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1:21 - Why people get pierced for religious reasons? 

2:56 - Why people usually get pierced for self-expression?

6:09 -  "After... becoming a mother, you just go through a lot of bodily changes, and it just is like the perfect way to... come back from that in ways that make you more confident" - Kara

11:42 - "I didn't do it for myself I did it so someone else would feel confident in themselves and I thought that makes it a lot more special to me" - Kara

13:27 -  "I'm still going to be happy with the fact that you made a decision on what you are confident for yourself and it just makes me even more excited" - Kara

14:13 - Why aesthetic purposes is another reason why people get pierced? 

15:15 - Another reason why people get pierced is for sexual pleasure. 

17:43 -  "Genital piercings being designed specifically for trans anatomy, which is beautiful and exciting and my intention with that isn't necessary to be all evil, but it's a fun goddess too" - Silas

19:42 - Medical purposes, another reason why people consider getting pierced. 

22:07 -  LGBTQ plus community, flag themselves through the help of piercing. 

22:30 -  "I have a rainbow of balls... I feel like without that I don't really have anything that will let people know that I'm not straight and I would prefer the people to smell it without me screaming it off the rooftop" - Endy

Source: https://www.ootlah.com

Silas: Yeah, that's super interesting

Endy: Yeah.

Silas: And even separate from certain religions too. There's this ongoing kind of spiritual thread that I think is found in a lot of different modifications about altering the body to reach a different state of consciousness. A lot of suspension work and piercing that's tied to BDSM and kink communities really focuses on that sort of practice as well.

Why people usually get pierced for self-expression? 

Endy: Yeah, that's really, really cool. So there's plenty of reasons why people may get pierced for that particular reason. Another reason people usually get pierced is for self-expression, which I think is something all three of us can relate to. All three of us are pretty, moderately modified or heavily modified, depending on who you ask at this point, and I think we all have a plan to getting more piercings in the future. I think all three of us have talked about at the shop different things you want to get done to our faces or ears or the rest of our bodies. So let's just go around and talk about our own experiences with self-expressions and how our own piercings contributed to that. Who wants to start?

Kara: I guess, I am.

Endy: Yeah.

Kara: Well, I mean, like I started getting pierced at a very, very young age. I was about 10 years old when I did my first piercing on myself, but I did get my ears pierced when I was six years old so I just kept---I just, you know, from there, that's where it started. I mainly did it for the purpose of I always was trying to find that as a way to use that as a way to be able to express who I am and trying to find myself as a coming of age thing just like really growing out of being a kid and slowly turning into a teenager and just that whole transition is confusing and frustrating as is so I used piercing and modification as a way to be able to try to find who I am but then I grew up with a lot of family who didn't necessarily agree with modifications so I was always kind of constricted in that aspect so that just made everything a lot more frustrating for me so I always rebel against my mom and pierced myself which is not advised at all but I knew what I wanted and I knew that it was right and I knew that if I got it, I would be happier with myself and I believed even at being 11 - 12 years old, that who is anyone else tell me what I can and cannot do with my body. Yeah, that also turned into just trying to pull myself out of very like toxic and traumatic experiences and being able to overcome that as distinct by just taking my body back and I know that there's other people who can agree with me and people who worked here too so there. I mean, specifically in stretching my ears, I was in a relationship for five years. It was very, very toxic and unfortunately, he didn't like the way stretched ears look like on me so he always told me, you look ugly, you look ugly like that,  keep stretching your ears more like just like the more I don't like it, which is always just trying to convince me to not do something that I found I was passionate about and that really frustrated me so I think I really rebelled against some of the aspects of like, okay, you're saying that you don't like love [inaudible 6:00] it even more so that just made me want to continuously do it. Also, being a mother too and being so young, I really want to get my belly button pierced again because I had it when I was 16 but after being pregnant and becoming a mother, you just go through a lot of bodily changes like physically, and it just is the perfect way to come back from that in ways that make me more confident for who I am and being able to be more self-accepting with the body that I now have after having my son so I'm super excited about that. There's also a future piercing I am looking into getting but mainly just for trying to just constantly without having to say it through talking, just being able to "F*ck it, no. This is who I am, this is what I believe in". I am confident in who I am, I'm confident in the decisions I make with my body or within myself and, you can state your opinion but it's unsolicited and I'm most likely will not listen to it if it's coming across a way that's demeaning to me.  [inaudible 7:06-7:12]

Silas: A lot of similar themes as yours, Kara. People telling me what would look good on me or I don't know. Being a trans person my whole life, you've all been telling me what my body is and isn't and who I am and who I'm not and at a certain point, I just got really sick of it and, I, at the time wouldn't necessarily considered piercings or other mods as part of my transition, but now I really do because I think they were the first steps I took in claiming my body as my own and it also went against these norms, what's considered like lady like or that's what was often thrown at me of like, you know, and elegant lobe piercing is chill but if you start getting too many you're gonna be too masked or whatever. What's wrong with that? I was like "Sweet!" I'm gonna be doing it then.

Kara: That is exactly my goal.

Silas: Yeah, like for sure note taken and it took me a while to still even get comfortable. I'm learning those things from what I've been told and most of my face piercings I've gotten in the past few months since working here because I am still scared of those voices in your head and people telling me like this is a bad idea or whatever, but it makes me feel so much more comfortable in myself, in my body existing in the world, it makes me feel grounded and it makes me feel hot, which is an added fun bonus. So that's where you know where I'm [inaudible 9:03-9:04].

Endy: Cool! My journey with piercings and self-expression, I basically thought piercing so that I would like myself more. I wanted something that was unique for me and with kind of an accent and making more comfortable with certain features. I've had my nose pierced for over a decade now and it's a part of my face. I can't imagine my face without it and I feel I'm growing the same relationship I felt on piercing I've only had it for about three to four months now but it's starting to be something that I like and it helps me to essentially certain features of my face that I wasn't necessarily comfortable with at first and I've been getting piercing since oh boy since I was around 15-16. I've had my nose pierced three times I've had most parts of my body's pierced and every time I get a piercing, I see it almost like a ritual because there's so much build-up and there's so much anticipation and so much pressure deciding you want a piercing, deciding where you want it, trying to find a place, go in to the place, doing all the paperwork, waiting for it, and then you finally get it, and then the second the needle goes in, it'd be let go of this long sigh of relief or just knowing that you just modified yourself in a way that makes you a little bit more expressive and I think that's super special and that's why I want to get more and I don't know if there's a cap on how many piercings I want to get but since we work in here, it's really really tempting. I've always loved modifications and I've always love the way that they make people look and feel and I like the way that they make me look and feel so.

Kara: Yeah, no, I mean like that's kind of something I mean because my septum piercing, prime examples like a piercing that I never thought that I would ever like on myself. I literally only got it just because my old manager, he really wanted his septum pierced and he was worried about the way that it might look like on him. He was scared of what other people would think what it'd look like, he's trying to say talk him up like, I'll go with you. It'll be fine, you're gonna look really great with it, it's not gonna hurt, it's super fast. I'm just trying to reassure him like it doesn't matter what other people think and he literally asked me he was, if I get my [inaudible 11:28] you get [inaudible 11:29] me? And I was like absolutely, I didn't even think twice about it. I never planned on getting my septum pierced and then I ended up getting it soon just literally so he could be happy with the decisions he made for his own body and I think that's one of the main things I do like about my septum is because I didn't do it for myself, I did it so someone else would feel confident in themselves. I thought that makes it a lot more special to me but now I've really grown on it and now, I started stretching my septum to 10 gauge and I couldn't be more happy with the piercing, which is how it looks on me now. I think I'm 10 times more confident when I stretched it. So yeah, it's just kind of funny how things like that happen.

Silas: I also feel like that story brings up a really important role of community in piercing and relationships and Endy and I think, we both express this of a bit of like not being in this shop environment where we're all like, yeah, piercings are amazing and you look amazing with that and do you feel amazing and all of that, it's totally shifted my relationship to getting pierced and what piercings I want and the idea that there is no cap. We can really do whatever we want and I think if we all---like removing those barriers of self-policing, and being yeah, what would it look like for yourself if you really just let yourself do whatever you want? No rules, just let it be. Who could you be? Who could your life be without feel like, and I think that's such an important. I don't know why I think why piercing is so great.

Endy: Yeah.

Kara: Yeah. It's just the whole experience too. All of those customers that come into our shop and they have an idea on what they want, but they don't really know and then they always ask me, what do you think? And I'm like, well, it's what really what you think.

Silas: Yeah. It doesn't matter!

Kara: It's your personal preference. I'm always going to be for supporting the decision that you make even if you decide you didn't want to get something you end up walking out, you know? I'm still going to be happy with the fact that you made a decision on what you are confident for yourself and it just makes me even more excited like when a client responds like you know what, you're right. It is what I want like, this is what I like, I figured it out. Okay, this is what we're doing now. All right, awesome! Let's put the jewelry, let's do the paperwork, and it just makes the experience a lot more memorable - being able to watch people transition and with piercing, they're 10 times  happier than they were coming in and just being super confident in themselves, and then even being educated too. So it's just it's a really great feeling, that's why I love this community.

Endy: Yeah! It's really nice to be able to help people make that change for themselves. 

Why aesthetic purposes is another reason why people get pierced?

Endy : Another reason that people get pierced could be for aesthetic purposes. It's finally starting to transition into Spring. I've noticed and we're getting a lot more like dermal and belly button piercing because people wanting to look cute for the summer, getting things that would accommodate crop tops or swimwear or whatever piercing that is and whatever places so aesthetic-wise. Piercings are very aesthetically pleasing. I remember being younger. I did have my belly button pierced at one point, because my favorite pop stars had belly button piercings like Britney Spears and Beyonce and I thought they were just like the coolest ladies. I still do. I think they're so awesome.

Sources: https://www.thelist.com 

Silas: I'm still waiting for you to bring that trend back.

Endy: I am thinking about it. I'm thinking about it. The tapering experience seems a little bit intimidating because I had someone explained what being tapered was like and what that entails and it just sounds terrifying.

Kara: But it's different for every person.

Another reason why people get pierced is for sexual pleasure 

Endy: That's true and I have already had it here so it's not like it would be going through a fresh hole. It's just a closed hole but I don't know. The way they explained it and they're like, Oh, your skin cells pop out in ones like confetti, and I was like, Oh no! I don't want to do that, I don't want to see that, I don't want to be part of that. Yeah, it's just like surprise, like oh my god but we'll see. We'll see if I do it. We'll see if I can survive it, and make it, and keep on surviving. If you already said I reference and we're best friends now. Another reason that people maybe get pierced is for sexual pleasures. So genital piercings are a topic that's a little bit more taboo. Not all that people like to talk about them just because it is something that's kind of intimate and it is something that is considered private most of the time, depending on who you are, yeah, exactly, no pun intended but what are some of the reasons that people may want to get pierced down there?

Silas: I'm really passionate about genital piercing and like, I will gladly talk about it.

Kara: Yeah. Go ahead.

Silas: There's a lot of different reasons and it also depends on what anatomy you're working with but generally speaking, the most common genital piercings for whatever genitalia you have, due in high in your sensitivity down there, depending on what jewelry you pick out too, there can be, in what acts you might be involved in, you can use the jewelry to your advantage for some extra stimulation. Another one that could also just be for aesthetic reasons. Genital piercing kinda gets automatically thrown into this taboo kinky round, that's so like freaky or whatever, which if that's why you're doing it, that's also cool. I totally support that. Great! But also, I'm thinking about getting genital piercings down the line, as a way of kind of connecting to a part of my body that I haven't always felt connected to. Now, genital piercings being designed specifically for trans anatomy, which is beautiful and exciting and my intention with that isn't necessarily to be all evil, but it's a fun bonus too. I don't know how to get into this. Maybe we'll do a whole episode just in genital piercing.