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Episode Highlights 

0:06 - Getting to know Avanti
0:58 - Endy’s piercing journey
4:51 - “I got my nipples pierced...for me, that was kind of like solidifying my adulthood and just me doing something for myself.” - Endy
6:32 - “Now I work in this awesome shop and I get to help people on their journeys and it's really fulfilling.” - Endy
7:00 - Silas piercing journey
9:52 - “I love all my piercings, and I'm really happy with all of them.” - Silas
10:08 - Kara’s piercing journey
10:22 - “I don't really remember much, except for I knew that I wanted it. I know that I was scared, but afterward, I was immediately excited again.” - Kara
14:00 - “Getting pierced is the perfect way to be able to create your own voice without even speaking.” - Kara
16:47 - Wrapping it all up 

Endy: So we went in and I got it done on my right nostril and I had that one for a few months. Going back to school after that was kind of hard because I wasn't allowed to have piercings in my face even though plenty of my other colleagues and students had their own piercings but no one really said anything to them but they said stuff to me so I switched my jewelry constantly because I was always getting in trouble and always getting stopped for it so I went from retainers to the screw-on types at the end. It's like the elbow-shaped to the nose bone with little balls at the end. I have worned every type of jewelry around that time, and I think eventually, it got really irritated and I got this ugly keloid bump on it so I took the joy out and let it close up and then it wasn't until the very next year that I eventually got my nose repierced on the other side when I was around 17 and that's the piercing that I've had this entire time since then. So it's going on 10 years with my nose pierced on the left side now. In around 17,  I got both my helix and belly button pierced at this shop in Houston, that's where I'm from. They were notorious for doing really cheap piercings, two for $25 & two for $30 deals and I went there with my mom again, and yeah, it was a really awkward experience because I originally asked to have my conch done, and instead, they did my helix and I also got my bellybutton pierced and when I was in my belly button pierced, I was standing up for it. I suppose that it was just like a flash piercing place and they just wanted to get people in and out really quickly so they had me stand up for that which was very, very hard and very difficult and it hurt really, really bad but I just wanted to get it done. I was young, I wasn't thinking, of course now that I'm older and more experienced, I would be like, can I place it down for this or laid out. So before I went to college, and I was about 18 or 19, I got dermals under my collarbones. Those are really cool. Those are probably one of my favorite piercings. They looked great. They end up rejecting once I got to school, it was probably from distress and the lack of proper aftercare, which we'll probably talk about. Well, we will definitely talk about in another episode. I wasn't really taking care of them properly so they started to reject. One came out and then it was just awkward to just have one. There is a place, obviously a place where everyone belong so I just kind of let the other one reject and take that one out. After that, when I dropped out of college, I got my nipples pierced and it was the first piercing that I didn't really tell my mother about. So for me, that was kind of solidifying my adulthood and just me doing something for myself. All my piercings were for myself, but this time I didn't really involve her in the process with telling her, letting her know, I just had them randomly and those are great. The healing was okay, the piercing hurt really bad and I probably would still have them and if it wasn't for some reason, every time I drink fireball, I would lose a piercing so, one night I drink it and one came out and it was again with the dermals. It's weird to just have one which is obviously supposed to be two or I didn't really like the idea of having one so I took it out and let that close up and I hadn't really thought about getting them repierced. I didn't get pierced for years after that. Not because I didn't like them, I just didn't really feel the need to until I started working here. I started working here and I realized how much I really want to get my philtrum done and once I start working at a piercing store, I was like, "Oh, this is a possibility for me now" I can actually get this really cute, girly fun piercing that I've always thought would look adorable on me and so I finally did it and now I have it. I don't have any plans to get any more facial piercings, but I do want to get my ear pierced, both ears. I want more piercings other than the helix and the lobes that I have. So those are going to be in my feature and I'm not really sure about getting anything else done yet.

Photo by Just Jessica June LLC

Kara’s Piercing Journey 

Endy: Hey everyone, we're here with my coworker.

Kara: I'm Kara.

Endy: Kara. Can you tell me a little bit more about your piercing journey?

Kara: One of the reasons why I want to pierce is because I do take self-expression very seriously. I believe that you do deserve to be happy with your own body and if you do have the ability to turn it into a canvas for art, I feel like you should do that, for art and for projects. And getting pierced is the perfect way to be able to create your own voice without even speaking. That was just an issue that I've always had in my whole life, especially with my mom, me always wanting to do something to alter my appearance in ways that made me feel more comfortable and confident within myself. I was never allowed to do it, or I got in trouble for doing it, or someone was making fun of me. I just feel I want to be able to help bring people's visions to life and also help educate them in the process so that they know that they're being well taken care of, and they know that they're doing it in an efficient and safe matter because I've just done all of the things that you should not do. I know from firsthand experience, I've witnessed a lot of botched, messed up piercings or things that weren't done properly or things that ended up getting infected and how that can play out over time if you don't take care of it. And I also want to be able to share that intimate experience with somebody because a lot of times it's a sign of taking your body back. If something traumatic has happened in your life or you've gone through experiences like myself or someone says that that doesn't look good on you, or you shouldn't have that, or they just have different beliefs in yourself. It's just being able to be confident in yourself and be happy with who you are and be happy with how you look and if you believe that putting a piece of jewelry inside of your body makes you more happy to something minor, like a tiny little nose stud, like that just makes all the difference in how you feel about yourself and feel like that's the most important thing. So I feel like if you want to do that, you should be able to do it safely and do it with someone who really is passionate about that and someone who can educate you on how to take care of it and the different kinds of styles of jewelry that you can learn and just how to be able to expand that in ways that you're comfortable with yourself. So that's just kind of I know, I've been rambling for a while, but that's just sort of my story and who I am and what I want to accomplish and yeah, I know it's not all that interesting, but I got a lot of really goofy piercing stories. If you ever want to hear more about them. I'm here to ramble to you. I know that they weren't all of that interesting but that's just me so thank you for listening. Thank you for taking the time to let me talk about that a little bit.

Endy: Yeah! Thank you so much.

Kara: Thank you.

Endy: All right, everyone. Well, that wraps it up for our first episode. I am so excited to get this podcast up and running. Please feel free to check out our future episodes. The next episode we have, we're going to be going over the history of piercings, in Episode 3, we'll be going over why people get pierced. My name is Endy and those were my co-workers Silas and Kara, and I hope you have a great day. Thank you so much!