So, how'd YOU become a piercer?

OFF THE BEATEN CAREER PATH
Offering Body Piercing For the Faint-Hearted

By Vickie Elmer

Sunday, January 28, 2007

In nine years, Andy Scott has pierced eyebrows, necks, the bridge of
the nose, and dozens of belly buttons.

"I've done just about everything. . . . If you name it and think it's
unusual, I've done it," he says. These days, he works as the piercer
at Bethesda Tattoo Company. He got his start after he was with a
friend who fainted while getting pierced.

The piercer didn't do anything, so Scott jumped over the counter,
picked his friend up and helped him recover.

Grateful, the piercer offered him a job and on-the-job training. He
later took some first aid and CPR classes. (A handful of schools teach
piercing and tattooing, but apprenticeships are more common.)

He likes working with the varied people he meets. He said a piercer
needs to be a people person who is calm and focuses on cleanliness and
service.

The laid-back atmosphere of a tattoo parlor is also a plus. "You don't
have a boss breathing down back of your neck," he said. Yet he
dislikes slow days, when he may have only one customer. Because he's
paid a percentage of the income he generates, such days are not only
boring, they're costly. Other piercers rent space in shops and pocket
the rest. Scott says he makes a good living - he owns a condo and says
he doesn't "like to live the cheap lifestyle."

He and others acknowledge that piercings have slowed from the busy-all-
the-time pace of a couple years ago. Yet he's convinced there are new
customers just waiting to be old enough.

There's still one drawback to the job, though: About every other
month, a customer will faint. /From http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2007/01/27/AR2007012700457.html

I worked at a comic book store for several years and there was one
customer who was a diehard Punisher fan. That Marvel character is
known for his toughness and skill with weapons.

The aforementioned X-treme Punisher fan who was maybe 12 years old and
a friend entered the store and I noticed that he had a new ear
piercing - his first ear piercing, iirc. I commented on the new
jewelry and asked the ultimate bodyart question: "So, did it hurt?"
The Punisher fan replied casually with something like, "Naaah."

"No?!!!" his friend exclaimed, "YOU FAINTED!"

Beauty.

I've fainted as well (not from a piercing, but still), so didn't give
the kid any grief. Nevertheless, it makes for a humorous memory.

And I just thought of another post that I offered to RAB some time
back. Of the father who fainted after a tattoo session, fell into a
glass display case causing his death.

Hey, Kavvy, now THERE's some bad for ya.

--
Curt

"Curt" <curtja...@gmail.com> wrote:
> OFF THE BEATEN CAREER PATH
> Offering Body Piercing For the Faint-Hearted
>
> By Vickie Elmer
>
> Sunday, January 28, 2007
>
> In nine years, Andy Scott has pierced eyebrows, necks, the bridge of
> the nose, and dozens of belly buttons.
>
> "I've done just about everything. . . . If you name it and think it's
> unusual, I've done it," he says. These days, he works as the piercer
> at Bethesda Tattoo Company. He got his start after he was with a
> friend who fainted while getting pierced.
>
> The piercer didn't do anything, so Scott jumped over the counter,
> picked his friend up and helped him recover.
>
> Grateful, the piercer offered him a job and on-the-job training. He
> later took some first aid and CPR classes. (A handful of schools teach
> piercing and tattooing, but apprenticeships are more common.)
>
> He likes working with the varied people he meets. He said a piercer
> needs to be a people person who is calm and focuses on cleanliness and
> service.
>
> The laid-back atmosphere of a tattoo parlor is also a plus. "You don't
> have a boss breathing down back of your neck," he said. Yet he
> dislikes slow days, when he may have only one customer. Because he's
> paid a percentage of the income he generates, such days are not only
> boring, they're costly. Other piercers rent space in shops and pocket
> the rest. Scott says he makes a good living - he owns a condo and says
> he doesn't "like to live the cheap lifestyle."
>
> He and others acknowledge that piercings have slowed from the busy-all-
> the-time pace of a couple years ago. Yet he's convinced there are new
> customers just waiting to be old enough.
>
> There's still one drawback to the job, though: About every other
> month, a customer will faint. /Fromhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
> dyn/content/article/2007/01/27/AR2007012700457.html

http://tinyurl.com/2qs93c

> I worked at a comic book store for several years and there was one
> customer who was a diehard Punisher fan. That Marvel character is
> known for his toughness and skill with weapons.
>
> The aforementioned X-treme Punisher fan who was maybe 12 years old and
> a friend entered the store and I noticed that he had a new ear
> piercing - his first ear piercing, iirc. I commented on the new
> jewelry and asked the ultimate bodyart question: "So, did it hurt?"
> The Punisher fan replied casually with something like, "Naaah."
>
> "No?!!!" his friend exclaimed, "YOU FAINTED!"
>
> Beauty.
>
> I've fainted as well (not from a piercing, but still), so didn't give
> the kid any grief. Nevertheless, it makes for a humorous memory.

[...]

--
Curt