Prices at The White Room start at $30 for simple earlobe piercings (a hand-held needle is used instead of a gun) and go up to $50 for some upper-ear piercings that involve passing through cartilage. A nose piercing that passes through the septum costs $50. A bit more on the exotic side, J.B. (James Bernard) The Piercer has developed a technique for eyelid piercing, which so far appears to be successful, for $75. Custom piercings can cost as much as $300.
“All piercings are negotiable,” J.B. says.
Pierced
An ‘awakening’
Today, a human corset. Tomorrow, more than 600 piercings in less than eight hours? Jessie Russell’s love of piercings is more than skin deep.
AUBURN – Only Jessie Russell’s eyebrows twitch as “J.B. the Piercer” pulls a hollow needle and then a piece of plastic line through an inch of flesh at the small of her back.
He threads a metal ball onto each end of the line so it will stay put, finishing the last of 10 piercings that march half way up both sides of her spine, two rows of five. They end where a large spider is tattooed on a web across Russell’s upper back and shoulders.
“It’s going to look like the spider laced up her corset and then ended up on her shoulder,” says J.B. – A.K.A. James Bernard – surveying his work.
He points to a picture on the wall of his studio, called “The White Room,” at the Mystical Emporium on Main Street. It’s an image of a woman, the backs of her legs lined with double rows of small metal hoops that are threaded together with dark ribbon to create the corset effect. When Russell’s back is healed, one metal ball at the end of each piercing will be replaced with a hoop, so her back can be laced the same way.
If all goes well, this dramatic work – completed by Bernard in collaboration with Emporium tattoo artist The Rick – will be on display at the Down East Tattoo Show in Bangor come April.
A corset piercing may sound extreme, but they’ve become popular as piercing in general has become more accepted over the last five years or so, says Jim Weber of the national Association of Professional Piercers.
Weber attributes this in part to the Internet, which allows piercers and fans to easily share information and pictures.
Piercers also say movie stars and models sporting everything from nose studs to belly button rings in public have helped make popular various forms of a practice that has been around for thousands of years.
Adrenaline and endorphins
Many people today get pierced “more for the act than the actual wearable aspect of it later on,” Weber says.
Bernard explains there is a rush of adrenaline, then endorphins, when one’s skin is perforated with a needle.
He describes having his nipples pierced years ago as an “awakening,” and says piercing can be a sensual experience. Now he has 30 piercings, from the back of his head to places further south.
Russell’s face is flushed red after the last piercing, but she readies for Bernard to place another, shorter line through the center of her back to adorn her tattoo where the spider sits on its web.
“It doesn’t hurt,” the 31-year-old manicurist insists, describing the slight “pop” and then the pull of resistance she feels as the needle travels through her skin.
She first got into piercing, she says, because she’s a girl and likes wearing jewelry. She also likes to express her individuality, as evidenced by her closely cropped hair, died black with a burst of red and orange flames that frame her face.
And the piercings that line her ears, dot her face and decorate her back have come to be as much about pride as aesthetics.
Her one rule: If she winces or whimpers in pain, she won’t keep a piercing.
Her reward for staying silent is the “metal,” or the jewelry that she keeps.
“It’s like a personal accomplishment that I can endure what it takes to get (a piercing) done and can endure having it,” she says.
Numbers
The piercing industry is largely unregulated, most state and federal lawmakers slow to catch up with what has for a long time been regarded as a fringe practice.
Piercers in Maine do have to be licensed and certified, and their places of business are subject to annual health inspections.
////According to the state Department of Health and Human Services there were xxx licensed piercers in the state in xxxx, and today that number has grown to xxx.////
Last year, Maine legalized genital piercings. They are not uncommon, but Bernard says nipples, navels and noses are the most popular places for body jewelry.
In the nearly eight years he’s been piercing, he’s averaged about 100 piercings a month.
One problem with trying to track the number of body piercings in the country, says Weber, is that they can be removed.
Infections and scarring are risks of piercings, and can depend on everything from the cleanliness of the piercing equipment to how well individuals clean and take care of their new adornments. (See info box.)
Anatomy also is a factor in the success of piercings, Bernard says, and a good piercer should talk to a client about the placement in light of things like cartilage and blood vessels in one’s body.
World records
Like many of the more dramatic piercings done today, Russell’s corset will be for temporary show. She’ll have it taken out sometime after she’s done with the April exhibit, although there is a small, personal goal that may hold things up.
“I want to have 100 functional body piercings before I start retiring some,” she says, grinning sheepishly.
As of mid-January, she was up to 44.
And once that goal is reached, Russell has another in mind. Her husband, Scott, is Bernard’s apprentice, and she wants the pair to help her beat a world record for what they call “play” piercings – temporary piercings done with simple needles that are pulled out once the session is complete, something like acupuncture.
According to Guinness World Records, at www.guinnessworldrecords.com, British body artist Charlie Wilson and veritable pin cushion Kam Ma hold the record with 600 titanium piercings done over a period of 8 hours 32 minutes in 2002.
“I want to do it,” Russell says with determination.
Her husband’s eyes go wide and his brows hitch high on his forehead at this announcement, but, like his wife under the needle, he doesn’t make a sound.
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