The Piercing Bible

I received a message from a piercee who couldn't figure out why her old, established piercings were acting up:

I have several piercings all different ages some for as many as 10 years or more and not had any problems. Recently they have all began to migrate and reject and I don't understand why. Can you tell me why this would happen all of the sudden and at such volume after years of no problems at all?

My response:
Are you experiencing some kind of excessive stress right now? That can cause problems with healed piercings. If not, I'd suggest a visit to a doctor for a thorough check up. After a long history of stability, if your piercings are acting up that could indicate a health problem of some sort. Here is some information on how stress can affect you.

Please keep me posted!

She did just that, and contacted me again about three months later:

I emailed you a while ago regarding my migrating piercings. After some observation and doctor visits it was in fact due to high stress levels as you suspected.

I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the past year and also to thank my clients, customers, readers, and supporters!

There are plenty of you out there who sing my praises, suggest my book, and promote my services by encouraging your friends and family to get pierced by me. I appreciate all of your support and will always work hard to earn your trust

Well, 2012 was a busy and super fast year, but really amazing, too. I got to travel to many different cities and meet and pierce so many wonderful people!

Truly I feel like one of the luckiest people in the world to have a job that is so rewarding and fun. I also feel amazingly fortunate to be married to my wonderful husband, to have dear friends, our adorable dogs, and to live in our beautiful home. I'm also grateful to have 2 loving families: my parents and also the family we "inherited" when we moved to the Yucatan. Last but not least, I'm so thankful for having my health, feeling good, and having the energy to do all of the things I want to do!

One highlight was that the TV show "Strange Sex" interviewed me and included me as a piercing expert in their show about erotic piercing!
http://piercingbible.com/blog/2012/03/elayne-angel-appears-tlcs-show-str... and that was really cool!

Another highlight was the release of The Piercing Bible jewelry measuring application, inGauge.

I received a message from a woman who had a question about certain legalities of piercing:

Hello my name is T and I've been piercing out of my home for the past 4 years and i have a problem. im starting to save money and build a business but someone is trying to bring me down. im currently creating a facebook page for my new business and an employee from a tattoo shop said he reported me to the police for piercing out of my home. ive been doing this for more than 4 years and i looked up on the internet for the state of pennsylvania you dont need a license to tattoo/pierce but hes telling me to get an apprenticeship. do i need that?

My reply:

T.,

I don't know anything about your local laws, but I know a great deal about professional piercing and I must say that it absolutely should take place out of a proper studio and not a home.

You can find out about the personal and environmental criteria set as an industry standard by the Association of Professional Piercers in the application for membership on this page: http://www.safepiercing.org/join-the-app/types-of-memberships/

You must have an autoclave that is spore tested regularly by an outside service, a separate enclosed area for piercing, a seperate steriliztion room, and much more.