I have been into body modification since the early nineties when I discovered the Modern Primatives book from Research. The first portion of the book is an in-depth interview with Fakir Mufasar and he describes his own experience and motivations. The book showed me what was possible in body modification and let me know that I was not alone in my interests.
At A Glance Author loudles Contact loudles@bme.anon When A month ago Artist Me Studio Fakir Basic Piercing Intensive Location San Francisco When I got out of the Army this year, my first inclination was to get back into piercing. After several piercings, I began to think that I would enjoy piercing others and asked my piercer if she would let me apprentice with her. She let me down gently saying that she would not be comfortable. I started doing some research on my own and found my way to Fakir's website and found out that he ran courses in body piercing. I started saving my money.
About a month ago, I attended Fakir's Basic Piercing Intensive in San Francisco. I had the opportunity to meet one of the seminal figures of the modern primitive movement, Fakir, and learn basic piercing techniques, procedures, and considerations. All the instructors were great and had well thought lesson plans. The last day of the course is the practical day where students have the opportunity to pierce volunteers under the watchful eyes of Fakir and the other instructors. Each student gets to perform at least three piercings, and I pierced a nipple, a tongue, and an eyebrow. I am going to write about the nipple piercing.
James, the victim, er, volunteer, wanted to have both of his nipples pierced vertically which meant that Beth, my assistant, and I were going to pierce them simultaneously. We both sized up his nipples and due to their small size, we reckoned that whatever jewelry we put in would be 16g (sorry, I don't know metric sizing). Fakir liked our assessment and told us to continue.
James had had one of his nipples pierced before, so he had some scar tissue. Beth called dibs on the "virgin" nipple – Good looking out, Beth. I began marking James scarred nipple by placing a dot right in the middle. Then I drew the other reference lines, so there was a cross-hair design on his nipple. I had elected to orient the cross-hair so it was slightly canted to follow the natural lines of James' pectoral muscles. Eight years of military service will force you to develop a "calibrated eye" will help in properly hanging medals and decorations on uniforms or ramming metal jewelry through people.
It was at this point that Fakir saw what I was doing and suggested that we cant the lines even more. I took a step back and figured that aligning the piercing along the axis between James' shoulder and navel would look best. Fakir, Beth, and most importantly, James all agreed. We finished marking and began skin prep with the two-stage iodine swabs.
Beth and I began calming James by beginning his breathing and he told us not to worry because he practices Reiki. We clamped the nipples with Pennington forceps and Fakir checked our work. Beth and I opened and lubed the needles and started lining up for the actual piercing. After I had lined up the needle, I began breathing with James and focused on where I wanted the needle to exit. Fakir counted to three and Beth and I pushed the needles in. The scar tissue was tougher so I took a little longer going through. I just wanted to make sure that the piercing was straight. James let out several big cleansing breaths and told us to give him a few moments while he calmed down a bit. Fakir gave Beth and me "atta boys" and went off to get his camera.
We had selected 16g barbells with spiked ends for James and when he was ready we pushed the jewelry into place and made sure it was securely tightened. We cleaned James up with saline as best we could. Beth and I started talking about aftercare which consisted of preservative-free saline solution soaks three times daily and a whole lot of leaving the piercings alone until they healed. We learned in class that mixing your own with sea salt and water does not work out so well. Saline is already pH balanced and has the proper mixture of salt and water, so it will not disrupt the healing process. It is best to use saline in a spray bottle rather than a squirt bottle.
By the time we had finished answering James' questions, Fakir was back snapping pictures of Beth, James, and me. James thanked us, tipped us each $10, paid for the jewelry, and was on his way. Another happy customer.
I am very pleased with the way the piercing came out and James seemed very pleased with our work. The Fakir Basic Piercing Intensive taught me a great deal, but the most important was that I have lots more to learn before I can even think of calling myself a piercer. I am actively searching for an apprenticeship so I can develop my skills under the eyes of a master piercer, so if you are in Virginia and looking to take on an apprentice, then please email me.