I received this message from a Facebook friend:

Hi Elayne i would like to learn body piercing. My problem being i have been round the local studios and no one will show me because i tattoo and most piercing is done in other tattoo studios i know you are in the states but thought you may have links or knowledge of some one in the north east of scotland. any advice or help would be much loved. Garry

My reply:

Hi Garry,

Have you read my book, The Piercing Bible--The Definitive Guide to Safe Body Piercing? There's a whole chapter in there on becoming a piercer. And there's a tremendous amount of information about all aspects of piercing that should be of interest to you if you are seeking a career in the field.

In a nutshell, apprenticeships that you pay for are usually about putting money in the pocket of the person training you (who often has very little skill him- or herself). I've never charged someone for an apprenticeship. I trained them (a process that takes between 1-2 years) and then I kept them on as apprentices. Unfortunately my studio closed after Hurricane Katrina and now I live in Mexico. I don't have a studio here.

After reading The Piercing Bible you will be extremely well educated about the subject, and in fact, you'll have a lot more information than some "professional" piercers who are practicing in the field! (But you will still not be trained to pierce without the guidance of an expert.)

Orders are being filled by the Association of Professional Piercers: http://www.safepiercing.org/publications/the-piercing-bible/

Email: [email protected]; they do ship internationally. I'm the Medical Liaison for the organization. The APP is a non-profit organization dedicated to disseminating vital health and safety information about piercing to piercers, piercees, medical professionals, legislators, and the general public. A portion of the proceeds from the book goes to the organization, and you will received a signed copy of my book.

Alternatively, you can get it from major booksellers, or Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1580911935?tag=buckangelcom-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=1580911935&adid=1EYKA9N6TT0ZJTGPADYC&

Also, if you'd like to see me performing piercings, and demonstrating exactly where they should be placed and how quickly and easily an expert can perform them, I've got videos available here:
http://clips4sale.com/10557

For some other resources of information:

The APP procedure manual can now be downloaded for free from the site: http://www.safepiercing.org/publications/procedure-manual/cd/

I post a lot of piercing related information on my blog http://piercingbible.com/blog/

There are free archives available of all the columns I've written for Pain Magazine (answering piercing questions) are here:
http://www.painmag.com/archives.php My article is always on page 16.

A good resource for anatomy is The Human Body Book:
http://www.amazon.com/Human-Body-Book-DVD/dp/0756628652/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278976447&sr=1-1

Garry wrote:

Thank you very much for all your information i will be buying your book and reading that and i shall take it from there. Again thank you x you have been more helpful to me in one email than i have managed in the last 4 months. Garry