Personal Stuff

I just received this message from a FaceBook Friend, and it is also about my better half (my husband, Buck Angel):

I just found Buck and looked at his site and really love what he is doing for the industry he is in :) Now you are both on my 'most liked and inspirational people' list. You are both huge inspirations for so many people and you are both comfortable being who you are and doing what you do. I love what you are both doing, it is absolutely amazing!

I couldn't add him as a friend because he has too many friend requests but just let him know that even though i am not transgender i still respect that he has been so open about who he is as a person and i may even buy one of his movies as i have always been curious about trangenders and alike, if i can find somewhere over here that sells them :) The movie which has Buck in it and a MTF(?) sounds very appealing to me.

Sorry if i have any of the terminology wrong too, i'm not trying to be disrespectful or anything if i have the terms wrong :(
My best for the future to you both and keep doing what you both do best.

Emily

P.S i loved the 'public cervix announcement' video so much!

I told Emily that I appreciate her kind words of support and appreciation! I also let her know not to worry about the terminiology; she haven't misused it or been at all offensive.

I'm really excited because I've been asked to speak to doctors and nurses at LSU Public Hospital in New Orleans during my upcoming visit there this summer.

On August 3, I'll be doing a lecture with a PowerPoint presentation. The title is "Sociocultural and Healthcare Implications of Body Piercing." It is a kind of stuffy name, but I think it will be very useful to professionals who work in medical settings. It will help them understand who gets pierced and why--and hopefully increase their sensitivity to pierced patients, especially if they have any negative attitudes or preconceived notions about us. I'll also be providing practical information for those who work with pierced patients, especially in the Emergency Room and Operating Room.

It is free to hospital employees, but the public can attend for $10.00. Here's some info including a sign up form.

It's finally here! The long-awaited website redesign that I've been dreaming about for so long. Huge thanks to Rich Rudzinski of Tragic Media for doing a great job and being patient with me while I asked a million questions. The site is done in Drupal, which is new to me, so please bear with me as I make the necessary corrections. I'm aware that the images from previous blog posts didn't get imported with the text, so I'm working on that. Thanks for your patience.

Feel free to let me know how you like the new design, and if you have any comments, suggestions, or corrections email me.

The design for my website www.piercingbible.com is just about to be updated, and that's surely for the best. But, one slightly sad (but unavoidable) thing that is that my old Guestbook will be no more, and the posts will be unavailable. Some related good news is that all of my previous blog posts will still be available in the archives on the updated site. So, I've decided to make a blog post "Best of the Guestbook" to preserve some of the entries. Here we go!

The Board of Directors for the Association of Professional Piercers met at my home in the Yucatan of Mexico this week (they left yesterday). We had a very productive meeting. One important task that got accomplished is that the new brochures I wrote for the organization have been posted on the Association of Professional Piercers website. Here's the link to one on Jewelry for Initial Piercings, and the other on Jewelry for Healed Piercings. This is material that was never previously available from the APP. You can download a .pdf file of all of the available pamphlets. It is so great to have brochures in print form, too. They can be purchased from the APP office. From the APP website:

It has been quite some time since I posted as I was on the road without internet access. I had a fantastic trip to Milan, Italy where I taught a 3-hour course on oro-facial anatomy and basic piercing at the APTPI Congress. The audience was comprised primarily of piercers from Italy, though there were individuals from other countries as well. I taught the class (which included a PowerPoint presentation containing over 250 slides, and video of me performing piercings) in English. They provided professional interpreters and the audience listened to the translation on headphones. It was really cool, but I had a little bit of stress while we tried three different computers and couldn't get my PowerPoint to play. Finally they got it working. Whew! While in Milan I had the pleasure of visiting the Duomo, which was incredible. (Photos below.) The host hotel was great, but it was located a little bit outside the city, so we didn't get to see much of Milan while there. Bethra Szumski was my travel companion. She is the owner of Virtue and Vice in Atlanta, Georgia; and Pain and Wonder in Athens, Georgia. She's also the secretary for the Association of Professional Piercers, and she taught a class in Grounding and Bedside Manner. Following the conference we caught a ride with some friends from Slovenia and went for a visit in their home town of Koper. We had an incredible whirlwind trip and they showed us Piran, a beautiful old beach town on the Adriatic Sea, and also gigantic caves in Postojna, Slovenia.

I'm finishing up the PowerPoint presentation I'm going to be giving in Milan next month at the APTPI (Association of Professional Italian Piercers and Tattooists) conference. It will be a 3-hour class on oro-facial anatomy and piercings, and I'll be covering LOTS of specifics and details. The Conference is for individuals who are already piercers, but apparently some of them need a great deal of basic information, so I'll be supplying it. At the moment it contains 254 slides, but I have to run through it now and see how long it takes to present them. I'm excited, though nervous about the cold weather. It is snowing there right now!

I was out of town for the past week in Mexico City for the Association of Professional Piercers Seminars. It was the 4th annual seminar there, but the first one that I attended. Following the seminars, the Board of Directors had a meeting. It was a great trip and I really enjoyed Mexico City. I taught two classes there and participated in a round table discussion on piercing techniques (forceps vs. freehand). The first class was on Male Genital piercings and my co-instructor, Danny Yerna, led the class. I'd created a PowerPoint presentation for the class, and he and I had translated it into Spanish. I'm super excited and proud that I led the second class on Female Genital Piercings, and it was the first time I've ever taught a seminar in Spanish. I know my vocabulary is pretty good, but having learned from immersion (rather than in a classroom), my verbs are not conjugated properly, and I'm lacking a lot of the small connective words. But the important part is that the students said that I was clear and easy to understand. I'd sent 20 copies of The Piercing Bible to Mexico City, but between the shipping costs and duties that had to be paid, the cost came out higher than the cover price! Still, Danny (the APP International Liaison who organized the seminars and owns a studio in Mexico City) had sold them all before I even arrived! I wish I had a Spanish language version, as I know it would have sold very well there. Hopefully someday there will be versions in multiple languages!