Category Issues

Point 79: From the Editor – Marina Pecorino

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Marina Pecorino
Managing Editor of Content & Statistics

Conference is coming!

It happened last year and it’ll happen next, but each year is a unique opportunity to meet new colleagues, share information, and purchase some of the best body jewelry available. Personally, this year, I’m most looking forward to the in-person support I get from my industry tribe and the volunteer family.

As we prepare for that life changing week, here are a few updates and things to you may want to consider:

  • Register for your preferred schedule— Classes are already filling up and the wait list system has been activated. The sooner you register the better your chance of getting all the classes you want.
  • Book your hotel room—We strongly encourage you to book in the APP Room Block. You’ll be closer to the excitement. Resort fees will be optional (covering in-room wifi and fitness center access), so you can choose to have more moola to spend on pretties in the Expo. And to top it off, you’ll be helping the APP maintain our privileges and position at Bally’s.
  • Alternatives to the Bar (A.T.T.B) are new this year!—For many of us, the Splash Bar can become tiresome, but we still want the opportunity to network and hang out, sans cigarette smoke and drunk shenanigans, please. Now you have more options; games in the lounge, Statim discussions with Brian Skellie, an after-hours Talk APP session, and a Body Piercing Archives pajama movie night! Check the Conference mobile app for more information.
  • Opening Pool Party Upgrade—This year, head over to the beautifully updated Go  Pool at the Flamingo Hotel across the street. Also new for this year, there will be a strictly enforced wristband policy for the pool party. You’ll find your wristband in your registration packet, so please remember to grab   it when you don that Speedo.
  • Conference mobile app—This year, along with the handy maps, schedules, and speaker information in our Conference mobile app, you’ll also find a fun new game. Play “Click” to win prizes through a photo scavenger hunt designed to get you to network and socialize. This is an especially handy addition for new attendees and those of us who favor the shy side.

Still feeling unprepared or have questions? Our ever-evolving checklist of don’t forgets and survival tips has become a staple reference guide for Conference goers. If you’re ready for a reminder, check out this checklist/ survival guide from Issue 71.

Shifting gears to non-Conference news,

Kendra, Jim, and I are very happy to announce two new additions to The Point team. We would like to welcome Ryan Clark and Badur Ramji to The Point committee. Ryan’s experience with editing and InDesign are already proving useful in the final stages of our publication processes. We will be utilizing Badur’s expertise in social media and web management to further engage our readership and develop the publication’s online presence. If you have ideas for any of us or just want to welcome our new committee members, please send an email to editor@safepiercing.org.

All of that said, start drinking your water and taking your vitamins now; I can’t wait to see you all in Las Vegas in a few short weeks!

Point 78: Fundraising for the BPA – Gene Gowan

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My name is Gene Gowen. I am a proud Member of the Association of Professional Piercers  and the Manager for Oculo Visitant Gallery, located in Oneonta, NY.  Oculo is a sister studio to Hand Of Glory Tattoo and The End Is Near Body Piercing in Brooklyn, NY.

Like the rest of our membership, my first introduction to the Body Piercing Archive was during the 2015 APP Conference. I spent that week attending classes and the jewelry exposition. However, I continually found myself filling my free time wandering around the BPA exhibit. The Sailor Sid collection – as well as the entire BPA display that year – was a great place for us all to gain a very important historical perspective on the work we do. It was also an incredible expression and display showing our industry’s gratitude for the work, efforts, and struggles of those who did so much to pave the way for the rest of us.

Every time I visited the BPA exhibit that week, I saw the importance and purpose for an official archive. While sitting in the Member’s Meeting, and after talking with Paul King, I began to understand the challenges this fledgling non-profit organization would face, even falling under the umbrella of the APP.  Not knowing what, if anything I could do to contribute, I hesitated to volunteer.  After a week of pondering the idea I finally mustered up the courage to ask Paul if there was anything I could do to help the efforts for the Archive. After many conversations back and forth I am proud to announce that I am now responsible for generating fundraising items, to be used on behalf of the Body Piercing Archive.

I spent the remainder of 2015 and the first few months of 2016 working on gathering items that we could use in our fundraising. The idea was simply to create something that would be historically relevant to our industry, while still being something that the  average Conference attendee would be interested in and be able to afford.

Our first tangible  products were a series of memory quilts, bags, and cases. To make these items, we used shirts from piercing studios, jewelry manufacturers, and past Conferences that had been collected or donated. These items were made in a collaborative effort between my mother and myself. This project became a way to contribute to the APP and also a way for my mother and I to work together on something.  These were presented at the 21st APP Conference in July of 2016.

As the 2016 Conference drew to a close, I once again approached Paul King. This time to ask if I could continue to generate fundraising donations for the BPA. He was kind enough to not only allow me to continue my work, but also invited me to become a permanent committee member for the Body Piercing Archive.

I am so proud to serve as the current Fundraising Coordinator for the Body Piercing Archives Committee. As we approach the 2017 Conference, I am once again back to work on our fundraising projects. Just as with last year’s donations, I will be using iconic shirts from within our industry as the source material for our fundraising items, but this time I’ll be doing things a little differently. Throughout the inevitable new evolution of the BPA our fundraising efforts, and our end goal remains the same; the best way to honor our past is to never forget it! Where we come from has its place in our world today and we will continue to collect, celebrate, and share this collective history. Always remembering that where we came from, has its place in our world today!

 

Point 78: BPA: Silver Anchor – Shawn Porter

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Editor’s Note: This article was compiled by Kendra Jane Berndt from existing sources written by Shawn Porter. In addition to writing for Modblog, Shawn also edits the Scarwars site, the more frequently updated Occult Vibrations tattoo blog as well as his personal diary at Sacred Debris. Without his collection of writings, photographs, and personal accounts much of the history of body piercing would not be documented and archived as it currently is. I would like to thank Shawn for his continued work, as I was only able to compile the following information because of his work.

Zephyrhills, Florida was first incorporated as a city in 1914. According to the 2000 Census it was home to 10,833 residents, many of whom were over 65 and retired. It’s close to Tampa and to my hometown of Plant City, and can boast to being the birthplace of several famous NASCAR drivers, an American Idol finalist, and notorious Ghoul Carl Tanzier.

It was also, for a few years at least, the Body Modification capital of the world.

Far from the cultural meccas of the West Coast, Zephryhills was where advanced body modification pioneer Mr. Jay (Jack Yount) settled after his wife passed away and he retired from American Standard Plumbing, where his only full apprentice Mike Natali lived and where famed ‘Modification Doctor’ Ronald Brown made frequent visits for underground surgery. It  was also the home base of Big Ed Fenster and the Silver Anchor Body Jewelry Company.

At the time finding body piercing jewelry was no easy task. In the 1980s and early 1990s manufacturing companies were few and far between. It was not available at every mall or website, and most tattoo shops didn’t have piercers to buy it from/install it for you. The Gauntlet, Spain’s Customs, Pleasurable Piercing, The Good Art Company, Toucan for gold, Wildcat in the UK, and Fenster’s Silver Anchor were the big names at the time. Pre-internet. Some had catalogs while others had stapled and xeroxed price sheets, included with your order. When I first started buying from Silver Anchor they didn’t even have a retail price list since they only served wholesale clients. Big Ed Fenster – a nudist, swinger, and friend of both Jack and Sailor Sid Diller – owned the business. Silver Anchor shared its name with Sid’s Ft. Lauderdale tattoo studio and was located in a small house that served as the office and Ed’s living quarters. There were a few satellite trailers where the jewelry was manufactured.

A jeweler at Silver Anchor, circa 1980s.

Twenty something years later I still contend that Silver Anchor produced the finest quality body jewelry of all of the companies that were around back then. Open to interpretation I know, but during their “good years” with Mike Natali as GM and his partner Chuck as shop manager they put out top notch large gauge jewelry that had a mirror finish that I’ve never seen rivaled. Chuck was one of the few jewelers who, by hand, could produce a ring for a P.A. in 1/2” stock with an inner diameter of 1/2” with a threaded 5/8” ball that fit perfectly. Sure, some of their output would make a devoted APP acolyte cringe; the 00g externally threaded barbells I had made as a present to myself on my 17th birthday would likely cause a panic, but the threads were buffed for easy insertion and years later when I finally gifted them to a friend they had retained a perfect finish.

In my time visiting the shop – with Jack at first and then later to spend time with Mike and Chuck – it was always an adventure. My brother and I would meet up with Brian Skellie, Kevin Covella, and Rob Moore, maybe pack a few orders (when I first started going I was 16) and be in awe that we finally found people who ‘got’ it. Sometimes we’d continue on to Jack’s house and document a modification procedure, meet some of his out of town friends, or just sit in the pool or hot tub and enjoy the company. The shift was taking place quickly from an older gay demographic to younger people who were taking on modification as a culture and not a kink and Jack was grooming us to help bridge the gap. Visits to Silver Anchor had them asking us questions about making ‘earlets’ since more people were stretching their lobes and despite having made custom 1/2 question mark shaped nipple jewelry they had never seen a stretched earlobe before mine.

You have to appreciate dealing with Ed – whose entire history was with piercing as a sexual thing being able to make some of the most complicated “u-tubes” imaginable, but being completely vexed by the mechanics of a plug for stretched ear lobes. U-tubes were urethra tubes, which later went on to be universally referred to as ‘Prince’s Wands’ and Ed specialized in them. I remember sitting at the desk one day packing orders and seeing this MONSTER of a tube in his inbox (back when the inbox was actually a box and not an email account) that he had made for himself. At the thickest it was a full 5/8″ with 1″ balls and 4g posts for his apadravya. I remember thinking that it looked more like a billy club than a dick accessory. Ed looked at me sheepishly and said “my girlfriend likes me to wear this when I fuck her.”

Emil Gundelach, Big Ed Fenster, and Mev Chapman (seated)

Ultimately, under Mike’s direction Silver Anchor became a powerhouse of a company. At the time it was a seller’s market, and with body jewelry being as rare as it was, paying over $20 wholesale for a 12g ring wasn’t uncommon. When things got too big the stresses started to appear and eventually Mike and his partner moved on to start Bravo! Body Jewelry. Several of the jewelers Ed had hired did the same, and before long over saturation of a niche product flooded a small area. Tattoo shops started selling body jewelry. Tampa, the nearest major city to Zephryhills, saw a piercing only shop open under the name of Leather Tiger – that’s a story in and of itself, with a ‘head piercer’ who had to have PFIQ’s “Pierce with a Pro” open when he’d do a piercing. Once Jack Yount passed away things mostly fell apart.

In time Silver Anchor closed it’s doors. I’m not sure what happened to it’s back stock or employees. I’m not even sure what happened to Ed Fenster. But I still have a handful of my Silver Anchor jewelry in their original bags that I keep for old times’ sakes.

Here’s a video featuring Ed (with very little clothing, sterile or aseptic technique, or gloves – remember when it was filmed) that I posted on Modblog back in 2008. It’ll hopefully give you a glimpse into the sexual nature of pre-1990s body piercing/modification.

It must have been about 1991 when I first met Mike Natali; two decades later and we’ve taken to calling our first meeting ‘guiche day’ as both of us were at Jack Yount’s Zephyrhills, Florida house to have ours pierced when we were introduced and became fast friends. Mike became an older brother/uncle figure to my brother and I. Under his leadership, Ed Fenster’s Silver Anchor body jewelry company experienced massive growth and his own Bravo! Body Jewelry set a high bar for the companies that followed.

In late August I traveled down to Tampa to reconnect with Mike and to record an oral history with him about his introduction to Jack and Ed Fenster, his time at SA and Bravo and his career as a body piercer. The videos need to be edited and a transcript made, but it was really great to spend the afternoon with him and get his story told.

Editor’s note: When I spoke with Shawn in February of 2017, these items still required transcribing.

Point 78: Legislative Update – Christina Shull

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In the last three months, following the debut of the Legislation and Regulatory Affairs Committee column in Issue 77 of The Point, there have not been many new actions to report. For many states, very little happens on a regulatory level at the beginning and end of the calendar year. This tends to be a time when many government agencies are winding down their fiscal year and budgeting tends to be tight. The end of the year is also a time when scheduling issues frequently arise due to federally observed holidays between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.

While the Legislation and Regulatory Affairs Committee has not been very active assisting with new regulations or legislation recently, the timing worked out well with our Committee Chair, Steve Joyner having knee surgery in November. If there was ever a good time to be out of commission, a slower time for the committee is probably as good a time as it could get. Luckily, Steve’s surgery went well and he’s back in action! However, please note that while new regulations and legislation have been sparse these last few months, some of our committee members have ongoing regular involvement in Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO) and National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) projects which were both discussed at greater length in the previous column.

Some members of the Legislation and Regulatory Affairs Committee have been using the slow season to work on a substantial and exciting project. Over the last several months, “save the date” postcards for the 2017 APP Conference were sent to various health department officials in the hopes of generating interest before state budgets were finalized. The APP offers a free Conference pass (with the exception of the “piercer only” classes) to health department officials who book in the APP room block. A printable copy of this postcard has been included. Feel free to share it with your local health department officials. With our recent outreach efforts and your help, we hope to increase the attendance of these officials at future Conferences.

Now that we are a few months into 2017, legislation is starting to picking up momentum. Work has begun with a new state, in addition to the states and countries that we have been in touch with previously. If you know of regulations or legislation being added or reworked in your area, please contact us at legislation@safepiercing.org.

Point 78: Confessions of a Funeral Director – Angie van Dijken

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While I was growing up, my parents started their own funeral business. My dad was a sacristan and had several jobs to make it happen. In those times, we were stereotyped as crows who wore top hats and long, black frocks. My mom was the one with all the necessary licensing and qualifications, but she wasn’t allowed to perform funerals. The industry was accustomed to funeral directors being men, so initially my mother worked mostly behind the scenes. In this farmer’s region, change is not accepted quickly. Being the first female funeral director in the area, it was difficult for my mother to prove herself to others in the funeral business locally. We were viewed as the competition, rather than colleagues or friends. As an example, a group of pallbearers were shared between several undertakers; we were often last when it came to planning. As a result, we were often short on people when pallbearers were needed. It was a constant struggle and respect was not easily earned. Yet, my parents persevered and built a name for themselves in the region.


As a kid, I always helped out after school to earn extra allowance, so I already knew the ropes. When my parents expanded the business with a new hearse, my dad asked me to become the driver. At the time, I had no formal education and was working as a bartender; I took his offer. Despite my past involvement with the industry, I had to prove myself to the men who drove hearses for other directors, similar to what my mother had to do. As a young woman in the role normally assumed by men, I worked hard to earn that respect. They saw how well I could handle the car – I could turn, twist it in any corner or small road. The competition was still intense between funeral directors. No one would offer any guidance, and even though people are free to choose their funeral homes, if rival directors noticed you were encroaching on their territory they would go so far as to slander you to potential clients.

After over eighteen years of working as a licensed care and body restorator and manager of the company, when the time came my brother and I didn’t want to take over the business. We grew up in the field, but it was never the career either of us would have chosen. We stayed at our jobs until our mother retired in 2012. In preparation for her retirement, I started to seek a new career path and began an apprenticeship at a local tattoo shop in 2010. Tattoos and piercings always inspired me. Even though I had to hide my body art, I loved having it and always dreamt about owning my own shop. It might be weird to say considering my previous line of work, but I guess I have always had an interested in working with bodies.

So I started to seek and absorb every piece of information that I could find on piercing in an attempt to gain as much knowledge about it as possible. I quickly established that I couldn’t find much about it in Holland. Thankfully, the world seems a whole lot smaller thanks to things like the internet and Facebook. I started to read all kinds of educational forums and websites, as well as befriend other piercers via social media. The longer I dug around, the more amazed I became in regards to this industry. Colleagues have been very friendly, taking time to answer any questions I have. I’ve sent countless messages through Facebook and gotten many helpful answers from so many people. I was nervous to attend my first BMXnet Conference because I didn’t know anyone, but again, people were friendly and caring, right from the start. Piercers are genuinely interested in you and open for a conversation, which is so much different than what I was used to from the funeral industry.

After almost seven years of piercing, meeting many more people, and learning what they all do to help the industry, I’m still impressed by it. Colleagues work together, educate each other, and share information, no matter who you are. Whether you’re just getting started or you’ve been a piercer for years, there’s always someone that will cheer for you or push you harder to reach your goals. In our industry, people will make you feel at home while reminding you that if you stand still, you don’t get anywhere. If you really want to get somewhere you need to work hard and fight for it. However, most piercers understand that it’s a whole lot easier if you have help. I know there are many different industries out there and competition can be hard, but after comparing my experiences in these industries, I’m happy and proud to be a piercer!

 

Point 78: Update from the Secretary – Aaron Pollack

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This has been an exciting year so far for the APP. First off, thank you to everyone who participated in our 2016-17 Elections. These elections were to fill four positions on the Board of Directors. Steve Joyner, Jef Saunders, and Cody Vaughn will all be returning for second terms on the Board. Brian Skellie will be joining the Board at the conclusion of Conference 2017. Congratulations!


Camp APP hosted a great group discussion on the potential to add rose gold to the initial piercing jewelry standard for Membership. After discussion with APP Members, past board members, and jewelry manufacturers, the Board voted to include the following in the Initial Piercing Jewelry Standard for Membership:

“Gold (yellow, white, or rose) is appropriate for initial piercings if it is solid 14k or 18k, alloyed for biocompatibility, and free from nickel or cadmium. Gold higher than 18k is too soft for body jewelry because it can easily be scratched or nicked. Gold lower than 14k, gold plated, gold-filled, or gold overlay/vermeil jewelry is not acceptable for fresh piercings.”

Registration is now open for the 22nd annual APP Conference & Exposition! Check your email for your invite, or through our website at www.safepiercing.org to get registered.

Point 78: Piercing Statistics – James Weber

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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

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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.