Posts tagged Michaela Grey

Point 83: Point of View

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EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN

Left: A carnival or
circus performer from the 1890s
The amazing Mr. Lifto performing with the Jim Rose Circus.

Remember grandma’s junk that you couldn’t give away ten years ago and ended up sending to the Salvation Army or the dump? Just look at the prices they’re charging for it now that it’s become “collectable.”

Some of us who are a little older may even have seen a revival in popularity of the fads and fashions of our youth. Anyone for disco, bell bottoms, platform shoes, lava lamps, mood rings?

There are a lot of things in life like that somehow come full circle. Assuming you live long enough, it’s bound to happen to you too.

Piercing as a performance medium isn’t anything all that new, come to think of it. Just how many hundreds of years have Indian sadhus been working some dusty street corner, a skewer through their cheeks or hooks in their flesh, begging a few coins from passersby?

While today’s performers may not be doing anything new, there can be no doubt as to the great range and variety of imaginative ways in which they are incorporating piercing into their acts.

Some of this issue’s featured performers use their piercings to perform amazing feats of strength or endurance to entertain and astonish their audience. Take, for instance, the Torture King or Mr. Lifto (shown here). This tradition has roots among traveling circus sideshow acts: human and animal freaks, fire eating (see Chuk’s story in this issue), and sword swallowing, to name a few. In this type of performance, the body and its limits tell the whole story. We are compelled to watch these variations on the human condition, to find bits of ourselves in the “Other.”

Piercing as metaphor is often used in more high-concept performance art. Stelarc, Orlan, and David Wojnarowich are among the many high-profile artists who make statements using temporary piercings and/or body alterations. In this issue Justin Chin explores the notion of immunity and transmissible diseases by “infecting” himself with his own blood. Dave Tavacol gives us a glimpse into an unpleasant but not so far-fetched future, putting a piercing-related twist on cultural disapproval suggestive of The Scarlet Letter.

As many of us know, piercings can project one into an altered state of consciousness. The feats of Amazonian shamans, Indian fakirs and sadhus, and the grand spectacle of a tribal rite of passage all bear historical testimony to this tradition. Mr. Fab is one of a growing number of exponents of the neotribal performance path, using piercings to share these ancient experiences with the audience.

Drag queens are some of the most elaborate performers of all, using familiar paraphernalia to subvert our comfortable understanding of culture, gender roles, and socially acceptable behavior in a theater of the absurd. As Trauma Flintstone, Cirus, Mark Pritchard, and Fennel explain, piercing can be one more theatrical prop. Fennel’s performances play out a particularly astute perspective on a common breed of nihilistic club performance currently much in vogue. In classic drag oneupmanship, he gets even by beating them at their own game.

Many of the performance artists who appear in this issue have been a part of the Ron Athey show. These include Crystal Cross, Julie Tolentino Wood, Marina Vain (Spike), and Paul King. They utilize piercing as metaphor, crude spectacle, punishing absurdity, powerful, bitter humor, and panache to make strong statements about AIDS, gender, homosexuality, religion (especially Christianity), fetishism, and outsider status. Their ever-expanding international audience bears testimony to the fact that piercing and performance are a naturally matched pair, centuries old and yet still fresh, with the power to move the viewer to another state of awareness.

—Michaela Grey & Jim Ward

Point 82: Michaela Grey

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By Marina Pecorino, Point Editor

Michaela Grey in 1995. The photo was taken for PFIQ Issue 45 commemorating Gauntlet’s 20th Anniversary

Obviously, Jim Ward is widely regarded as the “father” of the modern, American piercing movement, but who is considered the mother? In my personal opinion, that  honorary title should go to Michaela Grey. At a piercing clinic in New York, Michaela met Jim Ward; she was a student at Sarah Lawrence at the time. Prior to this meeting, Michaela and her then girlfriend were performing piercings out of their dorm room, but Jim made such an impression on Michaela that she decided to move to San Francisco and seek an apprenticeship. In May 1991, Michaela was hired as a summer counter person at Gauntlet, and soon advanced into an apprenticeship position under Scott Shatsky and Karen Hurt.

An excerpt from Running the Gauntlet:

“By 1993 the mass proliferation of body piercing studios staffed with inadequately trained piercers was causing grave concern with health departments and legislators. In some places there was talk of outlawing body piercing altogether. We at Gauntlet had tried repeatedly to get others in the industry to police and regulate themselves, but with minimal success. It became apparent that unless we banded together and became proactive, we could very well find ourselves out of business. We knew that if body piercing were made illegal, the only piercers continuing to operate would be doing so clandestinely, and piercing clients would be no better off than they already were.

Any Gauntlet Senior Piercer who wanted to get their Master Piercer certification was required to undertake a special project. Michaela was ready to make this advancement, and her special project, the magnitude of which we didn’t realize at the time, was to attempt to create a network of responsible studios willing to work together with healthcare professionals and legislators to set reasonable standards for the industry and regulate rather than outlaw it. This became so time consuming that friction developed between Michaela and her coworkers. The store manager wanted to fire her. […]

Despite her rough edges, it was apparent to me that Michaela had too many things going for her to simply turn her out in the street. So rather than abandon her I made the decision to mentor her and take her on at corporate as my assistant. This gave her the time and freedom to work on a number of projects, including what eventually became the Association of Professional Piercers (APP). […]

In 1994 the State of California was poised to pass legislation (Assembly Bill 3787) that would regulate body piercing, tattooing, and permanent cosmetics. A handful of piercers from several studios began to network and strategize how best to assure that these forms of body modification were not outlawed. Those who met at the Gauntlet corporate office for those early meetings included Raelyn Gallina, several representatives from Body Manipulations, Nomad, and Primeval Body in L.A. Along with some of his students, including Idexa, Fakir also attended. The office was full. As the pending legislation grew closer to passing, a group got together and drove to Sacramento. Michaela spoke on behalf of the industry during one of the hearings for the bill. She also did a number of television interviews. The bill ultimately failed thanks to lobbying by the ear-piercing gun manufacturers. However, this did not end the threats to the industry, and the need for a professional organization to deal with them.

The APP founding members, left to right, Irwin Kane (Gauntlet), Raelyn Gallina, Vaughn (Body Manipulations), Michaela Grey (Gauntlet), Melisa Kaye (Body Manipulations), Richard Carter (Primeval Body), JoAnn Wyman (Body Manipulations), Elizabeth Brassil (Body Manipulations), Drew Ward (Gauntlet); kneeling, Blake Perlingieri (Nomad), Kristian White (Nomad)

Future meetings were held after hoursat the Market Street store. From these the APP came into being. Not surprisingly, there was much wrangling, many heated discussions, and some friction. Some of those who attended left in a huff never to return or to come back many years later. Blake Perlingieri helped Michaela with registering the organization for nonprofit status, opening a joint bank account for the funds, and starting its newsletter The Point. With the assistance of Ghadi Elias from Mastodon in San Diego, APP moved forward and organized its first board.”

Michaela served as the original Chair (later retitled “President”) of the Association of Professional Piercers, starting from its inception in 1994 until she transitioned to the International Liaison in June 1997. During this transition of the Board, in The Point: Issue 10, Kent Fazekas, incoming Chair, wrote the following about her:

“Michaela Grey. Words cannot express the amount of gratitude the APP has for you. The amount of work you have put forth toward the APP is remarkable. As chairperson of the APP your workload is enormous, and I can only imagine the amount of time per day you donate to the APP (I may be finding out real soon). You have a very pure heart Michaela and your actions show that you truly believe in the APP’s mission. We love you Michaela.”

During the fledgling years of the organization, in addition to her APP Chair responsibilities, she worked diligently to produce early issues of The Point. She also served as the co-editor for PFIQ, helping to redirect its focus from male/leather, to a more female friendly perspective. In PFIQ #45, Michaela wrote the following:

I do not discern between the experience of being pierced, the healing process, and the completed, integrated adornment; they are wholistic and inter-relative. Being pierced is a natural extension of my need to create an intentional environment for myself–a world of spiritual completeness, practicality, and uniqueness. I fiercely intend not to live an unexamined, blind life.

I started at the San Francisco Gauntlet in 1991. Prior to that, I spent two years as one of those uneducated hack piercers against whom I now crusade. My current responsibilities as an educator and media disseminator put me in the position of being able to make a real difference in the piercing experiences of others, for whom I am grateful. Piercing and other body-affirming practices are becoming ever more popular in defiance of an increasingly depersonalizing world. I am proud to be one of those spreading this message.

Michaela worked closely with Jim Ward to develop a piercer training curriculum for Gauntlet and co-author  a  written  manual called Responsible Body Piercing in 1993; she later became the director and primary instructor for these seminars, with other Gauntlet piercers co-teaching.

In 1998, prior to the existence of the President’s Award, the Board dedicated the “Jack Yount Memorial Certificate of Recognition” to Michaela, for her efforts in promoting excellence in professional piercing.

The Jack Yount Award, 1998

Due to friction with others in the industry because of her so called “conservative” views, Michaela stepped away from body modification to pursue a career in graphic design and production art. Later she went back to school for costume design and graduated from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) in Los Angeles.

In 2005, the APP presented Michaela with a Lifetime Achievement award, stating that “her work to secure the stability of the [APP] in the early days were critical to its survival. Piercers have had the opportunity to speak to the regulations which govern them worldwide as a result of her efforts.” You can read more about this special award in  The Point: Issue 48.

This was originally intended to be an interview with Michaela Grey, but unfortunately, she declined the opportunity. She made it clear that she “left the industry due to gross persistent misogyny and disrespect for piercing’s history and elders” and as a result would prefer to keep her distance. Michaela is not alone in these feelings, and this underlying tone illustrates precisely why this issue of The Point is themed around the women in our industry, past and present.

From Brian Skellie:

Michaela knows that some of us commiserate with her for the rough times she had with APP, and how much I and many other people still hold her in high esteem. We should ensure our archive reflects Michaela with honor and respect as a person not just an integral past political figure. She worked tirelessly as an ally to our mission, no matter how uncomfortable or stressful it was. She took on so much in her role at 23 years old, put up with hard work and difficult debates along with the good, and much of it was thankless. Without Michaela, the APP could have just been a tiny, short lived CA endeavor. Thankfully she helped clear away some of the nonsense that gets in the way of the good work. There is much more to her personality and her work than the awards we gave her and back issues of The Point can illuminate.

We have kept in touch since her APP years. Michaela’s ever present wit shines in our interaction when I brought up the Archive and asked for her to reflect upon her involvement and share her ideas:

“Aside from the looming threat of ill-conceived legislation, I was forming the APP at the time I was running two Gauntlet piercer seminars a month. I observed a wide cross section of the piercers currently working, from folks I admired and respected to a lot of people I wouldn’t want piercing an apple juice carton with a straw. If I seemed excessively cautious it’s largely due to the truly scary folks I encountered in the seminars, and knowing that they represented a likely majority of the industry at the time (and sadly, probably still today).”

I believe her caution was sensible. She is skillfully self critical, and never needed my opinion or assistance. Some others at the time seemed to play the devil’s advocate and enjoy getting strong responses. This treatment of her efforts was lamentable. She should be remembered as a great gift to the trade. She saw video of the 20th Anniversary panel discussion and noted:

“I’m usually never thinking about that part of my life. It was very moving to see so many old cohorts gathered at that table to talk about the early days of the organization. All water under the bridge. I’m mostly pleasantly surprised. Allen’s mention of me was unexpected and got me a little misty. As he said, we butted heads often. It’s good to see that we both did it from love of the craft. It’s also interesting to see that some quandaries like “do we let crap jewelry manufacturers on the Expo floor” persist to the present day.”

Some companies have learned what it takes to make standard quality jewelry, and done well. Others still are dodging any light we shine on them, but we hope they will come around.

“I’m awed and humbled to see how the APP has grown. I’m also loving the international outreach! I have a number of the new Members from Mexico and Italy on my FB feed and it’s awesome to see it grow.”

Michaela with Jim Ward at the APP Banquet 2005 when she received the Lifetime Achievement Award

The Point – Issue 82

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Point 81: Profile of a Responsible Piercer

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The following excerpt is from Responsible Body Piercing, the Gauntlet seminar training manual written by Michaela Grey and Jim Ward and first published in 1995. Reissued in 2016, copies of this historic document are available from runningthegauntlet-book.com

AN INTRODUCTION

When Gauntlet first came into being in 1975, who would have imagined the phenomenal popularity body piercing would be enjoying less than 20 years later? In response to the huge demand, people calling themselves “piercers” have been springing up all over. From tattoo shops to beauty salons, almost every city and town now has at least one so-called piercer in residence. A few of them are good; some do poor piercings but are at least clean, and some are just plain dangerous.

Presumably you are reading this because you want to become a piercer yourself, and it is hoped that you wish to become a responsible piercer. We have chosen to call this manual Responsible Body Piercing, NOT Professional Body Piercing. It is very important for you to understand that NO ONE can make you into a professional after a short course of study, and, in fact, we make no such claims. Experience has proven it takes between a year and a half and two years of supervised training for someone with aptitude to become a fully-qualified piercer. Anyone who leads you to believe that you are ready to start a piercing business after taking a weekend seminar and doing a few piercings is dishonest, irresponsible, and unethical. Professional piercers, like good health care workers, good hair stylists, or any other professionals, are not created overnight. They must all train and practice under  the  supervision of someone with more knowledge and experience. In  time they will gain the skills and confidence  necessary  to   win the trust of their clients  and make the piercing experience as untraumatic and painless as possible.

So what if you won’t be a professional by the time you finish this book. What is far more important is for you to start right now to be a responsible piercer. We encourage you to learn and practice your craft in an ethical, responsible, and, yes, professional way. Form in your mind an image of the professional you wish to be, and in time you will become that image.

This training manual is intended to provide a broad overview of the world of piercing, to teach the fundamentals of sterilization and hygiene, and to help you begin developing a safe and solid technique. It is beyond the scope of this text to make you a good piercer. That can only come with aptitude, practice, time, and patience.

The information herein is based upon the combined experience of nearly 20 piercers over a period spanning almost 20 years. And while these techniques are used daily in Gauntlet’s establishments, our piercers constantly seek ways to refine and improve them.

We all know there is a vast difference between just being able to do something and being able to do it professionally and well. Becoming a professional, “master” piercer—a title rapidly becoming meaningless because it is so abused these days—requires more than learning some basic information and techniques. A true “master” piercer always acts responsibly, i.e. safely, knowledgeably, and professionally. These are the traits and qualities you should cultivate and strive to assimilate. Unless and until they have all become an integral part of your being, you cannot consider yourself a professional, much less a “master,” piercer.

THE KNOWLEDGEABLE PIERCER

No matter what profession you pursue you will have to gain whatever knowledge is unique to it. Piercing is no different. Here are some of the things you will be required to know:

  • The names and locations of the various traditional piercings.
  • The best jewelry designs and materials for each.
  • How to prepare and mark them.
  • The appropriate piercing tools and techniques for each.
  • Their healing times and appropriate aftercare.
  • When a particular piercing isn’t a good choice for a particular individual.
  • Sterilization from A to Z.
  • How to deal with people, gain their trust, put them at ease.

THE SAFE PIERCER

Without question safety is the single most important requirement of any piercer. You simply must not put your clients or yourself at risk in any way.

  • Sterilization and hygiene must be strictly observed.
  • Never do a piercing that could endanger the piercee or install a piece of jewelry that is not appropriate even though the client might want it.
  • Never use an ear piercing gun to pierce anything. Period!
  • Absolutely never do piercing under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Likewise never pierce anyone who is intoxicated.

THE PROFESSIONAL PIERCER

With a solid knowledge of one’s craft and safe techniques and procedures, it is possible to be an acceptable piercer. To be a truly professional, “master” piercer requires the highest standards of character and conduct, qualities that go beyond the basics.

  • A professional piercer is ethical and honest. It is very important not to pretend to be something you’re not. Your clientele deserves the truth. They have a right to know the extent of your training and experience. Studying this manual does not entitle anyone to claim that they are “Gauntlet-trained.”
  • Arrogance and a know-it-all attitude are incompatible with professionalism.
  • The quality of a piercer’s work has a definite correlation to their motivation to pierce. Just as a physician who becomes a doctor for the prestige and money will make a poor caregiver, the piercer who is in it for a quick buck, or because it’s “cool” will probably not be very good at it.
  • Piercing requires patience and a willingness to listen to the fears of a client and respond to those fears in a way that will allow that person to relax and enjoy the experience. Although a good piercer will not always be able to connect with a client, they should make every effort to try and make the experience as positive as possible, or, if that isn’t possible, refer the client to another piercer. Whenever you are going to pierce someone, you should ask yourself, “Is this how I would want to be treated? Would I be comfortable in this situation”? Nothing will drive away business faster than a bad experience with you. And word of mouth can be your best or worst advertising.

These then are some of the most basic requirements of a responsible, professional piercer. Let’s now begin to look at these in greater detail.