to do but each year I look back at that time, I better appreciate
the support I did have. When I quit my old job, my colleagues from Blue Lotus
Body Piercing, Nici and Adam, were right there at my house the next day,
having made the 2 and a half hour drive from Newcastle to offer me a job while
I found my feet.

When licensing delays at my local council created a black hole in my finances,
another local business (that’s no longer operational) let me use their studio
space for a couple of weeks having literally never met me, but taking it on
good faith that I was “OK”. And in the absence of physical help, I had a few
colleagues around the world telling me not to give up. I appreciate now in a
way that I couldn’t back then that when I felt most isolated I wasn’t actually
alone.

First of all you don’t know shit…

For a lot of piercers who held roles like I did in my previous job, managing the
piercing side of a tattoo business, you think you know it all. Trust me because I
say this with love: you don’t know shit. Oh, we know piercing, inside and out.
We know stock management, we know how to work a budget, for those of us
who import stock we understand that process, we understand shipping and
delivery issues and we understand client care.

None of that can prepare you for what’s it’s like to deal with gas, water,
electric, internet, phone lines, council, landlord, surrounding neighbourhood
business issues, insurance and the list goes on.

The administrative side of running a business is massively downplayed,
particularly in a country as tied up in red tape as the UK, and it’s not
something most of us are trained to do, with many of us having no formal
education in business management. So we learn as we go, and learning as you
go is an expensive process.

One of the hardest lessons I learned after opening Forest was that you can’t
work harder than someone else’s incompetence. Business to business
providers are going to perform their services poorly and as a result your
business will suffer. Today alone I dealt with two separate shipping companies
and a clinical waste company, all three of whom have failed to meet their
contractual obligations to my business, none of whom could provide speedy
resolution…and it’s just an average Wednesday.

This is an unavoidable truth and one that’s tough to swallow, because as
piercers we hold ourselves to such a high standard. Our studios are the
biggest manifestations of who we are as professional piercers so when there
are elements we aren’t happy with, that we can’t control, it’s tough for us to
accept it and not see it as a deep personal failing.

Working with others…

Working with others and having someone work for you are very different
things. Possibly one of the hardest parts of that transition from co-worker to
employer is understanding that change. Socially, it’s incredibly difficult to
navigate, particularly seeing as so many of us come from less than perfect
beginnings in this minimally regulated industry.

We should all be working to shed the bad habits and unreasonable
expectations that where imposed on us. But despite our best efforts and
intentions, almost all of us will mess up. And that will be hard. Conversely,
there are times you need to set a standard for yourself that you’re not
prepared to move on. My advice is: give yourself some time to figure out the
direction you want to take. The first year I owned Forest, I felt like a stranger.
You have time.

You can’t compare your business to
other peoples.

Do you rent a room? Do you manage the property outright? Do you work with
other businesses in tow? Businesses face unique financial challenges and
what’s going on on the surface does not always reflect what’s going on in the
engine room. Being in a relationship with an American piercer who owns their
own business, something I’ve had to make peace with is that no matter how
hard I work, we will never be compensated in a comparable way. I will always
have to put in 150% to match their 100% not because of their superiority or
my inadequacy, but because of global economic differences that neither of us
can control.

Owning your own business, you are so much more exposed to sudden
economic hardship. In the 3 brief years I’ve owned Forest, there’s been a
global pandemic, PPE tripled in price, the prime minister tanked the value of
the pound (£) and the cost of living crisis has seen gas and electric bills
increase 400% (so far). When these things happen, business directors of
Limited Liability Companies take fewer dividends or if you’re a Sole Trader like
me, you go back to minimum wage. But at least you can’t get fired! So that’s
something.

You were wrong & You were right.

Owning your own business gives you the insight to appreciate the times in the
past that your demands couldn’t be met and why they couldn’t be met. You
also learn when they totally could have been met, but weren’t. Pulling back
that curtain opens up a world of opportunity but at a world of cost, and the
beauty of owning your own business is really getting the final say in where
money is spent, what precious little of it there is.
In the end though, you grow something that’s yours, and it might not be your
exact vision but it’s a version’s of that vision.

In summary, know this: you don’t have to do everything all at once. You don’t
have to offer everything all at once. Advice from others helps, but you’re the
only one walking in your shoes. There are far more people willing you to
succeed than wishing that you fail. Always pay your taxes, and lastly never
ever pick a fight with a jewellery company

Point 89: APP Recommended Response & Recovery Post-Covid

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On behalf of the Board of Directors, updated April 25, 2020

The Association of Professional Piercers (APP) is an international health  and  safety  organization.  It is a nonprofit voluntary alliance dedicated to the dissemination of information about body piercing. Governed by a voluntary elected Board of Directors, the APP is a united group of piercing professionals that freely shares information to help fellow members, piercers, healthcare professionals, legislators, health inspectors, and the general public get the best and most up-to-date information about body piercing.

For most countries around the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the closure of body art facilities (including body piercing, tattooing, and other elective body art procedures). As countries seek to reopen their economies and ease measures like forced business closings and social distancing, the APP has sought to give accurate, appropriate, and achievable guidelines for all body artists to follow to decrease the spread of COVID-19 and  lower  the  impact  in their workplace. Recommended Response & Recovery Interim Protocols1.

We continue to recommend that body art professionals follow local, state or provincial, and national guidelines regarding the closure of non-essential business operations and, within these guidelines, make decisions that are best for them and their individual situations. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a terrible impact on all body art businesses and the people who work in them. It has sickened and killed hundreds of thousands worldwide. Through it all, body artists have stuck together, freely shared information, and readied themselves to return to work and serve their clientele. The Association of Professional Piercers would like to thank the body piercing and body art community for their resiliency, professionalism, and commitment to health and safety.

During this pandemic, information continues to evolve very quickly. The authors of this document will make every effort to make regular updates as new and better information becomes available. If  you  have  suggestions for improvements to this document please email the secretary of the APP at secretary@safepiercing.org.

In Health,

Your Board of Directors

1“Recommended Response & Recovery Interim Protocols,” Public Service Announcements: COVID-19, Association of Professional Piercers, accessed April 27, 2020, https://www.safepiercing.org/docs/APP_Recommended_Post-COVID19_Closure_Reopening_interim_protocols.pdf.

Point 86: Studio Building & Renovation Basics

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by Gene Gowen

Cold River Piercing & Fine Jewelry, Albany NY

It is a privilege to contribute to the first issue of The Point for 2019, and to lend my experience to the theme of “Our Future” as an industry.

This is an industry of small businesses and entrepreneurs, and with small business and the entrepreneurial spirit comes the possibility of ownership and the hope of deciding one’s own fate. For many, that means building or renovating your own work space, sometimes needing to meet specific building codes, or perhaps to meet APP environmental criteria for membership.

Cold River Piercing & Fine Jewelry, Albany NY, main showroom under construction.

Whatever small business experience you’re coming from or going to as a piercer—opening your own free-standing studio or developing space in a tattoo shop—hopefully this article serves as a useful guide. You will learn what can be expected, as well as some things to remember in building out a commercial space. Opening and closing tattoo and piercing studios is nothing new, and I’m sure there are those currently with multiple locations who could speak on this. In this article, I will be focused more on speaking to those who are branching out on their own, whether it is renovating their own piercing room or attempting their first studio space.

I have renovated and built out tattoo and piercing businesses of all shapes and sizes in both Connecticut and New York. My background was in building trades. I worked as a builder full time for more than 12 years before taking up piercing. I am trained and have worked in all forms of residential and commercial roofing, asbestos and lead abatement, custom high end deck and patio construction, residential and commercial building/additions/renovations, restorations, and residential/commercial property management and maintenance. These experiences served to help me as I prepared to build my own studio space. I am confident that they will also help you.

Cold River Piercing & Fine Jewelry, Albany NY, main showroom ready for business.

PLAN AHEAD:

Even if you end up throwing out your plan the night before you start building, plan ahead anyway. Plan for every single thing as much as you can. No detail is too small to include in your plan.

•  Plan your budget

Building costs, inventory budgets, licenses, fees, insurance, cash for your register, living expenses during start-up time are just a few of the things to think about. While these are some of the financial concerns you’ll want to plan for, sticking to them is the hard part. Building costs will likely require an experienced contractor to estimate. Your build-out budge will vary based on the amount of work you want/need to do.

•  Plan your time of year

The time of year you renovate or build your business can affect a lot of other factors. Are you building during your slow time? Is it going to cut short your cash resources? Are you scheduled to open during your slow time? Will it hamper initial success? Are you attempting major exterior work with winter approaching?

•  Plan your work

Projects can run-away from you fast. Get accurate estimates on an accurate amount of work. Stick to the work you’ve planned. Don’t just plan what work you will do, but also your timeline and order of work. Don’t have people sheetrock and cover walls before you have your electrical done. Keeping to a planned timeline, when possible, will help prevent doing the same jobs over again.

•  Plan for success

Whether it’s planning your budget, your inventory, or your build out, leave room for success. Jewelry inventories can be modest when first starting; make sure you have room to accommodate the natural increase in inventory selection that will occur as you are open longer. Having all the jewelry will matter little if you have no place to put it. You can use your initial budget to help you increase your inventory selection over time, simply by being judicious with your initial inventory orders.

Essential documentation

LOCATION:

Choose your location carefully; you’ll likely be there for awhile. There are a number of factors you should consider when picking a good potential location, whether for your own shop, or inside an existing business. Population and demographics for the area1, amount of foot traffic, and access to parking are important for both situations. Leasing costs will be necessary whether you lease your own space or sublet. Bear in mind most commercial real estate is not a simple monthly rental fee. There are often NET2 costs and CAM charges3. These fees may exist in addition to your monthly lease.

Piercing room under construction
Piercing room ready for clients

BUILDING/ZONING CODES & PERMITS:

Zoning codes will dictate whether or not your business can even exist in the location you’ve chosen, so it is best to look into this during the beginning of your process. Building codes will dictate what changes you can and can’t make, and the manner you are allowed to do them in. Codes will vary depending on area and building type. For example, a studio opening in a residential building might be able to use wood framing lumber, while something in a strip mall will likely require steel framing. The cost difference between these materials is substantial and can drastically change your build out capital requirements. These building codes not only stipulate material types and uses, but also govern handicap accessibility, historical restrictions, and acceptable and unacceptable mechanical4 conditions. A large portion of all of this work will require permits. Generally speaking only licensed contractors can pull a permit, if the work you need requires one. Permits and the subsequent inspections to verify the work are lengthy processes. In my experience, required permits and inspections can be the things that most commonly cause delays in a project.

AVOID SURPRISES:

Surprises will always arise with any building project. The goal is to eliminate as many surprises as possible beforehand. The story of building your own business changes rapidly when you unexpectedly find termite damage, asbestos wrapped pipes, or some other hidden detriment that will cost thousands of dollars and weeks of time to mitigate. A thorough property assessment by a qualified contractor including a hazardous materials survey and a EUL Report (Expected Useful Life) on mechanicals can save time and money! Even after you’ve checked for surprises, and eliminated as many variables as possible, plan a little extra time for your project as a precaution!

If you are lucky, your new studio space will require very little work. Hopefully all you need to do is some minor upgrades and a few coats of paint. Regardless of the size of your studio project, do thorough research and thoughtful planning on everything, not just your jewelry inventory and piercing supplies. I hope this article helps you on your journey, and that you are able to successfully build your own studio space. Plan carefully and thoroughly. Look for a location as objectively and as informed as you can. Follow through with the appropriate civic departments. Expect the unexpected. These are just some of the basic fundamentals of commercial building projects. Keep them in mind and it will make every step of the process easier.

Footnotes:
1 Population & Demographics: Population numbers, median age, median income, population density, education data, average debt, common professions. All of this is easily accessible information that can be found online. All of which can help inform your decisions about the area you are considering opening in. The US Census Bureau is a great place to start.
2 NET Lease: In a NET Lease, the landlord charges a lower base rent for commercial space, plus some or all of their “usual costs”, which are expenses associated with operations.
In a single net lease, renters are required to pay the base rent plus a portion of the property taxes for the building. Double net leases require the renter to pay the base rent plus taxes and property insurance costs; this is beyond your own business insurance. Triple net leases require the renter to pay base rent plus taxes, insurance, and CAM (Common Area Maintenance ) charges.
3 CAM Charges: Common Area Maintenance are expenses incurred in shared, common area, such as utilities, sidewalk maintenance, snow removal, etc.
4 Mechanicals: Plumbing, Electrical, and HVAC (Heating/Venting/Air Conditioning) would be your mechanical systems. Each system has specialty contractors who works solely within their discipline and area of expertise.

Point 86: Building an Empire

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by Georgina Schiavelli

Black Diamond Body Piercing

Above, Melissa Willette, Brooke Bittens, Georgina
Schiavelli, Andie Saunders, & Kat Blair;
opposite page, Georgina Schiavelli

People often ask me what the secret of my success is. In an industry as multifaceted as professional piercing, that’s a very difficult question to answer, but I’m going to do my best to boil it down to some key points. Like everything else in life, hindsight is 20/20. Looking back is when many valuable lessons are learned. Over my 22 years in this industry I’ve learned things that have helped me find success and things that hindered my growth, both professionally and personally. I hope to share some of those lessons.

When I started my apprenticeship in 1997, piercing was barely considered its own industry. We were more of an addition to another industry, and because of this, there were a lot of tattoo artists who offered piercing; my old bosses being two of them. Fortunately for everyone, they got “too busy tattooing to deal with doing piercings” and hired an actual piercer. I became that piercers’ apprentice and that is where my story begins. Planning a career path in piercing wasn’t really on my mind at the time because I didn’t know if piercing would be there as a career down the road. The industry was so young, and we were all so hopeful, but also quite unsure of our futures and basically flying by the seat of our pants. Thankfully, I followed my heart, stuck with it, and built up a great clientele. I became known for my high standards, ethics, and a true passion for the job. I treated every client with respect and professionalism and like every piercing was the most important one I’d ever done. I did outreach at local colleges to promote safe standards and educate my peers. If the shop was open, I was working, and I did everything that I could to further the reputation of the shop that I worked in.

Even though I had always been a team player, and went above and beyond my job description daily, my bosses still had very little respect for me or for piercing. “They come here for us and stay for you, not the other way around, and don’t you forget it” was said to me so many times that I lost count. I knew in my heart that wasn’t true and that I was creating my own success. I could also see that the industry was changing and going amazing places. I knew that I wanted to be a part of that, so after almost 11 years at the same shop, I left. The running mental list of “if this was my place” I had made over the years made me realize immediately that it needed to be a piercing-only studio. I knew it was risky, but it just felt right. So, I cashed out the sad little retirement account that my dad made me start at 20, got a line of credit at the bank, got a small loan from my accountant who is a venture capitalist, and opened a new credit card with the highest limit they’d give me. It was the scariest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I had no idea how much harder it would get before it got better, but it was the right decision, and I knew with all of my heart that this was where I belonged. I found a great location, scraped together enough money for a security deposit, a few month’s rent, the renovations needed to build my shop to APP standards and a small stock of implant grade basics and simple gems to get me through a couple of months of piercing.

Georgina Schiavelli

It took a total of four months to build my shop. On top of my 50 hours a week piercing at the tattoo shop, I worked every morning, every night, and every Sunday doing anything I could do to get my shop ready for the opening. I had planned to open Labor Day weekend, but was found out by my old bosses (who were less than supportive) in early August, so my deadline became as soon as possible. Those last two weeks were an all-day, all-night marathon of painting and finishing touches. I opened my doors on August 19, 2008. I had made it, and thought I had it all figured out. Now I just needed to wait for the money to roll in, right? HA! I hope you laughed at that too.

There’s a saying that if you’d like to make the universe laugh, just tell it your plans. The universe  apparently had some hard lessons for me to learn, because on September 29, 2008, just six weeks after I opened my doors, the stock market crashed. I had originally expected to get back to a decent salary within a couple of years, but between everyone being scared to spend money and worried about the future, and my naivete in the reali ties of owning a business, I really had no money to pay myself, especially if I wanted to still grow the business, so I basically lived on my tips. Fortunately, I was married, and my husband was  supportive  enough to agree to cover the bills while I built back up to real paychecks. I worked at the shop completely by myself for two years, and every cent that came in went right back into Black Diamond. It was the hardest two years of my adult life.   I remember choosing groceries by what coupons I had and ate  meals at friends and families houses whenever  I could. I was 31 years old and living like I was 18 again, except now I was married and previously knew what it was like to not be broke all the time. That was a hard pill to swallow after making fairly-good money for so long, but I would do anything to make the shop succeed and I knew this was the only way to make that happen.

By 2010, I took on an apprentice. Thankfully, the time went by quickly and Brooke Bittens was a natural, so by 2011, I didn’t have to do every single piercing that came in and even got a day off a week! Since I was trying to grow our jewelry selection, I still needed to be very careful, but at that point I was finally able to get a steady, albeit tiny, paycheck! Thanks to living on as little money as possible, I paid off the last of my loans by Christmas 2013, just 5 years and a few months after I opened my doors. Unfortunately, I also ended my marriage during that year due to a few factors, but largely because of how much time I dedicated to my shop. It was always a cause for fights, and ultimately the love I have for my career and my determination to succeed very much overshadowed my relationship, so one of them had to give.

From 2010-2015, I had hired quite a few front-end people with the hopes of turning them into jewelry experts. I always favored having front end jewelry experts and not just “counter people”. It was clear to me that they were both very specific skills and if I wanted the shop to be able to handle more clients, it was a necessity. Thankfully, I found a couple of people that worked out well! Andie Saunders became my second apprentice and Melissa Willette became my shop manager. Around then, the physical reality of full-time, medium to high volume piercing was also starting to really emerge. By the end of 2015, when Andie was finishing up her apprenticeship, I had a full blown non-traumatic labral tear from 18 years of constant piercing. Overuse syndromes are sneaky because you deal with the symptoms for so long that they become normal. Suddenly, my hand started to go numb, I would wake up crying from the shooting pains in my shoulder and chest, and no matter how many massages I got, it never let up. I saw a few Doctors, and the consensus was, either get surgery (which may or may not actually fix the problem; cartilage is a funny thing) or work less, since it mostly was only unbearable when I pierced a lot. That Christmas, I also took my first real vacation of my entire adult life. While I was away, I did a lot of thinking and decided this was it, time to change roles. I had put in my time piercing, and my body was telling me to take a step back from it. I still loved to pierce, I just couldn’t handle the volume anymore, so I started working by appointment and spent the rest of my time either filling in up front showing jewelry when my manager was off or sitting in my office ordering jewelry/supplies and brainstorming my next move.

It was becoming obvious that two full-time piercers and one part time, by appointment, piercer just wasn’t going to be enough. Everyone was getting so burned out, we were getting busier by the day, and I couldn’t physically handle any more piercings than I was doing. Thankfully, I was still accustomed to my inexpensive life, so my paychecks stayed low throughout the years, and largely because of that the business finally had a pretty decent savings. That is when I asked my landlord if I could expand into a part of the other side of the building for an additional piercing room. The expansion only took a few months, and before I knew it, we were hosting guest piercers almost monthly. For a year and a half, we hosted guest piercers during our busiest months, sometimes for weeks at a time. From the guest spots, I was able to hire a great piercer to round out the crew, Rob Gold, who officially joined the team in March 2017. I also recently hired another jewelry expert, Lilly Young, as well as a part time jewelry-expert-in-training to help with front-end overflow. This has allowed us to grow into the potential that was already there and finally catch up to the needs of our clientele. In October 2018, just over 10 years after I opened, I was able to buy the building that my business is in, so now not only can I take over the rest of the first floor to allow for a larger waiting room and a new office for me, I also inherited 3 tenants for more income, thereby starting a whole new business, Black Sapphire Properties.

So, that brings us to 2019: my 22nd year as a piercer, my 11th year as a business owner, and my first year as a landlord. Now that I finally have a full staff that I trust, my main role at the shop is all the background stuff like finances, jewelry orders, and website updates, and I can still take appointments here and there. I now have plans to buy an apartment building down the street, hopefully within the next year, and plan to buy more investment properties over time. When I look back on everything, it now seems so obvious how I got here, but as I said in the beginning, hindsight is a great teacher. My journey has taught me some of the vital components to success:

  • Standards—As a Member of the Professional Piercers whose primary goal is promoting safe piercing, this one should be obvious, but it’s also worth mentioning. It is important to stay on top of what’s happening in the industry as far as jewelry standards, sterility practices, and aftercare. It’s easy to sell yourself to clients when you know you’re doing everything you can to give them the best experience and the safest piercing possible. Do not sell any jewelry you wouldn’t wear yourself and educate yourself on every aspect of the jewelry companies that you carry and their products.
  • Integrity—Be impeccable with your word: with clients, other piercers, other industry people— with absolutely everyone. Honestly, I believe this is true in every part of your life, but it’s essential in business and is the key to building a business that will stand the test of time. On the same note, be wary of people who belittle you and your vision. Walk away from toxic people and those that lack integrity, they will only bring you down.
  • Passion—Your clients can sense if you’re genuine or not and this industry is only truly rewarding if you love it more than anything. If you are in this industry for any other reason than your love of piercing and jewelry, do yourself a favor and don’t open a shop.
  • Image—To put it simply, be professional. Speak with confidence and be able to back it up with knowledge. Be careful who you represent yourself as, in person and especially online. No one wants to give their money to  a jerk, no matter how well you pierce or how nice your jewelry is. Period. There’s a saying in retail that applies well to piercers, “A happy client tells  a  few  friends. An unhappy client tells EVERYONE.” Whether you are opening a shop in a year or ten years, the internet never forgets and neither do salty clients. Also, be sure your shop physically reflects what you’re trying to project to the world. It’s hard to sell a $500 piece of jewelry if you look like you just rolled out of bed or your shop doesn’t look like a fine jewelry store.
  • Consistency—Be sure your staff is all on the same page and your front end is well trained. Have frequent meetings to quickly address problems or inconsistencies that arise. Having an employee handbook is also essential. You want all the things that are important to you in writing so that there’s never a question what should be done in any situation, whether you’re there or not. You want any client to walk in on any given day and have just as good of an experience as any other, no matter who is working. Part of this is also treating your employees well and paying them well to create an environment that encourages long term employment. When you have a staff that you trust, you have a lot of freedom too.
  • Sacrifice—When you own a business, you may be the most important person as far as image and decisions, but you’re the least important person when it comes to paychecks. It will pay off in the end, but building a shop from the ground up is not for the faint-of-heart or the weak-willed. The shop HAS TO come first, and your staff isn’t going to work for free. This will impact your life in every facet, and it may mean you make the least amount out of your whole staff at times, but if you stick to it and go all-in you will be rewarded in every way down the road. As far as start-up capital, however much you think you need to open a shop and make it successful, at least double it. You have no idea what can/will happen during your building years and you should be prepared for anything. Insurance may cover lost wages if your shop collapses or burns down, but it certainly won’t cover things like being slow because the economy tanked. If your plan is to open a shop someday, start putting away money now and don’t be frivolous. Make yourself a budget and stick to it; get used to being frugal. Think in years and decades, not weeks or months.
  • Limits—Remember, you are only human and just one person. You cannot do it all and still be healthy, either mentally or physically. Know when it’s time to take on other/more employees! And know when it’s time to take a step back too. On the same note, do not tolerate employees that do not share your vision. It’s very easy to be held hostage by talent and/or circumstance, but remember that it is your shop in the end and stick to your guns.
  • Preparation—The banks do not just hand out loans. Do your research and know the market in the area you want to open. Write a few practice business plans until you get it right and feel confident enough in your facts for a meeting with a loan officer. There’s plenty of information on the internet to lead you in the right direction. You can also look for a venture capitalist! The loan interest can be a little higher, but if a bank can’t help you, or can’t give you enough money, they are a great option. They are typically more adventurous than banks with what types of businesses they are willing to work with.
  • Confidence—Know your worth! Don’t compromise on pricing your services and/or jewelry thinking lower prices will bring people in, even in the beginning. It will come back to bite you and really limit your buying power when ordering new jewelry and growing your shop. If you do great work and sell great quality jewelry, the right people will happily pay you what you’re worth. Do not lower your prices, have piercing sales, or let people bully you into charging less. I promise, you don’t want those clients anyway; let the lesser shops have them. It will only make you look better in the end and win you more clients overall when those who were at first unwilling to pay your price come back to have you fix things. They’ll learn the difference first hand and you’ll now have a client for life who tells everyone they shouldn’t go anywhere else. Never apologize for having high standards.
  • Autonomy—Taking inspirations from other great shops is wonderful, but don’t concern yourself too much with what the other shops around you are doing. Just do your thing and believe in your vision! If you believe in what you’re doing, and you put the time and effort in, you’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish.

Point 86: Learning to Love the Taste of Fire: Elitism in Body Piercing

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by Jacob Spjut

Chuk, a fire eater, from Piercing Fans International Quarterly,
Issue 49, 1996. Photo by Billy Douglas, courtesy of
Gauntlet Enterprises

“They’re so cold, these scholars! May lightning strike their food so that their mouths learn how to eat fire!”

—Friedrich Nietzsche

There can not be a discussion concerning the contemporary history of the piercing industry without elitism entering into it. Elitism is so ingrained—even when there is growing democratization of information and  sharing of knowledge the world over—that the fear it will reveal its serpentine head has weakened the discussions required for the industry to continue to grow. Likely influenced by a culture crippled by the sentiment that it is reasonable to denounce expertise as superfluous, piercers are embracing the view that “my [anecdotal experience] is just as good as your knowledge.”1 Holding these particular beliefs and thinking they are somehow applicable to the entirety  of the industry makes this wholesale denunciation unsurprising. Elitism, which elicits feelings of otherness and exclusion, should no longer be a term thrown carelessly at an individual or group who strives to establish themselves as experts or as elite piercers. Applying disparaging meaning to any word similar to elitism, elite, or expert, for example, has driven  many piercers to reject taking principled stands or engaging in valuable dialogue concerning essential issues to avoid becoming branded  as  a charlatan or worse. The term elite, unfairly marred by its close association with elitism, can and should be used in the field to denote the positive positioning of individuals based on unique and qualifying attributes that can propel the industry forward. Overcoming the natural desire to reject an expert or elite piercer, as though they are an elitist piercer is paramount to the future of body piercing. Overcoming this desire, though, creates a unique challenge for piercers. Ego and a lack of consensus between piercers creates fissures that make the very idea of a group of experts seem intrinsically counterproductive to a growing and marketable industry. With focus, this problem is shown not to be insurmountable.

The existence of a top rung on this field’s ladder is a somewhat nebulous idea. There is little way to judge how “good” a piercer is or whether their ideas merit consideration. The inability to empirically discern what constitutes a qualified expert is true in almost any human intellectual endeavor, as subjectivity is a strong force against which to contend. This is especially true in fields that can reach the same result, like a well-healed piercing, through different means. This dilemma, however, does not make the act of examining and choosing this upper echelon of piercers superfluous.

Discerning who is qualified for the title is further made difficult by the historical justifications for the rejection of expertise. The Puritan “originators” of the United States upheld the idea that no group can preside over any individual; this was foundational to the oppressive nature of these “New World Settlers.” This rejection has carried forward for centuries, the result being expertise is no longer considered adequate; everyone feels entitled, even required, to have an opinion falsely regarded as equally valid as any other. “To reject the advice of experts is to assert autonomy, a way for Americans to insulate their increasingly fragile egos from ever being told they’re wrong about anything […] All things are knowable, and every opinion on any subject is as good as any other.”2

In the piercing field, this dismissal of expertise appears to have origins in hyperbolic discussions between some piercers attempting to absolve themselves of resentment. They likely felt that these other piercers were upholding “elitist” standards that contradicted policies they, the resentful, had practiced for years “without issue.” Many piercers remember this as a rebuff of the APP; the APP was used as a generalized term by many individuals to denote a piercer that maintained a set of standards deemed “unnecessary.” The myth of a group of elitist piercers likely has legitimate beginnings, but there is little reason to believe that for nearly two decades their existence has been the reality. Contrarily, an outpouring of information by a highly educated group of piercers has shown the benefit of learned leaders, as they have helped cultivate an environment of continuing education and progression. However, one can not overlook that history may have reduced the ability of many piercers to counteract the pressure to reject expertise. Regardless of its justification, this rejection continues to occur, though in smaller instances, leading to a distrust between professionals that hinders growth and can de-legitimize those involved.

The irony of this repudiation, whether of APP Members themselves, the Association as a whole, or of piercers dedicated to the highest standards attainable, is that many considered elitists ten years ago have helped to foster online communities that have seen the improvement of throngs of young piercers. The online communities that formed over the last decade are creating a circle of trusted piercers that are approached for their expertise when previously these experts were considered a pernicious influence over body piercing. When looking at the roster of consistently highly ranked teachers at the APP’s Annual Conference, or the moderators in the most notable active learning forums, it is evident that elite piercers exist within the field. It seems piercers have, with some hesitation, exited the cave of ignorance, from rejecting to elevating the rejected, but it is still imperative not to descend back into that cave of dismissal. Prevailing in the light requires admitting that there are more talented practitioners in the piercing room and that, after spending a great deal of time dedicated to garnering information pertaining to specific areas in the field, these piercers have increased the collective understanding of piercing. This is not necessarily accomplishable by all, but many with devotion can contribute significantly to the discourse. The challenge for the industry, however, is not necessarily how to create elite piercers, as they already exist. It is how they are recognized and used to further the industry.

Recognition begins by taking traits that hold universal appeal as being advantageous to intellectual growth and using these as a basis that will inform practitioners as to what separates expert and elite piercers from strictly experienced piercers. Addressing that this subject can invoke preconceived notions of what is meant when using vernacular that is similar is also necessary. “Elitism” is often suggestive of pedantic sterile field fanatics or of contemptible piercers using bully tactics to shame up-and-coming piercers into “hanging up their needles.” One is reminded of piercers using imaginary titles to denote their level of “mastery” in the craft, or those who have allowed their deeply held convictions on any given subject to give them a feeling of self-importance that makes any other “less than” merely because of a differing opinion. These typical instances of an “elitist” should not poison the well of what an expert or elite piercer is.

In comparison, an elite piercer has a deeper and more full understanding of a given subject or area of focus, and assert that they should not only disseminate that learning, but must expand upon their knowledge indefinitely. Elite piercers should be helpful, while being open to discussion and the pursuit of innovative ideas. They should always work hard to develop themselves as educators and maintain the philosophy that complacency is the death song of a good leader. They use their skill and understanding to advance the field in its totality, and they do not use it to amass “internet cool points.” When discussing ideas, they hold fast to their opinions, yet are accepting of provocation without being inexorable when presented with a valid argument. They are not from any single group, and one can not befriend themselves into their ranks. These are essential semantic distinctions and must be understood.

Piercers who are working towards developing these traits, and the elevation of those individuals who possess them, can be used to benefit everyone; creating opportunities for anyone who wishes to better the industry by instigating positive changes that vivify and encourage the culture that should be fostered. Creating an outlet for positive change will benefit the practitioners who are a part of this group, those who strive to be a part of it, and the clients assisted with the craft. Together, these changes will bring about a better experience for anyone who enters into the orbit of a piercer. This position of earned power requires a great deal of courage and demands a certain level of humility. This humility should not come at the expense of the critical need for depth of conviction, however. This is increasingly more important as a growing crisis of trusted piercers softening their positions rises in learning settings where they avoid conflict with others that may not agree with their ideas. By denying that some piercers are better or more knowledgeable, the bar of competence is deeply lowered, to a point where demonstrably inadequate piercers are  given the same weighted influence as their more educated peers. Weakening informed opinions, coupled with the growing focus towards educating new or struggling piercers, will be catastrophic.

This tendency is seen, more and more, in the classroom at the annual Association of Professional Piercers educational conference. Teachers, selected  because of their expertise concerning a subject, often concede points that may be contentious between practitioners. Sterile gloves, touted as an essential step forward by many, are rejected as just past the line of necessary by others. Surface finish, a subject that does not, at face value, seem like a position open to controversy, brings about inimical arguments where the ethical foundation in opposition is built on nothing more than“having not killed anyone.” Even standards adopted from other industries are cherry-picked to not further complicate established practices in one studio or another. What is an attendee to learn from exchanges that offer nothing more than “this is just how we do it?” It is ascertained that there is no reason to believe that any single idea is authoritative and that any position is equal as long as it falls within one’s “experience.” This should not be tolerable. The teacher, or any attendee with a reasoned argument to make, should not concede to an idea they disagree with unless they have been convinced they are, indeed, wrong. It is easy to say this concession is made only to avoid ostracizing a piercer who practices different standards. After all, there is room for differing approaches to piercing. There is merit to this, but it misses the point of reasoned dialog. One is to come to an opinion based on defensible points of reference. Which one of these positions is correct is debatable, thus refusing to debate is detrimental. Sterile gloves or surface finish may seem like silly and arbitrary examples, but it is analogous of many, more serious disagreements that plague the industry.

Potential problems that can arise when the industry embraces a perceived shadowy network of super piercers dictating what type of piercings will trend or how best to pierce a navel must be considered, as well. Piercers are not above being ego-driven and closed to critical evaluation. The fact that being open to critique is hailed as something special in the aforementioned online communities is telling. Experts on any given subject in the industry can also be wrong, biased, or they may be unable to see the nuance to a given idea.

Some, though not many, may even fall into the classification of “elitist,” making the need to be able to distinguish them even more critical. Regardless, allowing uninformed piercers to postulate ignorant ideas that go unchallenged can influence leadership within the APP or the online communities to implement policy or suggest ideas that hinder growth. This is the antithesis of what is essential to piercing’s future.

Thankfully, the piercing industry benefits from its interconnectedness, and delving into oligarchical ruin is not likely. Not only is it unlikely, but the structures already in place—structures that have led to a trusted network of expert piercers, such as the vetting process in the online forums—will make the problem an improbability. Piercers who, through hard work, rise to high positions will be accountable to every other piercer, at least to those working towards increasing the field’s prestige themselves. There is little room for ego-driven self-importance, especially when piercers looking to leadership for change are relentless in exposing muddied thinking and promoting good ideas. Critical examination of any proposition, regardless of whom it is coming from, is the mechanism by which the industry will flourish, and it must be encouraged.

It can not be denied that elitism has damaged the piercing industry. It has created fear. In this culture of fear, piercers have begun to turn inward, allowing subjectivity to be the essential consideration when ideas are posited. Many are rejecting, consciously or not, that there are those who are presenting more informed positions. They are labeling these other piercers inaccurately, using stigmatized terms to create ad hominem attacks and stifling required debate. This is a failure in need of reform. There are opinions that hold more water than others, and these opinions, though entirely open to challenge, are going to be presented by piercers that have spent the time to hone and expand on them. It is crucial to accept that an elite group of piercers exists, that this group’s roster is in constant flux, and that this is good for the industry. The acceptance of this fact will cause a shift that will make more widely applicable ideas resulting in the highest good for the industry. It must also be accepted that conviction to an opinion and being receptive to those who challenge it are two sides of the same coin of advancement. The industry must not fall for the false narrative that expertise is a prelude to elitism. Instead, the industry and its practitioners should embrace the title of “elite” as a call to responsible action, and work to earn that title every day.

1) Asimov, Isaac, “A Cult of Ignorance.” Newsweek, January 21,1980, 19.

2) Kakutani, Michiko, “‘The Death of Expertise’ Explores How Ignorance Became a Virtue,” The New York Times, March 21, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/21/books/the-death-of-expertise-explores-how-ignorance-became-a-virtue.html

Point 85: Perfection over Experience

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by John Joyce

While driving to work, listening to NPR and sipping coffee, I heard an interview that drew parallels to some things I see in our industry.

The interview was with a classically trained musician who was releasing new work. She was explaining how her process has changed, and how she has found a new joy and connection to music. It was a connection she hadn’t realized she was even missing.

The woman in the interview explained how her training shaped how she approaches her work. Being classically trained, you are taught to replicate something, look at your work, and look for mistakes. Do this over and over until you can say, “I replicated this; it is perfect with no mistakes.” This type of critique what was done differently, then redo it until you are doing it the same way as whoever posted the original video. What I think is missing here is connecting with the client, and the moment of seeing and feeling what works best for you. The way the person in the video is doing something may not be the most comfortable way for you to do it. Rather than straight replication, what if we paid close attention to what felt uncomfortable about an experience, which will likely lead to a way that works better for you. When you are just looking for mistakes and trying to replicate what the person in the video did, you are missing an opportunity. I believe that one of the defining characteristics of our industry was that it was born of hands on learning.

Your hands might not be the same size as the person in the video. You might have different levels of dexterity. The configuration/height/angle of the equipment in your environment may be different. Trying things the way someone else does them is fine, but pay attention to what works for you and what is comfortable for you, instead of forcing someone else’s technique on yourself. Tools, no tools, 2″ needle, 3″ needle, etc… what connects with you? What clicks?

The woman in the article went on to say how after spending time and playing with musicians in New Orleans, they changed her perspective on performing and appreciating music. After playing and working with them, she was taught that mistakes are part of the process; those mistakes are what make the music feel alive and continues the personal growth of the musician. Don’t be afraid to make the mistake, roll with it, and still come out with something great. Be in the moment, make that connection with your audience, your client. If it didn’t go as well as hoped, ask why and what you could have done differently? Don’t just attempt to do it the same way over and over.

This also hits on the second thing I see in our industry. Make that connection. Don’t forget you are working on a whole person. I see so many videos being posted looking for critiques from peers, that might as well be a demonstration on a silicone body part. Again look to the roots of our industry and see that those personal connections are what made the industry as we see it today. When you are piercing an ear, or a nostril, or whatever, you are also piercing the person sitting in front of you. Include them; this is their experience. I understand that the experience now is a lot different than it was 20 years ago, that the clients are different, but you are still the facilitator of their experience.

When you draped half their upper body for that simple helix piercing, they didn’t disappear. Just because you no longer have eye contact with them, doesn’t mean they can’t feel what is happening, feel your nervous energy, or your excitement. Include them in that. So many of the videos I see focus on the wrong things: “Look at this great jewelry.”“Look at this crazy needle bend.” “Look at my drape level 900.” “Look at my fly freehand technique.” “Look how fast I was.” This all screams, “Look at me, other piercers. Am I worthy yet?”

All that is great: you should absolutely strive to be as aseptic as possible, want to try new techniques that might work better for you, and push yourself to be more technically sound. My current worry is, a lot of piercers seem so focused on the task at hand, so worried about doing the perfect piercing, that they miss out on the perfect experience. It is important not to miss out on the connection with the client, and the bond that can come from that interaction. In that moment, the client should be the piercer’s best friend, the only person that matters. Yes, you should absolutely be giving them the best nostril, helix, navel, or whatever piercing you have ever done, each and every time, but if all they are getting is a perfect piercing and not the perfect experience, you are both missing out. For them, the initial excitement is probably enough to not realize they missed out on anything. For you though, over time, without that connection, just piercing nostrils gets old after a few years. It becomes a job. Each time, you care a little less, and each day becomes a little harder to show up for.

As someone who has been in this industry for just over 20 years, there have been times where I too had lost that connection and many times didn’t even realize it. I used to fall in love about 20 times a day: with the client, with the piercing, with the connection. Granted the experiences were very different when I first started, and it was hard not to feel a great connection when so many of the piercings were very private, personal, and intimate, for a variety of different reasons. Many of those reasons, new piercers won’t understand; it’s a very different industry now. While that doesn’t happen as often anymore, it still happens. I love our clients. I love what we do. I love learning about them. I love that they let me be part of their life experience. That connection and being a part of so many different people’s lives has helped shape who I am, what the industry has been to me. It has filled me with empathy and understanding in a way that I wouldn’t have if I ended up anywhere else. Even though the client/piercer connection has evolved, I still feel it, and I urge you, as you move forward in your career to find it as well.

Point 82: Piercing-Christina Shull

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Interview by Sean Dowdell

Reprinted with permission from InkSpired Magazine Issue 52

Studio Name: Integrity Piercing

Number of Years Piercing: 16

Sean Dowdell: Why did you want to learn to do body piercing?

Christina Shull: Oddly enough, I had no interest in being a piercer. I found a studio that was willing to take me as a tattoo apprentice but only on the condition that I learned how to pierce as well. That was the only opportunity I could find for a tattoo apprenticeship, so I took it. I quickly realized that I did not have the creative ability to draw custom tattoo designs and I would have been a mediocre flash artist at best. Luckily, at that time I also realized that I had an unexpected passion for piercing and decided to give up on tattooing to pursue professional piercing. While I have developed strong feelings about not using piercing as a stepping stone for tattooing, I am fortunate that in my particular situation, it worked out well for me.

Sean Dowdell: When did you start body piercing, who taught you, and where?

Christina Shull: I started piercing in October 2000 in Wenatchee, Washington. My original apprenticeship was very minimal and left me seeking appropriate training and education. That search brought me to the 2001 APP Conference, where I made connections who led me to the two Seattle piercers, J.J. Moiso and Troy Amundson, who took me under their wings and mentored me for two years. During that time, I was actively seeking a better studio than where I was at but lacked the resources that the piercing industry now has. Through obtaining the APP’s Al D. Scholarship in 2003, I was able to relocate to Evolution in Albuquerque, where I received much-needed guidance from their talented team – Crystal Sims, Shawn Taylor, and Noah Babcock.

Sean Dowdell: What piercers do you look up to and why?

Christina Shull: I could fill the whole magazine with a list of who I look up to and why! I look up to everybody who has played a role in the inception and development of the APP, as it is an organization whose mission I wholeheartedly support. I look up to everybody who has been involved  in legislation and regulations, as their volunteered time has shaped the evolution of the piercing industry. I look up to the piercers who have innovated piercing procedures and the implements used, jewelry styles, and various concepts of business and customer service. I look up to every piercer who is representing the piercing industry on a professional level, as  the  collective effort of so many has lead to increasingly positive public perception and legitimizing the industry as a whole. In all, I have admiration and respect for the countless individuals who have contributed to the increasingly positive direction the piercing industry is taking. Since I feel that answer is very generalized, I will add that I really admire Brian Skellie. I hope  to someday possess as much  information, the willingness, and patience to share that information, as well as the amazing level of contributions to the industry that he possesses.

Sean Dowdell: I know you are an owner/ operator of your business. What made you decide to go out on your own and open your business?

Christina Shull: After 10 years of living outside of my home state, I wanted to move home to settle down close to my family and friends. My hometown has never had a high-end piercing studio, which gave me the opportunity to come home and open a business that my community was in need of. After years of working for and guesting in some of the best studios across the country, I had a lot of ideas about what my ideal studio would look like, the experiences clients would receive, and how I wanted my business to be perceived by my community.

Sean Dowdell: What challenges have you had being a female piercer, and with being a female business owner?

Christina Shull: Honestly, I have never felt that I have had challenges as a female piercer and business owner. If anything, I  feel that as a female, I have an advantage with my clients and when seeking past employment in the piercing industry. In many places where I have lived, found that there were many clients who preferred a female piercer for certain situations. In my current area, over 90% of my clients are female and  I find it advantageous that they feel I might relate to them better as a female.

Sean Dowdell: What do you think are (if any) problems within the piercing industry?

Christina Shull: One of the biggest problems that I see in the piercing industry is a lack of consistent professional standards. I feel that it is hard to be thought of as a professional industry when the majority of the industry does not meet acceptable industry standards. In most states, no training or education is required to obtain a piercing license, if the state requires a license at all, and that, unfortunately, leads to a large variance between studios in terms of quality, experience, and service. I believe that as more of the industry chooses to meet current industry standards (appropriate sterilization standards, jewelry materials and quality, studio setup, training, and education, etc.), the piercing industry will continue to be seen overall as more credible than in the past.

Sean Dowdell: Where would you like to be in 5 years (pertaining to life and business)?

Christina Shull: I have a lot of plans in the next five years! I chose to grow my business in a very slow but steady pace, but after three years of being the only piercer, I am ready to expand my staff and studio hours. I plan to add a second full-time piercer and complete a full apprenticeship for my receptionist, who has been working counter for eight years and has earned herself   a quality apprenticeship. Once I have a full staff and my business is able to run without me piercing full time, I would like to pursue an education as a CPA and offer industry-specific business consulting and accounting. I feel that the piercing industry lacks industry specific help when it comes to planning and running a business, and   I would love to fill that void. As far as personal goals go, I am working on finding a good work-life balance. I have struggled over the years to find a more healthy balance between the two aspects of my life, and moving back to my hometown was a big step in working towards having more balance between business and personal life. My five-year plan involves working towards having a personal life that brings me as much satisfaction and happiness as my professional life does.

Sean Dowdell: I had the pleasure of getting to hear you teach at APP conference this year. I really liked your personal approach to the community that you serve. Can you tell me a little about your perspective on that?

Christina Shull: Thank you, Sean! While I feel that stereotypes about body art businesses and professionals have been improving over time, I feel that we still have a way to go before we are seen as a professional industry. When I opened my studio, it was important to me to break the local stereotypes for body art businesses and be perceived as other local businesses are. I also have firm beliefs about being an active part of my local community and be able to give back to the community. My approach has been to be as involved as possible. My business is very active with the local Chamber of Commerce, we are Better Business Bureau members, we donate lavishly to any local fundraiser or event, we sponsor local events and programs that we support, we hold fundraisers for local causes that we feel strongly about. The Integrity Piercing brand has become a household name that is synonymous with local community, even with people who have never stepped foot in our establishment.

Sean Dowdell: What do you love about teaching other piercers both inside and outside of conference?

Christina Shull: I love being a part of the positive evolution of the piercing industry! The better we become individually, the better we are as an industry. I am very honored that the APP has had me as an instructor for over ten years, and has given me the opportunity to be a part of the profession of the piercing industry. Also, going back to my rough start in the industry, I will always be thankful for the piercers who had a monumental part in shaping my career and I am   truly grateful for the opportunity to help other piercers who are now where I once was. I love being able to give back to the industry that I adore so much.

Sean Dowdell: What changes would you like to see in the piercing industry?

Christina Shull: I would like to see more forward momentum towards the adoption and implementation  of currently accepted industry standards. While we now have more studios offering higher standards, the majority of the industry is still not offering clients the best. I hope that the future brings more studios wanting to offer clients the best possible experience, education, and jewelry.

I also hope to see more piercers seeking out the best possible training and education, as well as more studios treating their technicians as skilled workers deserving   of better pay and benefits. I hope the future will allow for professional piercing as a long term career that can provide a comfortable living and retirement.

Sean Dowdell: Tell me something positive that you feel comes from the piercing industry?

Christina Shull: I love that the piercing industry helps our clients live a better life. Whether we are helping someone feel more comfortable with their body, to celebrate a particular moment or achievement, or overcome a fear, we are providing an outlet for personal growth and self-improvement. Having an impact on my client’s life, regardless of the extent of that impact, is something that I consider to be very sacred and wonderful.

Sean Dowdell: What would you like other piercers to know that they might not know about you?

Christina Shull: I don’t think there is anything that I haven’t publicly shared about myself. I try to be as honest and forthcoming with the industry as possible.

Sean Dowdell: Being a veteran piercer, what advice do you think that most new piercers should be aware of as they climb into this industry?

Christina Shull: I hope that any piercer will never get too comfortable with what they think they know. Even with 16 years of piercing, I am always open to new techniques, ideas, and ways  of doing things. By always  being open to new things, I have kept my job interesting, I am always improving, and I have never had to worry about experiencing burnout. Staying open minded and not becoming stagnant has enabled me to continue bettering myself as a piercer  and business owner.

Sean Dowdell: Is there anything you wish to learn or get better at in the piercing industry or in business in general?

Christina Shull: I am constantly looking to improve my piercing techniques, my customer service skills, and my knowledge of business. I do not want to ever get to a point where I feel that I don’t need to keep learning and growing. As a somewhat new business owner, I feel there is so much that I can learn about accounting and running a business.

I am looking forward to what the future holds as far as learning more about what I can do to run a business that puts first both the needs of my clients and my staff.

Point 78: Piercing Statistics – James Weber

1 Comment read Business Practices, Issue 78, Statistics

For several years, adult video streaming site PornHub has released statistics on the viewing habits of their users. Wondering what search terms are most popular with online porn consumers? What country has the highest percentage of female viewers? Who the most-searched fictional movie characters are? How much viewership dips during the Super Bowl? Want to know how each of last year’s Presidential debates affected porn viewing in the United States? It’s all in PornHub’s 2016 Year in Review. Regardless of your attitudes or tastes regarding adult films, it is fascinating to see a snapshot—albeit from a single, English-language adult site—about adult video viewing habits worldwide. In this spirit, we decided to take a look at our own 2016 piercing statistics for the services we offer at the studio. While we don’t have access to the tremendous user data and demographic breakdown that PornHub does, we can easily break down the number and type of services we provided in 2016 through our POS system.

First, it’s important to note that new piercings aren’t the only service we offer; we change jewelry and stretch piercings for clients, free of charge, regardless of whether the original piercing was done at our studio. (Just tip your piercer!) It’s a continuing service for our returning customers, and a bit of outreach to customers we haven’t pierced—at least not yet. As a result, we did a whopping 4,062 jewelry insertions and piercings stretches in 2016. That’s 338.5 jewelry insertions per month, a little over 78 per week, and on average over 11 per day—and that’s in addition to clients we see for piercings. In 2016, 32% of our services were jewelry insertions, with piercings making up 68% of what we did last year.

2016 Total Piercings, by Type

In total, the piercers here at Infinite did 8722 piercings in 2016. This works out to an average of 727 piercings per month, 168 per week, and 24  piercings per day. If you add in our 4,062 jewelry insertions and piercing stretches, that comes to an average of 1065 procedures per month, 246 each week, and 35 clients per day, every day!

After jewelry insertions, the top five services we performed for clients were, in order: nostril piercings, nipple piercings, outer helix piercings, earlobe piercings, and then septum piercings.

Repeating the results in 2015, nostril piercings were the most popular service we offered in 2016.

We performed 1690 of them, just behind our 2015 number of 1697 nostril piercings. For the second year in a row, the nostril piercing is king—or queen, really, since the overwhelming majority of our nostril piercing clients are women.

Our second most popular piercing is the nipple. In all we did 333 single nipple piercings and 637 double nipple piercings—making for 1607 nipples pierced in 2016. Not surprisingly, in third and fourth place for most-requested piercings in 2016 were outer helix piercings and earlobe piercings, with 1092 and 1070 performed respectively. Rounding out the top five was septum piercings, with 637 done in 2016.

You can see a breakdown of everything we did in 2016, below:

Two piercings absent from this year’s list that were on last year’s are tongue webbing piercings (we did eleven in 2015) and cheek piercings (we did four that year). This could be because people didn’t request them, or the piercing staff talked clients out of them. (They are both problematic piercings: the tongue webbing for keeping it from migrating; and cheek piercings for getting them to heal.) Or maybe it’s a little bit of both.

Ear Piercing Numbers

It’s no surprise that a lot of what we do are different ear piercings. The breakdown of ear piercings done in 2016 is below:

We did 3,785 ear piercings in 2016. This works out to over 315 ear piercings per month, almost 73 per week, and an average of 10.3 ear piercings every day. These accounted for approximately 44.4% of total piercings.

Facial and Oral Piercings

We performed 2427 different non-ear facial piercings in 2016, including nostril, septum, eyebrow, and bridge piercings, and 312 oral piercings, including lip, labret, beauty mark, philtrum, and tongue piercings. Facial piercings accounted for approximately 28% of total piercings, while oral piercings accounted for under 4%.

Genital Piercing Numbers

Lastly, we performed 330 genital piercings in 2016: 217 female genital piercings, and 113 male genital piercings. Measured against our total numbers, genital piercings account for just under 4% of our total piercings.

The most popular female genital piercing, by a large margin, was the clitoral hood piercing—it was number eleven on the overall list of most popular piercings—with a surprising five Princess Albertina piercings done last year. The most popular male genital piercing was the Prince Albert piercing, followed closely behind by the frenum piercing. Robert and Ed also inserted fourteen genital beads on nine different clients.

Piercing Totals by Category and Piercer

How does this break down by category? Facial piercings account for 28% of what we did last year, oral piercings 4%, ear piercings a whopping 44%, nipple piercings 19%, genital piercings 4%, and navel piercings a small 1% of our totals.

It goes without saying that we do a lot of piercings. We’re not the average studio though. We’ve been in business over twenty years, we have an amazing staff and reputation, and we’re also in a large city (the fifth largest in the United States) without a lot of competition. (Restrictive zoning regulations limit the number of tattoo and piercing studios in most areas of Philadelphia.) As a result, we’re easily one of the busiest piercing studios in the U.S., and these numbers are in no way indicative of the volume of clients seen in an “average” studio, if there even is such a thing, so these numbers shouldn’t be seen as representative of the volume of services performed at other studios.

We have four piercers on staff—with two scheduled together on weekdays and all four scheduled and rotating through weekend shifts—with various guest piercers helping us out during any staff transitions and/or during extended vacation times with our regular staff. If we track the piercing totals by piercer, you get a breakdown of the percentage of piercings performed by each member of our piercing staff. Robert and Andru both saw a quarter of last year’s clients, with Eduardo seeing slightly less. (As head piercer at the studio, Ed’s responsibilities often mean some of the other piercers are seeing clients while Ed is taking care of other pressing matters at the studio.)

We had a few months at the beginning of the year, between the departure of John Logger and the hiring of Zach, when we had quite a few guests seeing clients at the studio. You can see the breakdown with the accompanying chart.

Our Clients, by Gender

Lastly, who are the people coming in for our services? Unfortunately, we don’t have detailed demographic data on our clients, such as age or location. We can pore over release forms for much of this information, but that is prohibitively time-consuming. What we have done, though, is go through last December’s clients’ forms to determine the gender breakdown of our customers. While it’s obvious more women than men come in for our services, it was surprising to find out just how big the discrepancy is. An overwhelming percentage of our clients are women, in reality just under 90%, while a little over 10% of our piercing clients are men. This also includes our numerous trans clients. (This is why we refer to “female” or “male” genital piercings, but break down our clients between “men” and “women.”) We also have quite a few clients who identify outside of the gender binary, but at this time their numbers are few when compared to the total client numbers.

In contrast to our lack of more detailed information on our clients, Facebook has excellent (insidious?) tools for demographics. Through our page analytics, we’re able to get an age breakdown of our Facebook fans: 50% are aged 25-34; 22% are aged 18-24; 17% aged 35-44; 8% are over 45 years old, with less than 3% under 18 years old. Unfortunately, this most likely says more about Facebook’s audience than ours.

Whew! Congratulations if you’ve made it this far. Statistics can be either fascinating or tedious, and we hope we’ve presented these in enough of an engaging way that everyone can geek out on these numbers as much as we did.

 

Point 78: Reducing Your Carbon Footprint in the Piercing Industry – Kendra Jane B

1 Comment read Business Practices, Issue 78, Lifestyle

The idea of being a more environmentally conscientious business is not new, although it is not necessarily the first thing you think of in reference to tattoo and piercing shops. At home maybe you are already living a greener life; upcycling, sorting your curbside recyclables, and buying your food locally. Meanwhile at work, the computer stays on all night, you use only one side of printer paper and the climate controls keep it a constant 68 degrees all year long. It’s easy to let the green routine slide at work, since it’s not technically your space. However, you may fall on the other end of the spectrum, being the shop’s outspoken green warrior. The nicest thing about working towards more sustainable business practices is that these changes can be eco-friendly while potentially reducing overhead costs. So even if the benefits to the planet are hard to see, those benefits to your bottom line may be more visible.

It is hard to know where you can improve if you don’t take a measure of where you are currently. Some areas of your shop may be very green, while you may have room for improvement in other areas.  Rather than just going into this with guesswork, I would encourage you to keep measurable data on how well you are doing in the sustainability realm. The simplest way is to use any one of many online carbon footprint calculators. Once you have done the calculations you will have a great baseline to work from. Although some of the ideas listed are small and easily implemented, others are larger and much more in depth undertakings. This means that it is important to remember this is not an all or nothing scenario and in fact each small thing you do to create a more sustainable shop environment will add up over time.

Let’s start with the physical environment and structure of the studios we work in and own. This can be as easy or in-depth as you want it to be. On the simple and easily accomplished end of the list you can start with switching to LED and other energy-saving light bulbs; even a small change like this can create a measurable difference in your building’s energy usage. The shop can purchase energy-saving models of office equipment, such as Energy Star-approved computers, LCD monitors, printers, and photocopiers. When your electronics have reached the end of their life, make sure to recycle them through e-recycling companies or manufacturer take-back programs. Make sure the option you choose has some sound data-wiping procedures in place to keep your data secure.

You aren’t working all hours of the night (at least I hope not), so why does your computer need to be on? Turn off everything you possibly can before you leave the office each day. Make sure to keep lights off in unused rooms throughout the day and turn off all lights when leaving. This can be simplified by installing motion sensor light switches where applicable, or consolidating electronic plugs so you are able to turn off minimal power strips or switches at the end of the day. Make use of power management options on electronics, such as programming the computer to turn off automatically at a certain time each night, just in case it is forgotten. You can also set your monitor to turn off after a few minutes of inactivity. And never leave things like cell phone chargers plugged in when you’re not using them. They still draw energy, regardless of whether there’s anything plugged into them.

One of the easiest things an office can do to reduce waste is to keep an eye on paper. Paper makes up about 35% of the waste stream – even though it’s one of the easiest materials to re-use and recycle. You don’t need to print every e-mail. Just organize your inbox to make e-mails easier to find and reference. You can encourage others not to print unnecessary paperwork as well. Make back-up copies of important files and keep them on an external drive or cloud storage, instead of storing boxes of paper files. When you do need to print important documents, make sure you use a sustainable paper, and set your printer or copier to print on both sides of the page.

The idea of going paperless is still a future reality for many places. That being said, many shops throughout the world have successfully gone to paperless options for waivers and aftercare. There are well known programs which will allow you to sign PDF files digitally, as well as create PDF documents with signature fields for clients to sign. There are also different digital programs made specifically for tattoo and piercing shops. In fact we even offered a class taught by Alicia Cardenas at our 2015 APP Conference about going paperless.

Second to the paperwork we create in our shops is the paper that just shows up. Junk mail may be one of the most wasteful things known to man. There are free services that will remove you from mailing lists, in hopes of eliminating waste before it starts. If recycling bins are not already easily accessible, this can be another quick, easy office upgrade. Put them near water coolers and next to the photocopier.

Another super easy addition to your sustainable shop arsenal is a digital thermostat with program functionality to lower the temperature when no one is in the shop. Take your heat conservation the extra step if your shop is located in a climate that would benefit from some winterizing; seal windows and doors so heat or cold air is not escaping and seal gaps in floorboards.

If studio structure improvements are possible, there are many things that can be done to increase the building’s energy efficiency. Install insulated windows for better temperature regulation. Look into a tune up for the heating/cooling systems to make sure they are operating at peak efficiency. Buy energy-saving appliances that are Energy Star-rated or look into upgrading old equipment like inefficient boilers or furnaces. If you’re lucky enough to be able to afford a shop remodel, go green from the floor to the skylights. Use eco-friendly flooring options made from renewable or recycled materials. Use sustainable fabrics made from hemp or bamboo for window coverings, or get them second hand. Lengths of bamboo make great curtain rods, too. The sustainable options are only as limited as your imagination.

Now that we have looked at a few simple things (and a couple more involved as well) let’s step outside of our own shop and look at what our neighborhoods and cities offer. Working with other like minded businesses to support and cross promote one another is a great way to not only decrease your carbon footprint, but to increase your business. As an added bonus, you’ll be building great relationships. Chances are, there are businesses in your area that are also trying to improve their sustainability. Network with them and use their services when you can. Part of being a green business is ensuring that your supply chain is green too. Seek out green vendors for your business needs, whether it is printing business cards, hosting your website, or manufacturing the products you sell.

Of course there are always additional steps you can take to make any shop more sustainable, and the only way to make progress is to know where you’re headed. It is important to keep up with environmental news and green business trends to identify areas you can improve on. Making checklists of green business practices to implement and setting deadlines can ensure that things get completed in a timely manner. As you make changes, small or large, it is important to keep measuring this progress. As you make a major change, review energy consumption reports of the building and re-evaluate using carbon footprint calculators. It’s easy to get gung-ho about being greener, only to have the efforts fall by the wayside when a busy time hits. Create a positive environment where positive change and growth towards sustainability is embraced even in an industry where being disposable is encouraged! Revel in the many ways we can work to reduce our carbon footprint.

 

Point 78: Financial Sustainability for Your Business – Christina Shull

1 Comment read Business Practices, Issue 78, Technology

Business sustainability in the piercing industry generally requires financial planning, unless you plan on living with your parents for the rest of your life or you have landed a sugar daddy or mama. Knowing and doing what it takes to keep your finances in order is important. Regardless of whether you are a staff member or the owner of a studio, both positions require a healthy cash flow and good money management skills. I am going to lightly touch on a variety of financial planning topics that apply to everybody in the piercing industry and I encourage you to use this article as a jumping point to explore these topics and start working towards better financial success.

Understanding your cash flow is as important for staff members as it is for business owners, although hourly or salaried employees do have an advantage in this due to having an income that can be more steady and predictable. It is crucial that you truly know how much money is coming in and how much money is going out. The understanding of your income to output is necessary to start budgeting and improving your financial situation. Take the time to estimate what you might spend on various purchasing categories and then compare that to what you ended up spending. You will probably be very surprised to find out how much you really do spend on certain things.

Some examples of different expenses as an individual or business owner can include:

Business:

  • Inventory
  • Piercing supplies
  • Janitorial items
  • Payroll
  • Office supplies
  • Advertising, printing  

Personal

  • Groceries
  • Gas
  • Medical bills
  • Pet care/child care
  • Clothing
  • Entertainment and dining out

Both Personal and Business:

  • Rent
  • Insurance
  • Utilities
  • Loans
  • Telephone
  • Internet

Tracking your current spending habits can be done in a variety of ways. I can tell you from personal experience that the various apps available are easier for tracking personal spending. They are just so much simpler to use than trying to keep track of your spending habits on paper. I have tried a handful of different apps and discuss my two favorites below. There is no excuse for not trying out one or both of these apps, because both are available as free downloads.

Mint: Personal Finance, Budget, Bills & Money – This application is offered by the makers of Intuit and TurboTax, and if you have ever used programs from either company, you know that many of their products are straightforward and easy to use. This program provides a more complete picture of your finances by bringing together your bank accounts, credit cards, bills and investments so you can get an overview of where you are at. There are also some great features such as staying up to date on your credit score (and getting pointers for how to improve it), bill payment reminders (to decrease the likelihood of being late on a payment), and the ability to create budgets. My favorite thing about this program is that you can sync your various financial accounts with Mint, so your financial transactions are automatically updated and you only need to manually enter cash transactions.

Every Dollar: Budget, Manage Money, Track Spending – This application is offered by money management professional, Dave Ramsey, who is one of the leading experts on financial planning for retirement and eliminating debt. This is a great program for budgeting, and I love the ease in which you can view how your monthly spending was planned, compared to how much has been spent and how much is remaining. However, you cannot sync this with your financial accounts unless you pay a $9.99 monthly subscription to EveryDollar Plus. I like the formatting and ease of entering and editing transactions a little more in this program.

Overall, I personally favor the Mint program more due to the free financial account syncing and additional features offered.

Once you have a sense of how much money you are making versus how much you are spending, you can start budgeting. I know budgeting sounds boring, but trust me: it is going to make a world of difference in your financial future. It is easy to casually spend money as things come up. Planning your spending for the month makes it is much harder to randomly spend money, allowing you to strategically cut from one or more categories as necessary. For example: you will be more likely to think twice about blowing a hundred dollars on things you don’t need when you start deducting that amount from your grocery money. When you have the basic budgeting down it is time to start adding in some new expenses that might not be in your current budget. Putting money into a savings account monthly or even bi-weekly is one of the easiest things you can do to start creating short-term financial stability. Having an emergency fund can be vital to staying on track financially if you experience a setback. These emergency savings can keep you from going into debt if you end up with unexpected medical bills, home or auto repairs, sudden unemployment, or any of the other stressful surprises that life can throw your way. When I first started my business, I was hardly paying myself because I invested most of my business income back into my studio. Even then, I started by setting aside $50 a month. Later on,  I bumped it up to $100 a month, which wasn’t missed much from each paycheck even though I was only paying myself a small salary.

Setting aside money for your taxes is another crucial part of your budgeting and planning. Whether we are talking about individual or business taxes, it is a wise decision to set the money aside for when they are due. If temptation to spend the money is too great, there are a handful of ways to minimize the temptation. Increasing the amount of taxes that are deducted from your paycheck is the easiest way to have your taxes paid in full at the end of the year or at least get close. Maybe you’ll even get a return! If the money is taken off your check before you even cash it, you won’t have to worry about the money burning a hole in your pocket. This works well for hourly employees and salaried workers alike, and is very easy to setup and update as needed. Since direct deposit can usually be setup to transfer money into multiple accounts, I personally have my salary automatically deposited into two separate accounts. Every two weeks, one account gets half of my mortgage payment and the other account gets the rest of the money. This allows me to always have money set aside for when my mortgage is due. If you’re doing the math, you’ll realize that I am also able to make one additional full mortgage payment a year on this system, which has a very positive impact on my loan principal, especially early in the agreement. Having money automatically transferred into savings, or into an account for taxes, is a great way to avoid the temptation of spending the money. Talk with your accountant about paying quarterly or even monthly if you are not currently required to do so. This is especially helpful for independent contractors and certain business entities that only need to pay their taxes after the end of the calendar year. These smaller and more frequent payments can feel more manageable and attainable to many people.

Eliminating debt is a big aspect of financial success and happiness. Budgeting and planning is the most effective way to start chipping away at debt. You can find a lot of wonderful and manageable tips on eliminating debt through a wide variety of books and programs. On a very minimal salary, I paid off tens of thousands of dollars of debt that I had acquired before I became a business owner. I was also able to use these techniques to improve my financial situation enough to purchase a home less than two years after I opened my business. There are many different approaches and theories for the best way to pay off debt and these techniques alone could be an entire series of articles.

Want quick suggestions? Create projections and plan accordingly. Don’t let your tax burden at the end of the year be a total surprise that results in scrambling to come up with the money. If you are a business owner, you are most likely required to pay taxes quarterly or monthly, as mentioned above. If you are an independent contractor, you should be planning for when you need to pay your taxes. Talk with an accountant, SCORE mentor, tax advisor, or other professional who can help you figure out how to project your estimated taxes and how to measure the projections throughout the year.

The big finale to this article is a very long and daunting subject that would need much more time to cover extensively. Thankfully, you can attend a course at the 22nd annual APP Conference this year on the subject: “Do Piercers get to Retire? Financial Planning 101 for our Industry.” Retirement planning is crucial in an industry that does not have retirement plans offered commonly as a benefit. I hope to see that change in the future and personally have retirement plans for my studio staff written into my ten year business plan. However, until the industry starts offering retirement plans, it is up to each of us individually to plan for our retirement. I encourage you to sit down with a financial advisor and talk with them about how you can get started investing in your future.

There are plenty of resources available to help you come up with a financially successful plan, including a plethora of information on the internet, investing and financial planning classes, countless books and programs, and various business professionals. Talk with friends and colleagues as well, maybe they have some great ideas and insight that you can adapt. It is never too early to start working towards a brighter financial future!