Jonathan is a piercer in South Carolina, we met in 2023 when we both received the Legacy Scholarship for the APP. We talked prior to this year’s conference about growing up in the church, falling in love with piercing and the experience of volunteering in Vegas. You can find his work here.
Gemma: I wanted to talk a bit about your background
Jonathan: So I’m actually from Vermont, which is a state much more north than South Carolina where I am now. I moved to South Carolina when I was 16 and it was a big difference because Vermont’s a much more liberal state. South Carolina is the Bible Belt, much more conservative. I’ve been living here since 2004.
G: What was it like growing up in Vermont?
J: I’ve always been a weird kid but I grew up in what they called an independent fundamental Baptist church which is very conservative. Girls couldn’t wear pants, they had to wear skirts. No tattoos, no piercings. I couldn’t have facial hair. I wasn’t allowed to listen to any of the music I like to listen to. They made Harry Potter evil. They made Pokemon evil. If it wasn’t written by a Christian, it was evil.
I liked Pokemon. I liked Anime, I liked metal music. I liked pop punk music, but I really wasn’t allowed to be open about it. I always had to hide it and only talk to certain people about what I enjoyed. I couldn’t talk to my parents, couldn’t really talk to my brothers because they’d get me in trouble so I used to hide it. I used to listen to the radio, and then when I could get a CD, I’d burn CDs. I always wanted to go to concerts, but I definitely couldn’t go until I was much older.
Because I wasn’t allowed to listen to the music I enjoyed, I used to sneak it through video games. There’d be bands like The Offspring and Bad Religion on the game soundtrack and I’d get to listen to it through there.
G: What was your first exposure to body modification?
J: I remember going to the mall and seeing people with septum rings, I think that’s probably my first real memory of body mods but I never really noticed until I was much older. For me, piercing was definitely not a possibility until I was 18. My parents always told me that tattoos and piercings would mean getting kicked out of the house. So I didn’t play with that, I very much didn’t want to be homeless.
I got my first piercing at 26. I really wanted an industrial piercing for some reason but my ex-wife wasn’t supportive of piercings at all. And a lot of people in my life at the time thought piercings were “gay”. It’s that conservative belief structure of being anti LGBTQIA. Growing up, I had similar thoughts until I started working in an office and this one girl I was working with randomly mentioned that she never found the penis attractive. And I thought to myself “well, neither have I, so how can I be upset with somebody who thinks the same way I do.”
At the time I was really into Rise Against and they had a song called Make It Stop that helped me change my perception. Punk rock music really helped me get over some of my outdated beliefs from my upbringing.
G: When did you move from Vermont and when was your first piercing?
J: My dad was in the Air Force and he got a job in South Carolina so we moved down here and I finished up high school.
Around 2014, I was going through a divorce and I remember looking at a magazine and seeing wooden octopus plugs and I thought they were so cool. I remember being in the car with somebody and they were like, “Oh you don’t want to do that, everyone who gets their ears stretched is going to regret it.” Now I make a living stretching people’s ears, so this is wild.
So I was going through my divorce, I was single, I just was trying to more or less find myself or just be okay with myself at 26. I’d always wanted my ears pierced and I’ve had some friends take me to a place to do them. It wasn’t the best but I just wanted to have pierced ears.
You know sometimes you go through breakups and you’ve been in a relationship for so long that you kind of lose parts of yourself. It’s not always their fault, it tends to be more your fault because you’re trying to fit in or trying to make them happy – especially when you’re getting married so young. I got married at 19, I was so young and was still developing myself and my own personal interests.
G: And once you start with piercings, it’s hard to stop right?
J: Tattoos were my go-to body mod for a while because I was working a plant job where piercings weren’t allowed for safety reasons. Then in 2019, I started at a warehouse, and I was finally allowed to have piercings. So I eventually got my nose pierced.
Money was really tight because I was trying to get caught up on bills and in early 2020 I was looking for part time work to fill my days off. I ended up eventually getting a job at the piercing shop I work at as their Front of House. At the time I didn’t want to pierce, I just wanted to make some extra money so I could keep my family afloat. I started the week when COVID shut everything down.
It was very hard at the time because I had my daughter and as a parent you have to make difficult decisions and I didn’t know if I could put everything I needed to into piercing as a career, but I had been given the opportunity to learn how to pierce. So I ended up working both jobs for a while and then I found that I really liked the client interaction at the piercing studio. I don’t think I was good at it at first, I kind of sucked at it a lot. But I found myself getting better, pushing through my own hurdles, and just really starting to enjoy piercing.
Before I had actually started piercing, a friend of mine from another piercing shop showed me the Piercing Wizard podcast and APP. I had been reading the Piercing Wizard Bible and subscribed to Ryan’s Patreon. He had a lot of good information on there that helped me a lot. That year the APP offered online classes because they weren’t doing the conference, so I paid for some of their online classes to learn a little bit more. I was trying to learn as much as possible, from my mentor and other Piercers in the shop and as many external resources as I could get my hands on.
G: What was it that drove your passion for education and improvement?
J: A lot of it is the clients. There’s the art to it that I eventually kind of loved and got into, but it was the clients initially. The Piercing Wizard podcast taught me about understanding your clients and learning to read their energy and work with that.
I’m a very empathetic person and once I leaned into that and learned to control my reaction to their feelings, it helped me a lot to be able to keep a calm and supportive environment. I love helping my clients overcome their fears and get through their own anxiety.
I’m a very introverted person outside of work, I usually just stay to myself and my family. We’re a very busy shop and when you meet all these people, you start having these interactions and I learned eventually that’s what I like more about piercing. It is very powerful stuff that you don’t get at a lot of jobs.
G: We met in 2023 because we both received the Legacy Scholarship to the APP conference, when did you first hear about the scholarship program?
J: So I first actually heard about it in through my friend Carl in August 2020. I put it on the back burner because I never thought it would be something I’d ever receive. I didn’t think I’d qualify but then I heard the Piercing Wizard podcast about it in 2022 and I thought maybe I shouldn’t limit myself by my own ideas. Maybe I should just take a chance and apply. It’s kind of embarrassing to put yourself out there but I feel like my clients deserved a better me.
G: I don’t think many people realise how big America is, how was it traveling to Vegas?
J: It was very nerve wracking but at that point I was like, okay I got the scholarship, I did the work, I just have to get over myself. I’m not a huge fan of flying and I had all the anxiety of what if I do something wrong? The social awkwardness of it all. It was about 22,000 miles from where I live so it’s the farthest west I’ve ever been. Probably the furthest I’ve ever flown
Between growing up conservative, not being much of a gambler and never really seeing myself as somebody who would really do anything big – going to Vegas was never really on my radar. It was very crazy, like wow, I’m actually here, I never thought I’d actually be in Vegas.
G: How did you find the balance of volunteering, learning, and existing inVegas?
J: I loved volunteering. I said this in my interview, I really like the idea of volunteering so that I could give back. I felt like I owed a lot to the piercing community, between people just helping me out, and me having an opportunity to get away from working a warehouse job. I didn’t finish college, so I was kind of just floating from job to job trying to make it work. And, so with this opportunity to volunteer, I can give back to these people who changed my life.
What I really enjoyed was it gave me an in to help with all my anxiety about being around people and being somewhere by myself. It helped me be friendly with people and then knowing some of the behind the scenes things as a volunteer, I was able to help the attendees which I loved.
G: Were there any particularly important moments for you at APP 2023?
J: I just felt at home, it sounds weird, but being a weird kid all my life, it felt like I fit in really well and there was a such a sense of community. I didn’t know any of these people who were volunteering but we just fit together so well. Everybody was so friendly and they treated me like I’m normal, like I’m as cool as them.
I do want to say my other favorite part of Vegas has to be when we went to the Punk Rock Museum. That was so cool. I got to introduce Fat Mike to you which was amazing.
I definitely feel like being an APP scholar has opened some doors and some opportunities. People know that you’re passionate about what you do, because no one’s going to do all that effort if they don’t care.
G: Outside of piercing, you have your family, which is really lovely. Are your children interested in piercings?
J: My oldest daughter, she’s 13. I pierced her second lobes, which is really cool because Ihe’s always been like a little bit more scared. But the best part was she said she wanted to get her second lobes done and she actually practiced my little breathing technique and she listened and the piercing went really well. That felt very good. My youngest is 5, she’s not really there yet. I have a feeling that my oldest will come to me later and probably want something which will be exciting
G: I think it’s important that you’re teaching your children that you can look whatever way you want and still be a good person.
J: My eldest said “all my friends are the weird kids and we like it that way.” That’s how it’s supposed to be.Last year she came to me and said “I like to wear hoodies and boys wear hoodies.” I told her that you just have to do what you want. I don’t usually curse in front of my kids, but I said, “fuck the people that don’t fuck with you”. She’s at that age where she’s trying to figure out who she is and I’m just letting her know it’s okay to be the weird kid.
Helping my daughter understand that if you’re happy, you’re good with your friends, your friends are kind to you, then it doesn’t matter what other people think. Growing up pretty conservative, I was taught to be homophobic by the church and the community so I really encourage my children to know that I’d rather you have a kind friend that’s gay than a mean friend that’s straight. I want my kids to be themselves and be kind and to accept others for who they are.
G: Can we touch on your poetry?
J: I’ve always written, I never developed the skill or the talent for drawing and so I found the way I could express myself was through writing. In high school, I used to write song lyrics and music was always a big part of my life. I started writing a lot of poetry and eventually I got to perform some of it live. Before COVID hit, there was a place I went to once a month to start getting over my nervousness and start performing. Going on stage and really writing and sharing my feelings and my emotions was really powerful.
It’s a good way of letting it out and then helping to connect with people.
G: Is there anything you want to add for people reading this?
J: For any piercer that is interested in the scholarship, just apply for it. Don’t limit yourself by your own ideas of, ‘I’m not good enough, I’m not financially able to do this, I’m not an APP shop.’ Just go for it and don’t limit yourself. Let other people do that and let them decide if you’re the right fit.
