When I Was Young...
When I was young, I never imagined in a million years that not only would I HAVE piercings, but that' I'd BECOME a body piercer.
Nearly 5 years out of my apprenticeship now (I have problems updating other sites and pages... some say 2 1/2, others say 3 1/2ish, but I looked today and realized that my first certificates read 2001), I'm amazed at how far the industry has come and how much I learn each year, too. It's an ongoing process and an ever-changing industry, so I'm always learning something new.
But what have I learned that's new this week?
People can be absolute morons.
Ok, I've ranted some about this in my other blog (the more public one on MySpace for my friends who know me personally), but there are people out there that specifically ask for advice, only to take advice from a 14 yr old that has no piercings or tattoos and knows nothing about medicine. As I said in the other blog, just because your friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend-who's-cousin's girlfriend's-best-friend happened to heal her piercing with a piece of dog shit, doesn't mean that it will work for everyone.
Onto other new things I've learned. Piercing is a complete popularity game. It doesn't matter one rat's ass how much you actually know, if you're popular and charge less (a result usually of inferior quality jewelry and piercer's that simply aren't knowlegeable), you'll get more customers. You'll have a lot of pissed off customers because of your jewelry and lack of knowledge, but you'll have more customers overall.
How did I learn this? The local shop that claims it's the "best in Northern California" while their piercings cost them a TOTAL of $ 0.19 each. Their piercings include:
We then went into business for ourselves. It took a little over a year to get up to standards with internally threaded jewelry, but the ENTIRE time, we were using 316lvm jewelry (medical grade). Right after we got up to standards, we hit a small speedbump and decided to each go our separate ways to attempt to catch up with bills.
Those bills STILL aren't paid off (hell, this may be where I insert "BANKRUPTCY" here), and I'm back from my wonderful job (that I should have kept) in Hollywood only to be sitting on my ass day in and day out, twiddling my thumbs and playing solitaire on the shop computer at "The Morgue." Hell, if I had internet there, at least I could be making some money while I'm at work, instead, I'm spending to be there. I can HEAR MYSELF going broke.
Pathetic.
As each day passes, I think more and more about moving back to Hollywood, even despite the fact that my family would be up here instead of down there.
Why-oh-why did I move home before the bills were paid? And WHY won't Cryptkeeper get it through his skinny little skull that we're not going anywhere without advertising? Oh... and today, his radio bitch didn't even bother mentioning our shop in her dinky little radio show.
It's not like anyone's listening anyway.
Back to eBaying this evening... at least I'll make a buck or two on THAT.
Yeah, in my spare time.
Nearly 5 years out of my apprenticeship now (I have problems updating other sites and pages... some say 2 1/2, others say 3 1/2ish, but I looked today and realized that my first certificates read 2001), I'm amazed at how far the industry has come and how much I learn each year, too. It's an ongoing process and an ever-changing industry, so I'm always learning something new.
But what have I learned that's new this week?
People can be absolute morons.
Ok, I've ranted some about this in my other blog (the more public one on MySpace for my friends who know me personally), but there are people out there that specifically ask for advice, only to take advice from a 14 yr old that has no piercings or tattoos and knows nothing about medicine. As I said in the other blog, just because your friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend-who's-cousin's girlfriend's-best-friend happened to heal her piercing with a piece of dog shit, doesn't mean that it will work for everyone.
Onto other new things I've learned. Piercing is a complete popularity game. It doesn't matter one rat's ass how much you actually know, if you're popular and charge less (a result usually of inferior quality jewelry and piercer's that simply aren't knowlegeable), you'll get more customers. You'll have a lot of pissed off customers because of your jewelry and lack of knowledge, but you'll have more customers overall.
How did I learn this? The local shop that claims it's the "best in Northern California" while their piercings cost them a TOTAL of $ 0.19 each. Their piercings include:
- "SCOPE" as their mouthwash (you should actually be using an ANTISEPTIC and not just something to cover their bad breath).
- Cheap, Japanese needles that were actually meant for vet care (cheaply made, substandard, grey in color, and sometimes having burrs and barbs).
- Horrible "stainless" jewelry (that's NOT of medical grade, NOT vacuum molded, and not annealed. If it costs $ 0.13 or less, it should NOT be put in an initial piercing).
- ALCOHOL swabs for cleaning (holy crap, ever hear of Techni-care? It's cheap, goes a long way, and DOESN'T kill of healthy skin cells or burn!).
- Non-sterile piercing jewelry - QUOTE: "It's ok if it comes out of the case, it's all new and clean when it comes to us."
- Piercing with NOSE BONES. Just say NO. They're evil. Don't even use them if you've got a healed piercing... chances are, it won't be healed anymore after you attempt to take it out the first time.
We then went into business for ourselves. It took a little over a year to get up to standards with internally threaded jewelry, but the ENTIRE time, we were using 316lvm jewelry (medical grade). Right after we got up to standards, we hit a small speedbump and decided to each go our separate ways to attempt to catch up with bills.
Those bills STILL aren't paid off (hell, this may be where I insert "BANKRUPTCY" here), and I'm back from my wonderful job (that I should have kept) in Hollywood only to be sitting on my ass day in and day out, twiddling my thumbs and playing solitaire on the shop computer at "The Morgue." Hell, if I had internet there, at least I could be making some money while I'm at work, instead, I'm spending to be there. I can HEAR MYSELF going broke.
Pathetic.
As each day passes, I think more and more about moving back to Hollywood, even despite the fact that my family would be up here instead of down there.
Why-oh-why did I move home before the bills were paid? And WHY won't Cryptkeeper get it through his skinny little skull that we're not going anywhere without advertising? Oh... and today, his radio bitch didn't even bother mentioning our shop in her dinky little radio show.
It's not like anyone's listening anyway.
Back to eBaying this evening... at least I'll make a buck or two on THAT.
Yeah, in my spare time.
posted by Apparently Crazy at 8:55 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home