"N" is for Needles

I have mentioned before that at one time I was the VP for a motorcycle club (MC). In most MC's, the members have biker names. I was named Needles because of what I did for a living. I was a professional body piercer. If you are interested in how I went from being a preacher to poking needles into people follow this link. It will catch you up, because I am not going to retell that story here.

I loved my job. Once I got all my training and certification, I could pierce just about anything. However, 90% of all my business involved nose rings, ear piercings, and belly buttons. Navel piercings were by far the most common piercing. I got so sick of seeing girls' belly buttons. It seemed that every other customer was a teenage girl or young woman wanting the latest fad piercing, which was the navel. It was fast and it was easy money, I just got tired of doing the same piercings all the time.

Eyebrows were a little more fun, but I don't know why. I just enjoyed doing them. Piercing tongues made me nervous, because their were so many serious dangers involved. Plus, I never knew when a customer might freak out and pull their tongue back into their mouth immediately after I stuck the needle through it.

Over the course of my time there, I pierced body parts that many people outside of the body modification world may not even realize can be pierced. I did all the usual ones: eyebrows, nose, lips tongue, ears and navels. However, I also pierced the bridge of the nose, hips, back of the neck, nipples, small of the back, collar bone, cheeks, private body parts (hundreds of different styles), and even the webbing underneath the tongue. Dozens of other parts as well too numerous to list.

There's no place for it to come out the
other side. It must be anchored in place

It was the different ones that I really enjoyed doing. Anything that I didn't get to do very often or something that I had to design because it was custom was very exciting. Sometimes, I had to fashion the jewelry to create what was needed. It all depended on what the customer wanted. Sometimes metal rods would be placed under the skin to create the effect they wanted. Other times, a subdermal (under the skin) anchor would be put in place so a jewel, spike or ball could exist by itself.

The real fun usually involved custom piercing for ears. Every now and then, a customer would come up with an idea or was willing to just let me design something. Since everyone's ear is different, it would have to be custom made just for them. Using my tools, I could bend the jewelry in any direction and slowly weave it through their ear. Sometimes, girls would come in to get elaborate pieces for a dance. They would often have to come back to see me to have it removed since they didn't just slide out.

I felt like an artist the whole time I worked there.

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Happily participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. For the entire month of April, 1,767 bloggers are working their way through the alphabet. One letter every day but Sundays for a total of 26 days.

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