William Rafti: Piercing Visionary or Scumbag Con-Artist? “I’m not afraid of making a fool of myself, I’ve done worse.” – William Rafti Those of you in the APP know about William Rafti because of his constant baseless attacks on APP members, his cold-calling harassment of those associated with the APP, and his relentless attacks on respected members of the piercing community such as Sky Renfro. Others may have seen his “ebook”, “The Body Piercing Encyclopedia” — which he for a time marketed as the “replacement” for the APP manual — in various online catalogs, through which he portrays himself as one of the leading minds in modern body piercing.    The photo William Rafti submitted (him in Unimax’s showroom) when he tried to use the BME personals to spam for “trainees” for his non-existent piercing school The truth is, William Rafti is at best an unstable asshole with a wavering grip on reality, if you’re to believe the vast majority of the piercing industry. While he’s willing to go on at length about how he’s the most important thing to happen to piercing, even using the references he provided me with, I couldn’t find a single person willing to say nice things about him or even qualify him as an expert. But still, I decided to give him a chance and asked for a copy of his ebook for review — after all, very occasionally an insane asshole does produce something of value. What I received was emphatically not something of value. In the mail I received a palm-sized plastic bag with a small unlabelled CD-R, which was wrapped in a low-quality print out informing me that I’d need Microsoft Word to view it. When I inserted the CD there was no installation process or welcome message — upon opening it I discovered that to access the documents, I’d have to copy the contents into “C:\Volume” and load the bits of the book into Word from there. When I finally got the book loaded, I found a chaotic mess of documents with constantly changing font sizes and colors, strange hyperlinks (sometimes to various Internet sites), and broken layout. It was riddled with spelling errors and grammatical confusion, and there was an abundance of unrelated files — everything from outdated shareware applications to “jokes” to chat logs of Rafti slandering various well known body modification figures. I was rather shocked at the un-professionalism of it, but still, I tried to give it the benefit of the doubt. A strange part of the ebook called “Shop Wench”, which numerous readers have expressed disgust at (and others have been forced to say “sad but true” to). An excerpt from the “Pain Management” section, which includes text apparently stolen from drbiba.com. An odd section of text, seemingly unrelated to his book — and stolen from an article published in the far-right online magazine WorldNetDaily in October of 2002. The credits and thank you part, where Rafti thanks for their help numerous people who have no idea who he is and that he’s never met. The feeling that you get when reading the “book” is that Rafti just downloaded every bit of body piercing related information online, and then tried to patch it together into a single project under his own name. Not only do the fonts change from “pasting to pasting”, but the style of writing changes as well, implying strongly that large portions of this book are plagiarized. In addition, I noticed that in some sections he would flip between referring to tools by their name (ie. 8mm Dermal Punch) and some sort of product code (ie. #DERM-8MM). I can think of no explanation for this other than cutting and pasting from a manufacturer’s catalog and attempting to disguise it as his own work. And then I read something familiar. William Rafti was stealing material from the old BME glossary, making minor changes to it, erasing my name, and inserting his own as the author instead! I don’t generally mind when people use BME as a basis for their own research — that’s what it’s there for. But what I do mind is when people actually claim that they wrote it. If you want to use someone else’s material, cite it properly! It’s one thing when someone plagiarizes on a school project… but for Rafti to steal BME’s material and try and criminally sell it under his own name takes some real gall. In the tables below, entries from the outdated BME glossary (Rafti did not have access to the new files in the still fledgling BME encyclopedia project at the time) are shown on the left. Entries taken from Rafti’s ebook are shown on the right — please note that in both cases I’ve not always included the entire entry for the purposes of clarity. I have highlighted direct plagiarism in yellow, and I have highlighted indirect plagiarism (where synonyms and alternate phrases have been inserted) with pink. These are only a small number of the examples that I found — my analysis suggests that the bulk of the ebook is plagiarized from various sources (not just BME). I even found some examples where he copied my typos! Fistula   A healing tunnel of skin. When a piercing is performed, a crescent hole is carved, leaving a raw length of flesh filled with jewelry. As the piercing heals, new skin is grows. This “tube” is initially fragile and tugging violently on the jewelry will tear it. Flesh Tube A healed tunnel of flesh. When a piercing is performed, a crescent hole is carved, leaving a raw length of flesh filled with jewelry. As the piercing heals, new skin is grown. This ‘tube’ is initially fragile and rotating the jewelry without lubrication can tear it.

Again, this is only a fraction of the plagiarism I discovered from BME and other sources in Rafti’s ebook. The rest are reserved for the lawyers should it come to that.

OK… So do I sue this thief into the stone age? I’m a pretty laid back guy, so I decided to do an interview with him about his book and see what he had to say — I was placing bets with myself on whether Rafti would come clean, “be a man”, and apologize, or whether he’d try and keep the lie going as long as possible.

BME: Large parts of the document are directly based on and plagiarized from my own site and from other sites. Why have you stolen other people’s work and presented it uncited and as your own? Did you really believe no one would notice?

RAFTI: “All mankind is of one author, and is one volume” – John Donne

BME: No, I’m serious. Why did you steal my articles and say you wrote them?

RAFTI: As far as anything that I am aware of that I used from others I had permission.

BME: No, you did not have permission. Why did you steal my articles?

RAFTI: With over six billion people in the world thinking millions of thoughts each there is probably no thought that you can think that hasn’t been thought before by someone else. If you mean to imply my thoughts and words are not my own then we are all guilty by circumstance of the same thing.

BME: Look, you copied word for word. Don’t try and pretend it was just a coincidence. Did you really think I wouldn’t notice?

RAFTI: No one else had a problem like this.

BME: They probably don’t know you stole their material. Maybe I should let them know? Again — why did you think you could steal my material and get away with it?

RAFTI: Nothing in my book was taken from you. Everything I know to be true tells me the opposite of what you presume.

BME: You stole entries from the glossary for example.

RAFTI: I went through every entry in your glossary with the intent of purging anything that I thought might be considered “stolen” from you. My entries were very different than what you had.

BME: Let me be clear here — I am going to publish information on your theft and it’s very clear and obvious. I’m trying to give you a chance here to come clean.

RAFTI: Stop lying. I can find no grounds for these accusations. This is war, [and] I’m making a list of names. The people caught on the losing side will face the obligatory mob reaction, same old story.

So it’s clear that Rafti is either too much of a scumbag to admit his theft, or so insane and unprofessional that he’s totally unaware of it. Either way, it was clear that this line of questions wasn’t going to get anywhere. On his website and in his book, Rafti claims to be the world’s leading expert on body piercing and states that he’s endorsed by many respected industry figures — so let’s ask him about some of those people.

BME: You’ve said on numerous occasions that industry respected individuals are endorsing your book, yet your book appears to be somewhat misleading as to who is actually supporting you — you’ve even implied that I supported it, before I’d even seen a copy! Who are your allies on this project, and who is endorsing it?

RAFTI: I have a list of people who said positive things about my book on my web site.

BME: Those are anonymous names — it’s not as if “branded bitch”, “Brandy H. (IL)”, or “name withheld at request” are people who are recognized, let alone confirmable. Seriously, tell me some people I call and check with.

RAFTI: The people who I have the most respect for in the industry support what I’m doing, including Kim Morin of Prick Magazine (I told her a thing or two she said was worth exploring), and Creeper of Starborn Tattoo in Las Vegas (I went from studio to studio in Las Vegas and could not find anyone who had his experience and knowledge).

There is also Wes of Unimax who is my biggest supporter. John Seaton of the Suffolk Country Department of Health personally told me he’d gladly endorse me. He told me that he had been waiting twenty years for something like this to happen.

David Klaus Pavin Jr (aka Kivaka) — 13 years experience — will bring much useful information to the Rafti Institute school. [And] Jim Ward is a dear friend of mine.

BME: So Jim got you into piercing?

RAFTI: He was my first contact in the world of piercing. I met him in David M.’s studio after Jim invited me to attend a piercing clinic he was offering, where they were using Betadine to sterilize and used no gloves. It turned out to be a frightening experience — I was the only heterosexual there and felt obliged to tell them so. Lots of leathermen went “oooooooh” in unison when they saw me lie down.

Jim invited me to the opening party of Gauntlet, where I also met Elayne [Angel] who personally told me and the whole room that I was “Gauntlet’s second customer, yay!”

OK, time to make some phone calls and emails and see if these stories check out. “Dear friend” of Jim Ward is a pretty big claim, so let’s talk to Jim and Elayne first.

BME: I’m doing an interview with William Rafti, and he’s using you as a reference. Would you say it’s accurate for him to describe you as a “dear friend”?

WARD: If he were a “dear friend” I’d think I’d remember him. The only thing I remember about this guy is that he [recently] sent me a couple of emails asking questions about Doug [Malloy].

BME: He says you guys met at David Menkes and that you’d invited him to the Gauntlet opening and early piercing seminars — and that you all made a big fuss out of him being straight.

ANGEL: He may have been at the NY opening. Probably close to hundreds of people were there…

WARD: I don’t recall inviting him to Gauntlet’s seminars, and, frankly I can’t imagine anyone caring whether he was gay or not.

BME: He also said that you weren’t using gloves or properly sterilizing things.

WARD: There was a period in Gauntlet’s early years when we didn’t use gloves, but I always took care to make sure the implements were sterilized.

ANGEL: While things have dramatically improved since those days (1991 or so), we were pretty state-of-the-art at that time. Gauntlet has definitely used gloves since before my time there (in the 80s).

BME: I assume you know that he also personally thanks Richard Simonton (although he misspells it) in his book…

WARD: I kind of figured this guy for a phony, and not all that in tune with what’s going on. If memory serves me correctly, he initially contacted me saying he wanted to know more about Doug and his connection to the organ world.

As you probably already know Doug Malloy was not his real name. It was the name Richard Simonton used for his piercing exploits. Rafti couldn’t understand why I persist in calling him Doug Malloy when that wasn’t his real name. I thought that was pretty clueless and wrote back that I didn’t think he’d call Mark Twain “Samuel Clemens” in the context of his writing, so why would I call Doug “Richard” in the context of piercing? Don’t know if he got it, but I haven’t heard from him since.

No surprises there. Let’s check with Wes at Unimax.

BME: Were you aware that Rafti stole large parts of his book?

UNIMAX: I’m not even sure that he’s aware of that.

BME: Rafti lists you as his primary reference and biggest supporter, and he quotes you as saying that anyone who doesn’t buy his book has no interest in piercing.

UNIMAX: Well, I changed that. I took that off of my site when I saw that it was a little overbearing. That was just advertising.

BME: Am I correct in assuming your relationship with him is basically the same as you’d have with any of the authors who’s books you sell?

UNIMAX: Yes, but when he showed me the book I was very impressed with the amount of material he compiled.

BME: Well, I think it’s important to note that he didn’t actually write it. I mean, I can’t just go buy a tattoo magazine, scan the photos, and make my own magazine.

UNIMAX: No, definitely not!

BME: Anyway, Rafti says you’re his biggest supporter. Is that accurate?

UNIMAX: I’ve been a supporter of his efforts. I support anybody’s efforts! But I don’t stand behind his work. I’m not saying that. I can’t vouch for his work. I didn’t even read his whole book, it’s impossible to read.

BME: What do you think of Rafti? I can’t tell if he’s crazy or lying.

UNIMAX: He’s a little strange… you know… he’s a strange kind of person. [laughs] Just to refresh. I support anybody’s efforts if they’re doing it legitimately. That was my support of him and it’s as far as it goes. I don’t support anybody who’s doing anything illegal. I never have.

True to his word, as soon as Unimax found out about Rafti’s fraud, they removed his book from their catalogs (Mario from WoodBodyJewelry did the same after finding out about Rafti’s scam). Maybe we’ll have more luck checking with Prick Magazine. Or is that wishful thinking?

BME: I’m trying to get in touch with Kim Morin of Prick Magazine.

PRICK: She hasn’t worked for me for quite a while now.

BME: William Rafti is using her as a reference. Do you know him?

PRICK: William Rafti? Naw, I can’t say that I do, unless he goes by “Billy” and he’s a fat bald guy.

BME: Well, he is kind of fat, but he has hair. How do I get in touch with Kim?

PRICK: Kim didn’t exactly leave on the best of terms… I can’t speak for either one of them. If you could pass it along that they should stop using [Prick] as a reference, I would really appreciate it. But Kim is a good piercer, and if he worked for her…

BME: Oh, he’s never been a piercer.

PRICK: [laughs] Well, what’s he trying to pitch then?

BME: He’s got this thing called the Rafti Institute which wants to offer piercing training courses, and he’s got a plagiarized book about piercing that he tells people he wrote.

PRICK: Weird… I think I remember a guy wanting to get involved with us, starting to talk about publishing a book. But he was a little too far out there for me to deal with.

BME: Yeah, that would be Rafti.

PRICK: Just tell him to cease-and-desist mentioning Prick Magazine next time you talk to him.

No surprises there — although I have to admit that I find it surprising that someone would give out references that aren’t going to say nice things! I tried to track down Kim Morin to hear if she had anything to add, but unfortunately had no luck in doing so.

Next I decided to see if I could find “Kivaka”, who Rafti had said was going to be one of his instructors at the school — touting his 13 years of experience (which I would later find out from Kivaka’s website was an inflated claim). Kivaka works at Tattoo City in Lockport, IL and we had a brief chat about Rafti’s statements — Kivaka had just woken up and seemed a little dazed, but I got the impression he was a nice soft-spoke guy who’d simply been tricked by Rafti’s emails.

BME: William Rafti is listing you as one of his primary references, so I wanted to ask you a little more about that.

KIVAKA: Oh, right on.

BME: How would you characterize his skills as a piercer, and as someone qualified to lead the piercing world forward?

KIVAKA: Well, I’m pretty sure he’s not a piercer…

BME: Have you ever even met Rafti?

KIVAKA: No, I’ve never met him… No… We just corresponded a little across the Internet.

Big surprise… ha.

Next I called Starborn Tattoos in Las Vegas, a shop that Rafti said was the only studio in Las Vegas that was good enough to get an inspection certificate from him. After a bit of phone tag I managed to get in touch with Creeper, an experienced — albeit retired — piercing artist from “the old days”.

BME: William Rafti said you’d act as a reference for him.

CREEPER: Yeah, I know him…

BME: Would you say he’s qualified as one of the best piercing instructors?

CREEPER: Well, no… I was taught by the best years ago. The way all these piercers are nowadays is why I’m not in the business any more.

BME: You don’t pierce any more?

CREEPER: No. The way piercers are taught nowadays I just don’t agree with it. My piercers have to apprentice for a year before I even let them pierce.

BME: You know that Rafti’s school is just a $15 certificate, right?

CREEPER: I didn’t know that… So he’s a scam…

Sample “scam” certificates avaiable from Rafti, available without inspection. BME: You’ve met Rafti in person?

CREEPER: Yeah, he came in here and looked around. But there wasn’t a piercer here at the time when he came in.

BME: There was no piercer working?

CREEPER: Nope.

BME: And I guess you can’t really vouch for Rafti’s skills or knowledge?

CREEPER: No.

BME: Has he asked you to instruct at his school?

CREEPER: He asked me something about it, but I said “no way”. I’m just not interested in the piercing thing any more. It’s gone way too wild for me! I pierced for ten years and apprenticed a lot of piercers. I don’t even do it any more. I just tattoo now.

Well, that’s the end of Rafti’s industry references.

Getting in touch with John Seaton of the Suffolk County Health Department was extremely difficult — I called for days, every few hours, and no one was able to ever find him (even Rafti had warned me that he was extremely busy). On my last day of research, when I was ready to write off Seaton as unreachable, he answered and I was able to ask him about Rafti’s credentials.

BME: Do you know William Rafti?

SEATON: I have a disc [from him]; he gave me a disc but I haven’t looked at it yet.

BME: He told me you would vouch for him as a piercing instructor…

SEATON: [laughing]

BME: …and that you’d been waiting 20 years for something like this to happen?

SEATON: [laughing hysterically] …You know, I hate to tell you: the guy came in, he showed a bill of goods, and I looked at him and it just sounded too fishy. You know when something appears to be too good to be true?

BME: He says you trained him and endorse him as qualified?

SEATON: [laughs] He may have been through my certification course and earned a certificate.

BME: What does that course involve?

SEATON: Knowledge of bloodborne pathogens. I teach a little course — a couple hours.

BME: So it’s not something that qualifies someone as a piercer; it just covers the basics of contamination control and so on?

SEATON: Yes — that’s all we can certify. As to skill as a piercer, the law doesn’t address that.

I’m sure no one is shocked at this point, but Rafti’s claims to be endorsed by the Suffolk County Board of Health as a piercer let alone an instructor are stretching the truth pretty thin. He simply took the afternoon bloodborne pathogens course offered by the county to anyone who wants to take it.

So what of Rafti’s lofty credentials? Perhaps he’d at least tell me where his degree was issued — after all, he was claiming not only to be a dude writing a book, but also a scientific researcher (he made the preposterous claim that soaking a piece of body jewelry in brine solution could detect how well it would fare in the body — anyone with even basic knowledge of implant standards as they apply to metallurgy and biology knows the notion is foolish).

BME: You claim to be an expert in this field — what is your actual experience that backs that up?

RAFTI: Thanks for implying that I’m an expert, you can also call me handsome if you want. I claim to be what I already said.

BME: I didn’t imply that you’re an expert, and you didn’t answer my question. Anyway, have you done other research-oriented writing that prepared you for this book?

RAFTI: I’ve written for other publications that would not like being associated with piercing or tattooing in any way, shape, or form so I will not mention them. I have a wall full of credentials — I have credentials for all kinds of things. My mentor, who’s name I am not going to mention, was an international attorney.

I studied anatomy — but don’t quiz me on it. I took a first aid course but my certification expired, and I was certified to run an air compressor.

BME: Ah, so you’re “qualified”, but it’s a secret. I see. In your book you say that you are a piercer and a tattoo artist. Who trained you and where have you worked?

RAFTI: I worked “underground”. The people who I’ve pierced came to me because they thought I would do a good job, distrusted the local studio, and gave me lots of understanding when things occasionally didn’t go as hoped.

I was strongly encouraged to go into piercing professionally — one of the studios that was going to hire me (no apprenticeship) instructed me to answer the phone by saying “Hello asshole, this is asshole speaking, what do you want?”

I will be doing a few tattoos within the next year on people who don’t care if it comes out right. [Editor’s note: That is not a typo — he actually said this!]

BME: Um… Ok. Sounds like you have high standards. So how many piercings have you actually done?

RAFTI: I’ve done about seventy to seventy-five actual piercings on living people and currently have no plans to do any more.

BME: So what makes you qualified to design and run a piercing school, let alone have the egomania to call it “the most advanced piercing course” available?

RAFTI: I’ve done at least seventy piercings, and I wrote my ebook.

BME: Whether you wrote that ebook or not is for the courts to decide. Anyway, have you ever even seen or attended any of the other courses available?

RAFTI: I have not received piercing certificates from any place other than myself, and that was a conscious decision based on my personal beliefs. I do have a proficiency test of my own creation but it is proprietary.

BME: How many students have taken your course?

RAFTI: None.

BME: Sounds successful… so basically, you can’t tell me anything about your imaginary school (or your credentials to run it), other than it’s the best, but the proof is top secret?

RAFTI: I will divulge the collagen aspect of my “most advanced piercing course”. What I am working with is so new that it doesn’t really have a name — I call it a “Matrix Resistance Simulator”. The trick to simulating mucosa surface lies in growing a kombuka hongo into a proprietary substrate matrix under a steady temperature. By using different frequencies of temperature change various densities can be achieved.

The advantage of my Matrix Resistance Simulator is that although it is very much like skin it is instantly self healing — unfortunately it can dry out to a scab-like crust long before it gets pierced to pieces, [so] it is best to keep it covered with saran wrap between uses. My program involves practicing the techniques in sets like a weightlifter does — can you do it ten times in a row without making a mistake? Can you perform a random series of piercings? I don’t want to see anyone piercing a person until they find their inner grace. It’s best that if a student can’t develop the eye-hand coordination that they fail.

BME: Well that’s about the goofiest training idea I’ve ever heard. It doesn’t make any sense at all — and there’s no such thing as “kombuka hongo”, so you may want to check with your alien advisors on that.

Do you even have any piercings?

RAFTI: That’s a rude question. I have one piercing, an 8ga frenum. I did pierce my ear once with a sewing needle, and with a thumb tack, and also with a staple. I also used an ear piercing gun.

Would you want a brain surgeon who’s never undergone surgery on his own brain to operate on you?

BME: You’re comparing apples and oranges — that analogy doesn’t make sense. A better question would be “would you get a massage from a masseuse that’s never had a massage” or “would you go to a restaurant where the chef has never tasted food?”

RAFTI: Thanks for contributing your own false analogy.

BME: Thanks for avoiding the question. Let’s move on. Ignoring the issues of your total incompetence in running it, if you have plans to run a legitimate piercing school, why do you sell “professional piercer, certified by the William Rafti Institute” certificates to anyone with $15?

RAFTI: I am also willing to make custom certificates for shops that offer their own training — the shop gets their name on their own certificate!

BME: But doesn’t that kind of invalidate the whole legitimacy of your potential school?

RAFTI: I believe that most of the piercers out there are qualified whether they have official certification or not. I believe piercing certificates are modern day talismans — they tend to bring on a desired calming effect that leads to better results. I believe that it is part of our tribal instinct to require talismans, as they enrich and empower us.

BME: Um… OK… You have to understand that it’s getting harder and harder not to laugh at your every response… So why have a school at all then if piercers are already mostly qualified, and all it takes to make them better is hanging up the magic “talisman” certificate you offer? Do the students even need you then?

RAFTI: When the students are ready the teacher will appear, or when the teacher is ready the students will appear — either way works for me.

BME: Now I understand, sensei. “If you build it, they will come.”

Now, I want to be very clear on one thing: I don’t think Rafti is an idiot. In fact, I think if you can ignore his overwhelming and eclipsing mental — and ethical — problems, he’s a lot sharper than many would give him credit for. He just happens to be crazy, and not in a good way. When I asked Rafti a question set that I ask of people who ask to become part of BME’s QOD staff he did far better than I expected he would — no better than the average piercer, and with some deranged rants thrown in, but better than I expected:

BME: “I have a 6 ga Prince Albert. I was interested in getting it changed to an apadravya, but both the piercers at the studio I go to say that isn’t possible — can you think of any reason why that would be?”

RAFTI: It’s possible that the studio is not comfortable using a 6 ga needle. Some studios prefer to go no thicker than 8 ga. You should give them a call or stop by the studio and ask them your question. Try to establish better communications with these piercers, you might learn a lot.

Another possibility is that your PA was pierced too close (shallow) to the tip of the penis, making proper placement of a apadravya impossible. A PA is normally placed about 5/8” to 3/4” back from head. Sometimes a studio may hesitate to tell you that you had your PA pierced too shallow out of fear that they might be insulting another piercer’s work. You might want to consider asking your piercer if it would be a better idea to do the apadravya behind the PA.

BME: Good answer, although I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a piercer trying to avoid saying something bad about another’s work.

Next question: “I have my nipples pierced right now (healed) and I wanted to get a second set. I wanted to get the second barbell nice and deep, so the old one pierces the full width of the nipple tip, and the new one pierces the full width of the areola. Would that work?”

RAFTI: I find the “pierces the full width of the nipple tip” part of the statement confuses me, but I think I understand the question. It could work, but only if your nipples are large enough. You don’t state whether both piercings are going to be aligned the same (horizontal or vertical). You are more likely to have enough room if the second piercing is done at opposing angles to your existing piercing, this is especially true if you prefer to wear barbells.

BME: Actually, this is a horrible idea — when you pierce a nipple this deep, you risk damaging and blocking milk ducts. In this commonly occuring problem, an infection can be trapped inside the breast (mastitis) and even lead to mastectomy. You really shouldn’t be recommending this depth of piercing to people.

Next question: “My piercer told me there’s aluminum in the jewelry he’s selling (along with titanium). I heard that aluminum exposure can lead to Alzheimer’s Disease… Should I use different jewelry then? Isn’t that a needless risk?”

RAFTI: I have personally tested a number of batches of titanium barbells, including anodized titanium and from my findings believe that titanium is at least equal to 316LVM for inertness.

BME: Well, the medical industry (and the piercing industry) has known for a long time that titanium is far superior to stainless steel for implantation use.

RAFTI: Here is an eye opener, there is a range of acceptable proportions for each alloy, and each batch of metal does not necessarily have the exact same properties as every other made by the “same” recipe. I could teach a seminar on this, it’s got interesting implications for all of us.

BME: Actually, metals made and certified for implant use are manufactured with very rigorous adherence to quality and there are not notable variations between batches.

Next question: “I heard recently that tools can’t be guaranteed sterilized if they’re in a pouch, but everyone says that I should be sure to watch them open the pouch in front of me so I know the tool is just for me… Who’s right?”

RAFTI: Neither, the best way to tell is to look at the sterilization indicator mark on the pouch. Tell the piercer you are a naturally “paranoid” person who doesn’t want to have nightmares weeks from now, and refer to your “phobia” of dirty needles. This will gain the sympathy of any piercer that I’d trust.

Then tell them to show you the mark on an unused pouch (the pouch will be labeled as to what kind of change to expect), and then [do] a visual examination of the sterilization mark on the sterile pouch that will be used in your procedure. If you do not see a distinct difference in color then you should be very concerned that sterilization is not what it should be.

BME: Well, that’s not true at all — those “sterilization marks” (they’re actually heat and pressure indicators) on the pouches are not reliable indicators of sterility.

Next question: “How often does the water in an autoclave need to be changed?”

RAFTI: It depends on the autoclave. If you are using a Prestige autoclave try not to leave water in it overnight. With many other kinds of self heating autoclaves it’s more important to keep the autoclave properly filled with water than to change it, as this prevents corrosion on the coils.

BME: Not changing the water in an autoclave is extremely dangerous! The endotoxins that build up in the water resevoir survive the sterilization cycle and can contaminate the tools and jewelry.

Next question: “I tend to get really woozy even watching a piercing. I want to get my rook pierced, but I don’t really want to pass out… What can I do to keep this from happening?”

RAFTI: Make sure to eat a meal an hour or so before getting pierced, eat a candy bar, or some sweet cookies (Oreos seem to be a blood bank favorite). Glucose tablets are also helpful for a lot of people, and are easily portable.

There is also a high glucose energy soda available that I saw in the supermarket — it cost $7.50 (US) for a one liter bottle. You might also want to look for this kind of thing in health and nutrition stores. A warning for vegetarians and vegans: glucose is blood sugar.

BME: Are you insane? While the common expression “blood sugar” does refer to glucose levels, glucose is not distilled from blood!

Glucose being made of blood because of the expression “blood sugar”… Classic!

Anyway, not that I think being able to answer these questions decently justifies his glaring theft and deception.

Talking to William Rafti turned out to be one of the biggest wastes of time for me in 2003. That said, while his ravings may seem like a combination of funny, pathetic, and ignorant, there’s actually a danger in lunatics like Rafti being around, especially when they persist in trying to create schools with false and stolen credentials. I realize that the average BME reader can see through him in a second, but not all clients — let alone potential piercers — are that well informed.

It’s often difficult for people to find an apprenticeship, and many people will jump at the opportunity to take part in a sham school like Rafti’s — after all, if you don’t know that it’s stolen, and you’re not familiar with computers, his book could give one the false impression that he is a leading author on the subject (rather than simply identifying him as a nut and a petty thief).

Rafti is a very sad case, because it’s pretty clear after speaking with him that he’s not particularly lucid, and really doesn’t have much of a grasp on reality — there really is a possibility that he genuinely believes that he wrote this book, and that his references check out, and that he has a lofty (albeit top-secret) set of credentials. I’ve been a little split on whether I should even publish this article, because it’s really making me feel like I’m beating up on a mentally handicapped kid (I feel even worse launching legal action against an invalid, but what choice might I have?). When it comes down to it, he is potentially endangering the public — at a minimum he is misleading them and stealing their money (and mine as well I suppose).

In any case, I hope this illustrates how important it is for consumers to be informed — scam artists and liars are rife in this industry (and in many others as well), and they’re not always easy to detect from afar.

Sincerely,

Shannon Larratt
BMEzine.com

Update

After I made it clear to Rafti that I wasn’t going to roll over on the copyright issues, and I informed his distributors and eliminated the majority of his ability to sell the book, he posted the following note on his website’s order page:

On of December 5, 2003 I became aware that some of the material I used in this book was improperly cited, this is very bad for me to have done. Over the last several years I have greatly improved my ability to organize things on the computer; this does not excuse any of the mistakes that I made along the way at all, even if I was unaware that I made them until now.

I sincerely believe that I’m doing very good work here, but I have a greater obligation to properly credit my sources than to add on top of something that obviously “stinks”, for this reason I am no longer making the Body Piercing Encyclopedia available for distribution in any format.

This project can not continue until I properly locate and credit sources that I have plagiarized. The problem in doing this obligatory task is that I have to compare all the information in my book, to all the information that is outside my book- logistically this is impossible for me to do.

If you support what Im trying to do, then I need each and everyone of you to send me any information that you can find of any material that I used without properly citing my source. I simply can not do this all by myself alone any longer, without your help the Body Piercing Encyclopedia Volume 1 is dead.

Please send constructive criticism only (please) to me at [email protected]

I wish to thank Mr. Shannon Larratt of BME for being the first to bring this to my attention, he does a lot of good work, Im sorry that I got some of his work confused with my own.

While I do appreciate that the stolen material is no longer being sold, it’s really “too little, too late”. The fact is that the result of my investigations into the text of the book strongly imply that it is nearly all stolen and from a myriad of sources — most of whom have no idea who Rafti even is (it’s not as if the webmasters of rhinoplasty4you are going to be buying his book). And I’m really not sure I buy his newfound “me so sorry” routine. I just can’t quite convince myself that one can “accidentally” commit fraud on this level and be totally unaware of doing it.

In cases of mass plagiarism it’s not enough to just say “let me know if you see anything stolen” — a request which makes it very clear that Rafti really has no idea where his text starts and the stolen text ends. I came into this review hoping that there would be something salvageable from this book, that my comments would result in improvements. However, I have come to the unavoidable conclusion that this book is rotten to its core and can not be saved.

Then of course there’s the matter of the money — Rafti has potentially made thousands of dollars by selling BME’s and other people’s work as his own. Personally I’m not in it for the money — I’ve always felt that this information should be as free as possible which is why BME/News, BME’s FAQs, glossary, risks, and encyclopedia projects have always been publicly accessible without charge and advertising-free. So while I may be entitled to it, I am not demanding at this moment that Rafti send me his profits. That said, if he wants to ethically purge himself I would encourage him to donate the proceeds to a suitable charity such as The Planetary Society, Antiwar.com, Adopt-a-minefield, or AIDS.org (and provide proof).

My only hope in all of this is that this “tough-love kick-in-the-ass” will help Rafti address these serious issues, both in his research methods and his deception about his potential skills. It’s clear from talking to him that Rafti is a driven individual who desperately wants to produce this project — and that’s a good thing. I do believe that Rafti has a better comprehension of the subject than most, and if he started over from scratch, being careful to properly document his sources, he might actually be able to produce something of real value.

That said, I don’t believe that Rafti is now or ever will be qualified to teach a piercing school and I think it’s a mistake for him to continue pursuing that path. I also think his needless confrontations with influential and integral individuals and organizations in the piercing world are constantly burning bridges and creating enemies where he should instead be fostering alliances and finding people to help him.

I think Wes Wood had the right idea when he said that he supported everyone who was working legitimately. I’m dismayed that Rafti is not. I’ll be surprised if he turns himself and this project around, but still, I hope he does.

2003 APP EuroCon Report “Politics is supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.” – Ronald Reagan Going to my first APP convention, their recent EuroCon in Amsterdam, I didn’t really know what to expect. It’s been many years since I had any real dealings with the APP — fights over my support for scalpel piercing, dermal punches, and so on led me to believe that they were an overly conservative bunch of elitist piercers that weren’t particularly concerned with my “progressive” vision of the future of piercing. A few friends that “defected”, coupled with the APP’s continuing difficulty in drumming up much support from this community had me writing them off as not just useless but dead. And then I went to EuroCon. After attending almost every single seminar, and getting to talk to the board members and piercers, my mind was most definitely changed. I now see the APP as an essential and positive group that I hope all piercers will support and take part in — we need the APP! Having seen what they’re trying to do, I believe that the APP has the potential to be the backbone of the industry, serving to educate piercers, unite piercers, and present a strong front in dealing with the government and the mainstream public. The convention also illustrated the need for groups like the APP in keeping piercers informed and up to date on the overwhelming range of professional issues that can be very hard to keep up on in the absence of reputable trade journals and other organizations. DAY ONE Rachel and I took an overnight flight, arriving the morning the convention started. We stopped at our hotel for a nap and got to the convention space at about noon where we were greeted by Bethra Szumski, the current APP president, as well as other familiar faces such as Alicia Cardenas of Twisted Sol in Denver, and Megg Mass of Infinite in Philadelphia. We’d missed the first class or two (bedside manner I think), but after lunch an anatomy course was scheduled.   Unfortunately the anatomy course was almost single-handedly destroyed by constant disruptions by Aimee, “The Bearded Lady”, who seemed utterly unable to restrain herself from constantly shouting out commentary and loudly asking ignorant questions. I don’t know if she’s a total moron when it comes to anatomy, or just so much of an ass that she felt that she had the right to destroy the seminar, but I can’t write this report in good conscience without saying I hope she never comes to another event I’m at, and I’d definitely never recommend her studio… A number of the people got angrier and angrier as the seminar tried to progress — I really thought a couple folks were going to jump up out of their chairs and punch her! After all, people had spent a lot of money — maybe even money that they shouldn’t have spent — to come to the event and many had difficulty with English (bilingual piercers were vounteering as translators). The fact that someone would knowingly and willfully try and damage the effectiveness of the conference is incredibly crass. The anatomy class was being taught by Betsy Reynolds, an oral biologist who acts as somewhat of an advocate for the piercing community, counter-balancing some of the ludicrous statements made by anti-piercing dentists and so on. While the information she was presenting on healing was concise and relevant, I was a little surprised that it was being taught here at all — from my point of view it was disturbing that anyone wouldn’t know this anatomy in their sleep. The presentation was running slowly, in part because of constant interjections about piercing procedure. Eventually Paul King had to step in and ask that people save their procedure questions — this was an anatomy lecture and not intended as a technique debate. At the end of the first day I was still pretty convinced that it was going to be a waste of time. The anatomy course had been boring, basic, conservative, and Aimee (see sidebar) was doing her damndest to make the attendees look bad — or at least have a bad time. At the end of the day Rachel and I walked around town a little, stopped for a rather bland meal somewhere, went back to the hotel and went to bed.   BETSY REYNOLDS OUTSIDE THE BEURS AT THE APP PARTY SPAIN REPRESENTZ   DAY TWO Seminars in theory started at 9:30, so a little after 9 AM I arrived and was told the seminar — basic piercing technique — was pushed back until ten. Technical problems seemed to plague the event, and it wasn’t until 11:30 that things actually got started, with the technique seminar being bumped to the afternoon. I think the only good news, echoed by the people sitting around me, was that Aimee had decided to “skip class” that day, so at least we didn’t have to put up with her disruptions. Alicia then took over what was left of the morning with her stretching seminar. Given how basic the anatomy course had been, and because I’ve got more than a decade of stretching experience, I expected to be bored stiff — but I was very much mistaken! She started with diagrams showing exactly how stretching occurs on an anatomical level, detailing micro-tears and collagen replacement.   Dermal Punches and Scalpels aka Why is the APP so square? Everyone knows that the APP presents itself as a conservative organization. In the early days, The Point ran articles damning people who used dermal punches and scalpels, or anything else that blurred the line between surgical technique and piercing — piercers such as Michaela Grey were adament in their anti-extreme statements and many believe she and others even got to the point where they were lying in order to present an overly conservative view. Now, with new staff, many of who grew up around the notion of pushing the boundaries of piercing, they’ve retreated to a “no comment” stance on these subjects, but it’s still something that puts off a lot of progressive piercers. That said, have you looked at the APP’s board and members? I don’t know if they want me to say this, but you’ll see piercers there who have and perform dermal punches regularly. You’ll see piercers that use scalpels, and even piercers that do implants and pseudo-surgical procedures like tongue splitting — I’ve even heard a few acknowledge privately that they believe that in many circumstances a dermal punch is a superior tool to a needle and that they wish they could endorse it. They just won’t say that in public or attach it to the APP name in any way because of the legal issues. What took me so long to figure out is the APP’s real role. The APP’s role isn’t cultural revolution. The APP’s role is not to fight battles with the government. The APP’s role, as I observed it, is to work with our “enemies” and to make slow and consistent changes inside both the piercing and the mainstream worlds in order to better this community. To do so, they can’t have their piercers going on public record as criminals! To illustrate with an example, conservative environmentalist groups like the World Wildlife Fund can effectively work with governments to protect the environment, but eco-terrorist groups like Earth First! have to resort to direct action since the government can’t negotiate with criminals — even if those criminals are in the moral right. I think a lot of us in the piercing community, especially those that lean toward the kind of “no holds barred if it makes you happy pierce it” stance that BME espouses, don’t really understand this way of doing it — if we want to do a tongue splitting on our buddy, we’re gonna do it, state law be damned! But the fact remains that unless you want to be underground forever, making positive changes in the piercing community does include playing the politician — which means very slow change and a lot of compromise to get our way. The APP probably isn’t going to do anything for someone who’s happy practicing out-of-sight, out-of-mind work in a small shop that doesn’t really have a future. The APP, at least as I see it, is there for people who see body piercing as a career. Their ranks are peppered with piercers in or approaching their 40s, who have families and homes, and shops with ten to fifteen years of respectable history. As much as a large part of me really likes being the “rebel industry”, logically I understand that if we are to survive above-board in the long term, the APP has chosen the right strategy. Want to join the APP? CLICK HERE

Also covered were stretching techniques, jewelry, and even lots of little tidbits for business owners like “stretching cards” (cards for your customers that encourage them to come back for slow and healthy stretching with incentives like 10% off on the next stretch if they wait). I do think Alicia has a little bit of an unfair bias against plastics, but she’s an engaging speaker that does a great job of covering basic material while throwing in enough trivia and advanced information to keep any level of audience enthralled.

After lunch, Bethra gave an in-depth and highly technical jewelry and metallurgy seminar. I was pretty tired at that point (still on Canadian time), and diagram after diagram of atomic structures was putting me to sleep. Since Bethra had prepared a hand-out with all the information, I took off for a nap. On my return she was just finishing up and Megg was about to start the basic techniques seminar, the technical problems having finally been solved.

HANDOUT EXCERPT

Megg’s also a great speaker and an experienced and progressive piercer who’s very good at presenting material that’s old hat to most people but with enough tips in it that I think even a piercing veteran would get a lot of out it, fine-tuning their techniques. Her seminar, prepared with Elayne Angel, contained numerous ideas that would improve any piercer’s work. Much of her seminar also focused on the subtle aspects of organizing a studio and its support staff to best facilitate and safe and pleasant piercing process.

	AT THE APP PARTY	AT THE APP PARTY
	AT THE APP PARTY	COLD STEEL REPRESENTZ
	BRUNO AND BRENNO	FRANCE REPRESENTZ
	SO MANY RAFFLE TICKETS	AT THE APP PARTY

DAY THREE

I showed up at 10 AM to again find that things had been pushed back even further — not so much for technical difficulties, but because people were simply late arriving. Maybe I’m a nerd, but if I had spent a few thousand dollars flying to a convention I’d go to the effort of showing up on time for the classes. I was surprised to hear that it’s not unusual at the Las Vegas convention for as many as half the people to not even bother showing up at all!

Meh.

The first seminar was one I’d wanted to take for a long time, the Bloodborne Pathogens course prepared by David Vidra and Health Educators, being taught by Alicia. This is one of those basic seminars that every piercer should know backwards and forwards, and like CPR certification, it’s the kind of thing they should be doing regularly to stay sharp. When it involves people’s lives — being able to provide a safe and aseptic foundation for your studio is the basis of this seminar — you don’t want to get sloppy!

HANDOUT EXCERPTS

The presentation that followed was the one that really freaked me out and was probably the most eye-opening one of the event. Julien Ball of Prestige Medical, one of the leading autoclave manufacturers, gave an overview of modern sterilization technologies. It was fascinating to learn about the different procedures in Europe (for example, they use aggressive monitoring and charting of their clave’s performance, while spore tests are almost unheard of), but what really got to me was an overview of the difference between vacuum autoclaves and “normal” autoclaves.

HANDOUT EXCERPTS

For those that don’t know, an autoclave sterilizes when the pressurized steam hits the surface of the items in the clave. If the steam doesn’t reach the items due to some blockage, sterilization doesn’t happen. Where it gets scary is that a simple pocket of air can, in some cases, provide this blockage. What that means is that a normal autoclave as is used by virtually 100% of North American studios can not guarantee sterilization of anything hollow (receiving tubes, tattoo tubes) or anything that has been placed in bags (basically all tools and jewelry) — there were definitely quite a few faces in that crowd turning white as Julien talked (see the handouts I’ve provided here for more information on this).

It was hard to get an answer out of Julien as to exactly what the risk level was — did these air pockets form every cycle, or one in ten thousand times? After all, Prestige Medical has a vested interest in the subject since there’s a higher profit margin in a $7000 vacuum clave than a $900 field-medic special! I was surprised to find out that about 70% of the piercers at the convention (the majority of the Europeans there) were using triple-pulse vacuum claves as well as single use water systems — some of the gear in the European studios was amazing. One German piercer even had an $8000 automated “tool dishwasher” in his shop!

HANDOUT EXCERPTS

Al Prescott, organizer of the Derby conventions and developer of the Safe Working in the Tattoo and Piercing Industry vocational course, followed with an exhaustive seminar on risk management procedures which also touched on the extremely high standards that European (and specifically UK) studios are held to. I don’t think American or Canadian studios could match these without at least doubling prices — which might be a good thing since it could eliminate the low-end studios (although it could do the opposite since low-end studios tend to be more profitable and therefore more able to invest in new hardware).

The third day’s seminars ended with CPR certification which I skipped, but the day itself was to be capped with a party of everyone at the convention to give away some very generous prizes from the exhibitors — probably six thousand dollars worth of stuff was given away in the draws. Rachel won a belt buckle and some ring openers! I on the other hand won nothing…

DAY FOUR

The final day started with an aftercare presentation by Alicia, covering the pros and cons of a wide range of products in use by this industry. Unfortunately Aimee showed up about half way through it, shouting out a bunch of irrelevant questions which had already been discussed before she got there. I just don’t understand why someone would come all that way and act like such an ass… It was funny though — I think she must have clued in that she was pissing people off because when anyone would ask where she worked she was extremely evasive, just saying things like “a place on the east coast”.

Paul King’s informative and entertaining “amateur piercing anthropology and history” seminar followed. Paul is definitely a guy who I’d call a “piercing nerd” — someone who can go on and on about it and is interested in every little silly piece of trivia on the subject. Given that’s how I’d also describe myself, and given that it’s so hard for any one person to get a real picture of this community (so much of it is still oral history), it was wonderful to be able to assimilate his stories — many of which have been making their way into the new BME encyclopedia project (which will be officially unveiled on January 1st, 2004).

His stories about the rituals he watched during his travels in Penang were especially touching. We’ve all seen the gory photos of hundreds of thousands of people marching through the streets with giant cheek skewers — they seem so different from us — so enlightened. We are given the impression that they do these things naturally, and that everyone is in touch with God. That’s not entirely true though. Just like here in the West the occasional person will have to abort their suspension because they’re not ready to accept it, or it’s just not the right day, the same happens in Penang. I think the most moving photo I saw the whole time I was in Amsterdam was a young man sitting, emotionally exhausted, not able to take part in the ritual — and in his face I saw the same face I’ve seen in my backyard whenever someone asks to be pulled down from a suspension early because they can’t handle it.

It was at that moment, Paul said, that he realized that all of us in this world are the same.

Megg gave the final seminar, on legislation. I wasn’t sure how this was going to go over because some of the European piercers were already annoyed at the American bias on some of the subjects. However, the seminar didn’t talk specifics — its goal was to help teach people in down to earth terms how to deal with politicians. Given that Megg has helped Philadelphia come up with some of the best piercing legislation in the world, she’s more than qualified to teach this. Her anecdotes of her own successes in this area should be effective strategy for anyone around the world facing the same issues.

HANDOUT EXCERPT

The day finished on a bit of a sad note though, as Bethra thanked everyone for coming, and let them know that, for financial reasons, this would probably be the last time the APP would host a European convention. However, the day before the convention started they’d hosted a mini-event introducing all of the heads of the fledgling European professional piercing organizations — some had only two or three members, but I think they walked away empowered, and thanks to seminars like Megg’s legislation one, with new plans of attack as well.

I think everyone there was looking forward to the day when we’re able to have a world piercing convention, hosted by dozens of professional groups from all over the world.

MEXICO REPRESENTZ

BRUNO, CHRISTIANE, AND TEN YEARS OF PAIN

ALEX AND FOXX

MEGG MASS AND PAUL KING

THE CONVENTION FLOOR

A small but nice cross-section of jewelry suppliers from around the world had booths at the event. Most of it was the same stuff that you’d see at every single tattoo convention — in all honesty I think they could have done without the floor. That said, I’d like to mention Quetzalli, an organic manufacturer from Mexico that had truly gorgeous examples of ammonite-inlaid ear jewelry as well as plugs filled with intricate and beautiful beadwork.

CONCLUSION

I met a lot of really wonderful people — a lot of old friends, online friends, and many new ones as well. Bruno and Brenno from Italy were wonderful — talented piercers and body artists full of enthusiasm in their fledging association. Christiane from Norway showed me Håvve’s new book, Ten Years of Pain, about the history of the Pain Solution performance art group (the book is wonderful and I hope to have it in BMEshop soon). Russ Foxx from Canada was great fun to see, as was Carlos Escobar of Spain. It was also nice meeting piercers like Alex from the UK who I knew from the good things their many clients I deal with all the time said about them.

I know I’m forgetting people! I apologize!

I also met with Andrea (Lacrima Rubra) from Germany who showed me video of years of her performances and introduced me to some new friends and other friends who — like so many of my acquaintances — I know only by their genital mods! I also got to see my old friend Patrick Bartholomew again which is always nice, and Kor (Ego Kornus) really impressed me as well. It was very interesting to talk to a performer who comes from an art (modern ballet) and ritual background more so than a body modification background. And the forty or so beers we drank that afternoon between us polished off that day very nicely!

I could name people endlessly and still forget some who made the event worthwhile for me, so I’ll get back to EuroCon itself. I had three main problems with the APP convention that I think to be fair I should mention. First, I thought parts of it were disorganized and unprofessional, resulting in things like handouts not being ready on time and projection systems not working — given the expense that had been gone to in hosting, and the fact that the attendees had spent a lot of money to come I thought this was unfortunate. That said, as someone who’s hosted events, I know this is pretty normal.

Second, I thought better fact checking could have been done. While the presentations given by specialists were very strong, some of the more general reports were riddled with historical errors, typos, and substitutions (naming the wrong soap as vegan and so on). They were just little things, but I felt that it’s that final touch that really makes a presentation perfect.

Finally, an exceptionally poor job was done in marketing and promoting the convention. Most of the European piercers I talked to had absolutely no idea there was an APP event in Amsterdam, and those that did assumed it was for Americans only and not oriented to Europeans. A lot of the value of the convention came from dialog with the attendees, not just the lecture sessions, so this mistake was their most serious.

Let me be very clear though — those complaints are listed in order to be thorough and honest. I do not believe that they tainted the conference to the point where it wasn’t worthwhile. While the majority of the information being presented was old hat to me, there were still volumes of knowledge being shoveled that was new and that I needed to hear — and that every piercer needs to hear.

The next APP convention — a much larger one that draws over a thousand piercers (some of the best in the world) — is at the start of May, 2004 in Las Vegas. Now, it happens to coincide with Shawn Porter’s wedding, so I’m going to have to miss a day, but assuming that America doesn’t stop me at the border, I’ll be there, eager to keep learning. I hope you’ll be there too.

See you in Vegas,

Shannon Larratt
BMEzine.com

PS. Thank you to the APP for inviting me to come and being generous enough to extend my press passes into the seminars. Thank you as well to Bethra, Megg, Paul, and the other APP members for making me feel welcome. Finally, thank you to them as well as Julien, Al, Betsy, and the other speakers for sharing their knowledge.

What’s in a Name?

'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,

Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!

– Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene II
William Shakespeare

One of the things that’s unique about the way that body modification is used in the West is that it’s individualistic. On a historical level, when you examine body modification in more “primitive” cultures, body modification’s purpose was deeply steeped in social identity and social structure. One’s modifications signified one’s role in life and position in the tribe — a role generally immutable and determined by birthright. That is, body modifications played a role in transforming the individual into a piece of the whole. In modern society body modification often does the opposite — its role is to transform a piece of the whole into an individual. It is a way of defining a unique and self-determined identity.

Much of who we are is defined by our community and our family. Our skills, interests, and our names are all chosen primarily by others while we were children and infants — modern body modification is a part of a larger set of actions that represent a significant step in human cultural evolution — the end of homogeneity.

The Internet has played a fascinating role in this shift through the seemingly innocuous requirement of asking people to choose usernames for their email, websites, and IM clients — what is this but an adult choosing to name themselves? Thus it is put into common consciousness the idea that one’s identity is self-defined, rather than externally assigned. There’s nothing stopping people from using their real name online, but how many people do you know that do that?

Until recently, online identities tended to be secondary — almost like secret identities — but as the line between the online world and the offline world blurs, the dominant identity takes control, and often that’s the online one. For those of you who’ve attended IAM BBQs and other offline events of online communities, you know that you are more likely to know people by their chosen name than their given name. As a result, name tags usually list the IAM name, and it’s very normal for people to refer to each other by those names in conversation — and often not even know the given name of their friend!

People with body modifications are already very used to a self-defined identity — an adult identity that’s different than the child identity — so it should come as no surprise that an increasing number of IAM members are legally changing their “real” names to match the identity they’ve created for themselves. Now, before you cringe at how weird this is, ask yourself: Are your friends the ones you chose, or were they assigned? Do you watch the movies you choose, or are they assigned? Do you wear the clothes you choose, or are they assigned?

Why should a name be any different?

Meet the Reverend Grenade Bee Of Death, who you may also know as iam:Grenade. When he married he took on his wife’s name with his own, and of course after their divorce it only reminded him of things he’d rather forget. He worked a solitary job, and over time most of his friends were people he met online, where while playing the game Planetarion he was known as The Holy Handgrenade of Antioch. Grenade came to be his regular online name, and when he started meeting online friends in person, no one could bring themselves to call him “Martin” — so the nickname Gren stuck.

The name Martin became less and less relevant as almost everyone called him “Gren”. After an epiphany as to the nature of people and friendship, and after time spent with good online friends he legally changed his name to Grenade Bee Of Death. After posting this to his IAM page, and explaining how easy it was, he helped a few others do the same.

I asked him whether he felt different with his new name and what he described was very similar to the amputee fetishists who when asked if they feel different without their legs reply, “no, now I feel normal!”

I find that there is very little difference, to be honest. Given that very few people need to use my surname in addressing me, and that people have been calling me Gren for a long time, I feel little change.

I had to give my name to a policeman the other day, and I got the distinct impression he thought I was taking the piss, but he was very reasonable about it, just asking me for spelling.

On an emotional level it is kind of liberating, and in the same way that I embraced piercings and tattoos... it is something that I have chosen for myself. I think it's another thing that makes me feel more in control of my own life.

Obviously there are some elements of regret, in that I no longer carry my family name. I guess that if I change my mind later, then "change of name" is a fully reversible "mod"!

Now meet Swirly Wanx Sinatra, the first person to contact Gren about doing the same, formerly swirlywanx on IAM, now going by his full and legal name, iam:swirly wanx sinatra.

About two years ago “Daz” started realizing that blending in just wasn’t for him. While looking through large amounts of tattoo flash with an older brother he saw that it was mostly just commercial scribbles and commented, “that’s awful… just a load of swirly wank!”

The comment stuck, and when he joined IAM he did so as swirlywanx — of course at BBQs people had no idea he was actually Daz, and simply called him “Swirly”. At the same time his non-IAM friends started doing the same, and in jest started adding surnames and completing the identity. Soon he realized that he’d “grown into” Swirly, and after choosing “Sinatra” as a classy surname (“Wanx”, sounding too much like a down-on-his-luck pornstar, was demoted to a middle name) he legally became Swirly Wanx Sinatra.

Other than the occasional outburst from fools thinking he’s degrading Frank Sinatra, after a bit of checking that they’re not being messed with, people tend to respond with something along the lines of “that’s fucking cool… stupid as shit, but cool!”

Now meet RooRaaah Mew Crumbs.

For his whole life, Andrew Paul Johnson had been called Roo (on account of And-rew of course) — you know him on IAM first as AndyRoo, then RooRaaah, and now as iam:MisterCrumbs. He never liked his full name, and it didn’t feel right — “it just doesn’t fit with how I see myself.”

Starting with Roo, a friend a few years ago added “Raaah” and he liked it (“simple as that!”). “Mew” comes from his passion for cats, and his tendency to actually say “mew” a lot in conversation (“you have to experience it to appreciate the full greatness of how it sounds”). “Crumbs” as well comes from a quirk of his character and interests —

I think it stemmed from Danger Mouse... I'm not sure if you have seen it but Penfold used to say "Crikey crumbs sir!" when they were in a spot of bother, and it stuck with me.

Now that the change is complete, RooRaaah refuses to answer to “Andy” any more, and has spent the last while trundling around Liverpool changing his details. His workplace was incredulous and tried to refuse to accept the name change, but ultimately they didn’t have a choice — it is his legal name. At first there was a lot of explaining, but now he just leaves them stumped with a “why not”.

It's very liberating changing something that has been with you since birth, but that wasn't of your deciding. To other people it's only a name, but to me it's my identity — or at least a small part of it which the outside world uses to address me.

Andrew Paul Johnson or RooRaaah Mew Crumbs — not a hard choice really is it?

I just feel more relaxed with this name. When I think of Andrew Paul Johnson, I don't think of me. Now, when I hear my name, I do think of me.

HooorahRooRaaaah!

In a recent poll of about 1,500 BME readers, only about forty percent said they’d never considered changing their name — this is a very common drive. Well over a hundred people told me they actually went by a chosen name, and forty-five of those had legally committed to the change.

In talking to people who’d chosen their own names and rejected their given names one commonality appeared — the idea that the new name “felt right” — that it actually represented who they were, rather than acting as simply an ID tag of sorts. Body modification is of course the same phenomena, a remaking of the self into what “feels right”, and it’s for that reason that the online body modification community is one of the groups pioneering what may soon come to be a tsunami of name changes reflecting online identities.

What effect this will have in the long term is of course still to be determined — is the world a better place when we don’t feel identity-bound to the past? Can you build a successful tribe out of a multitude of individuals, or do you need people to voluntarily accept some degree of slavery? I hope these people’s stories help you think about your name and what it means to you, whether you have any interest in self-defining or not.

Good luck figuring out how you’d like the world to know you,

Shannon Larratt
BMEzine.com

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A 48 hour waiting period for tattoos?

"Aesthetics are not our concern. If an adult understands, and it's clear that they understand, go do it! You or I may not like it, but the last time I checked this is America!!! Someone who understands what he or she is doing is free to do it."

– Carl Goodman, Marblehead Board of Health

The story on the right by Alan Burke appeared in last Friday’s (October 3, 2003) edition of The Salem News in Salem, Mass. Local legislators recently passed regulation instituting a 48 hour waiting period for almost all tattoos and piercings. At first glance, it’s a fascinating concept — kind of an enforced “are you really sure you want this tattoo?” BME caught up with the chairman of the Marblehead Board of Health, Carl Goodman, and talked to him about this unusual legislation and what motivated it.

BME: This is probably the first time in the country any such legislation has been instituted — what made you decide to do it? What was the motivation?

Goodman: The State had alerted boards of health that we were authorized to regulate and that the State was, again, leaving it to local boards to deal with these issues. I believe it was through the Department of Health that they made some model regulations available for local boards to work with. We looked at it and recognized this is becoming an increasingly common practice and therefore we really needed to address it from a public health perspective. If practitioners chose to operate in Marblehead we wanted to ensure that public health was protected.

BME: I don’t understand though how the 48 hours does that. You’re quoted as saying that it’ll reduce the number of drunks getting tattoos, but what’s to stop someone from being drunk again 48 hours later?

Goodman: They certainly can, but at least there’s an opportunity for someone to go “wait… what was I going to do?” It’s really because of the permanency and because it does involve what we consider to be a surgical procedure — and there is no medical professional in attendance. We had no one come forward from the industry when we published our public notice. Had there been someone saying, “hey, could we have an exception if we had a registered nurse in attendance who certified…”, but we didn’t have that. Given that this is a procedure where dyes are applied under the skin, it seemed reasonable to make sure that a customer would be giving clear consent that would be obtained in any medical context.

BME: Does the legislation also ban tattooing drunk people?

Goodman: Oh, absolutely!

BME: So, isn’t the 48 hour thing superfluous? I’m not entirely clear what it’s trying to stop.

Goodman: I don’t think it’s superfluous. It’s trying to assure that the regulations are complied with, that people have considered whether or not they want to have this permanent procedure performed.

BME: When they go to the tattoo studio to make their appointment, does the tattoo studio have any requirement to give them any paperwork — how does someone get informed about the risks?

Goodman: There’s detailed information that the practitioners will be required to give. The regulations provide that the Board of Health will develop the form for consent and notice and so on. Within the regs we’ve listed a number of issues, most of which come out of the model regs — the basic surgical risks, as well as the permanency, and so on. We’ll have all of that available, and those kinds of notices can be amended from time to time by the board so that if issues come up we’ll be able to deal with them and revise as needed.

This notice will have to be sent to the Health Department.

BME: Are you saying that all tattoos done in Marblehead have to be registered with the government?

Goodman: Notice of the tattoo, yes, but not what the specific tattoo is.

BME: The notice will include their name and identification? And it will have to be filed with the government, not just kept on record by the studio?

Goodman: Yes, that’s correct.

BME: Hmm… You’d also said that the 48 hours gives parents a chance to step in?

Goodman: Well, yes, if you’re dealing with minors then clearly we think it’s in the minor’s best interest that the parent have the opportunity to determine whether or not this invasive procedure is acceptable.

BME: Most areas restrict tattooing to 18 and over anyway. What’s the age limit in Marblehead?

Goodman: I don’t think we set a minimum age. It’s not our place to step in and tell parents that they can or can not allow their children to do something, but it is our place to make sure that minors who are undergoing a procedure obtain parental consent. If the parent permits it, that’s an individual family decision. I don’t want to get into that role!

BME: Will parents have to actually be at the studio?

Goodman: The parent must sign the consent forms. As in any other situation where parental consent is required, the proprietor of the establishment will have to determine that consent has been legitimately obtained. We don’t specify the parent has to be there, but in any situation where you need to confirm consent, you want to be sure you’ve actually got it!

BME: You’re quoted as saying there will be severe penalties for violating this 48 hour ban. What are the penalties?

Goodman: In this case it can be up to loss of license. Alternately, suspension of license or fines. If they continue working without a license, prosecution would follow which would be up to town council. The first thing that would happen is an application for a cease and desist order from the courts.

BME: Does this waiting period apply to all piercings as well?

Goodman: There’s an exception in there for single ear piercings with disposable one-time-use tools, for the jeweler that has the sleepers or the gun that does a single pierce…

BME: Does that mean if a person did an ear piercing with a needle there would be a 48 hour waiting period?

Goodman: No. Many places will do what’s called a “single pierce” where the entire instrument is disposed of. The routine, traditional ear piercing is excluded, as well as anything of this nature performed by a licensed physician. If you want to have a whole series of holes in the ear, and a physician is going to do that for you, our regulations don’t apply.

BME: I know that it doesn’t currently have a tattoo studio, but how big is Marblehead?

Goodman: Marblehead is four square miles with a population under twenty-five thousand. It’s geographically not a location where there’s a high probability that someone would want to practice this art, but as a board of health we wanted to be sure that if someone comes to town that he or she is dealing with the public in a proper way that protects the public health.

Our role — our obligation — is to protect public health, and that’s what we try to do here. But we haven’t had any bodyart applications for license yet, so I’m not sure that it will ever come up!

BME: Finally, what did you mean when you said that people having metal objects protrude from themselves wasn’t a public health issue?

Goodman: The aesthetics are not a public health issue is what I meant. Whether or not I personally like a particular kind of body art — the aesthetic issue — has nothing to do with public health. I personally may have some opinion, but that doesn’t enter into the public health issue. The public health issue is the conditions under which this is done, that it’s sanitary, that the practitioner has a certain level of competence, and that the individuals undergoing the procedure are aware and understand the surgical risks and other attendant risks associated with the procedure.

Aesthetics are not our concern. If an adult understands, and it’s clear that they understand, go do it! You or I may not like it, but the last time I checked this is America!!! Someone who understands what he or she is doing is free to do it.

This is Marblehead. We believe in independence.

So there you have it, straight from the source. Personally I wish everyone would self-impose a 48 hour waiting period (at least) on any such decision, but I’m not entirely sure that I’m comfortable being forced by the government to do so, let alone filing my name with them when I do so. At the same time, we all know that many tattoo studios, especially the less established or lower-end ones survive off of “walk-in” appointments where a person wanders in off the street and leaves with a tattoo an hour or two later. How eliminating this sector will affect the business is difficult to predict, but given the permanence of tattoos, one has to ask oneself whether it is ethical to tattoo a person that wouldn’t want that tattoo 48 hours later.

Goodman was very clear that these regulations are up for revision, and that he understand that not everyone sees the posted legal notices. Anyone, especially those in the area, are always welcome to visit or contact the Board of Health (at 781-631-0212) and discuss the issues, and they are willing to work with studios (should they ever open in Marblehead) to fine-tune these regulations to serve the public good.

We should also look at some important nuances in both Goodman’s statements, and in the regulations themselves. Other than the waiting period, one of the things that sets Marblehead’s regulations apart is the empowerment of parents. A majority of areas are restricting tattooing to 18 and over, regardless of the parent’s wishes — Marblehead leaves that power in the right place (the individual or their guardian), whereas too many governments have seized it for themselves. In addition, Goodman, who personally does not like tattoos or piercings — going so far as to avoid shopping at stores where he’s going to have to come in contact with it — still stands vehemently behind the credo of “I may not like what you’re doing, but I support your right to do it” (in 48 hours that is).

Correction: Mr. Goodman wrote us to clarify, “while you are right that I am personnaly not a fan of body art, the Evening News while generally correct, at least in
substance, on its quotes, did not correctly quote me in the last paragraph. What I said in response to Mr. Burke’s question about seeing people with multiple facial piercings was that I know some people try to avoid shopping in certain establsihments …. I actually wouldn’t modify my shopping patterns because of a clerk’s appearance, although I certainly have would because of a clerk’s attitutde!”

In addition it should be noted that State law in Mass bans anyone under the age of 18 from being tattooed, so Marblehead’s lack of legislation in that area does not mean that minors are permitted, even with parental consent.

BME will continue to follow this story — if similar regulations are passed in your area, let us know!

Shannon Larratt
BMEzine.com

20 KANJIS: Does your kanji tattoo mean what you think it does?

Every individual is at once the beneficiary and the victim of the linguistic tradition into which he has been born - the beneficiary inasmuch as language gives access to the accumulated records of other people's experience, the victim in so far as it confirms him in the belief that reduced awareness is the only awareness and as it bedevils his sense of reality, so that he is all too apt to take his concepts for data, his words for actual things.

– Aldous Huxley

I hear people say all the time that the sheets of kanji (“Japanese writing”) that you see in tattoo studios aren’t accurate… that your tattoo of “beautiful soul” more likely actually means something along the lines of “very good sushi”. With the aid of Dita, webmaster of BMEJapan.com, I chose twenty random tattoos from the BME galleries and asked her what they actually meant.

Tattoo	Meaning
	They say it means: “To be different” Actual meaning: “Difference” — the tense isn’t quite right, but it’s close at least — difference and different are pretty similar.

They say it means: “Within the depths of sorrow, there is joy”

They say it means: “Extreme change”

They say it means: “Taurus”

They say it means: “Modified Soul”

They say it means: “Without a friend in the world”

They say it means: “Stylish”

They say it means: “Depression”

They say it means: “Drunk”

They say it means: “Soulmates”

They say it means: “I’m a stupid round-eye”

They say it means: “Pistol”

They say it means: “Naughty girl”

They say it means: “Enlightenment”

They say it means: “To thine own self be true”

They say it means: “Mike”

They say it means: “Sworn brothers”

They say it means: “Independent woman”

They say it means: “Winter blizzard”

It’s important to also add that kanji characters gain a lot of their meaning from context (that is, how they’re used, what letters they’re around, and so on). Because of that, it’s difficult to accurately translate single-character kanjis because they don’t have a context.

In any case, yes, I realize this is the most “fluff” piece I have ever written, but I hope you enjoyed it. I suppose I could go on with explanations of how to find kanji meanings and so on, but it should be obvious: learn to read and write Japanese!

Personally I wouldn’t get something that I didn’t understand first hand tattooed on me, but if you decide to go for kanji and don’t read it yourself, at least do yourself the favor of asking someone you trust for help.

Sincerely,

Shannon Larratt
BMEzine.com

Robert Dill and his Anti-American Mission

Be not intimidated... nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your liberties by any pretense of politeness, delicacy, or decency. These, as they are often used, are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery and cowardice.

– John Adams, 1765

Jodi Faltin, a fourteen year old grade nine student was recently suspended from school in Blairsville RD because of her eyebrow ring. Her parents went to the school board and stressed that she was a bright student and that they, as her parents, felt that she should be allowed to wear the ring if she wanted to. The school board didn’t budge, and she remains suspended as long as she wears the eyebrow ring.

Tattooed = Slutty?

In advertising, sex sells... But only if you're selling sex.

– Jef I. Richards

A number of readers recently brought to my attention an opinion piece, “TATTOO MAMAS” by Michael Smerconish published in the Philadelphia Daily News, in which he says that at a bar he’d be more likely to hit on a tattooed woman because, to simplify his arguments, “tattooed chicks are sluts and he’s more likely to get some”. Now, even a cursory understanding of tattooed women makes it clear that his argument is bunk — it’s a common misconception by people with a shallow understanding of tattoo culture. But what I think it taps into is an intuition that tattooed women (and men) are hot and desirable. Because of that, some individuals attempting to promote the idea that they are sexually available will “advertise” with one or two small tattoos, generally at the base of the back or on the hip or pubic region — to generalize, have you ever notice that the most promiscuous tattooed women tend to be those with the least tattoos?

L-R: PiercedPuff (photo: Francis Hills), Rachel (photo: Lee Higgs), FREE, Dunebug, and Princess Anna.
All modified and beautiful — not beauty because of their tattoos, but beauty expressed through their tattoos.

Everyone unavoidably advertises themselves sexually by their appearance — makeup, hairstyles, and choice of clothing being the most obvious examples, but body modifications play exactly the same role. However, there are two fundamental differences between the techniques. First, body modification is of course permanent, whereas fashion can be changed from day to day. That brings us to the second difference, which is that body modification uses the person themselves to advertise, whereas fashion is just a cover — more like holding up a sign or an obviously mocked-up photo, and I think that’s what makes people so drawn to tattooed individuals. A fashion victim holds up a sign that says “I’m sexually attractive”, whereas the modified individual, without any sign at all, is sexy.

In modern society we live in a world of lies — advertisers sell us products based on thirty seconds of deception, hiding that cigarettes will kill us, burgers and soft drinks will make us obese, and this car is better than that car. Governments sell us wars based on even larger lies, masking their greedy corporate sponsors in tall tales we all know are false — we know they’re untrue, and we hate them, but truth is so rare it almost seems unobtainable. As a society, we are desperate for something “real”, something we can confirm is not a lie, and something we know the person speaking to us actually believes. Tattoos offer that with their proof of commitment.

If a person gets all dolled up in their makeup and designer clothes, and goes out on the town to attract a mate, they’re not actually doing so on basis of who they are — they are doing so on the basis of how well they can disguise who they are and how well they can pretend to be something they may not be. They are competing to see who the best liar is. Who you actually wake up to, once the disguise is lifted, is a secondary issue, when in fact it should be the only issue. Tattooing of course is still a disguise, but it’s a disguise you can never take off. When a person chooses to present their identity using permanent body modification, they are inexorably changing who they are. They are becoming the ideal illusion, thereby making the illusion real.

That is, a modified individual, who goes into the procedures with a clear head and a clear goal, is able to rebirth themselves in what they perceive their best is. They become their own fantasy. Someone in fancy clothes simply pretends to be that way for a little while — they don’t actually become anything.

On the other hand, the modified individual who goes into the procedures without a clear head, or worse yet, a sense of self-hatred or poor self-esteem, potentially forever mars themselves by having created a less than ideal individual. That doesn’t mean they can’t reinvent and redeem themselves subsequently, but body modification brings mistakes that are permanent — leaving the person to build beauty on top of flaws. Of course, many people believe that true beauty is only achieved through the combination of a minor imperfection on unmarred beauty. We all know that it’s the small scar on the lip of a beautiful woman that makes her truly stunning… but that’s another subject that could cover an entire column.

In addition, as the world embraces tattooed women and men as beautiful in the mainstream sense of the word, it encourages a culture that values individual expression and unique beauty over a mass manufactured and “uniform”-based code of fashion that imprisons us. In a way, pornography has always been an indicator of the future; it is not only the first to embrace new technology, but the cultural sensibilities seen in porn almost always come to be accepted by the mainstream a decade later. BME/HARD of course exists far outside that world, but the explosive success of sites like Suicide Girls showcases the public’s desire to embrace a new and more “real” standard of Eros.

Above photos courtesy of SuicideGirls.com

A widespread taste for pornography means that nature is alerting us to some threat of extinction.

– J.G. Ballard

My point though is that fashion is transient — the ability to excel at it simply implies the ability to lie well. In a world full of lies — lies begetting unimaginable pain — this is not what the world wants any more. The world wants and needs fashion that actually represents the individual in a permanent and intranssient sense. Body modification represents that need, and it is for this reason that tattooed women and men are far more beautiful than those without.

So are tattooed women slutty by default? Of course not — but they sure are hot.

Sincerely,

Shannon Larratt
BME.com

Fighting Unfair Employment Practices

"When people go to work, they shouldn't have to leave their hearts at home."

– Betty Bender

In my previous column I talked a bit about how employers can benefit from hiring the modified. Unfortunately, most employers are still too clueless to realize that, and it’s all too common to see people fired (or simply not hired) over body piercings.

Recently I had the opportunity to interview Vickie, a 23-year old single mother who was fired from a major health food chain over her facial piercings. After being fired, even though there were no rules against body piercing when she was hired, she was denied unemployment insurance as they said she’d violated a “reasonable” rule. We caught up with her in Santa Rosa, California.

BME: Tell me a bit about your body modifications.

Vickie: I have several body mods including eleven piercings. My body modifications are one of the most important parts of my life. It’s hard to put into words what they mean to me, but I would not be complete without them. They are so much more than a “fashion statement”. They are a part of me and it is as if they had been there all along. I would never remove them for anyone.

BME: When *** *** Market hired you, did you have these piercings?

Vickie: When I was hired in the prepared foods department, my labret, tongue, and lobes were all visible.

BME: What gauge were your ears?

Vickie: At the time my lobes were 2 ga.

BME: And the store was fine with it?

Vickie: I had assumed the piercings were fine because I had been interviewed and hired with them in. Three months into working there I was told by my manager that I had to remove my labret because it was against store policy. I of course refused. I reminded the store manager I’d been hired with it and had been working there with it for three months and he agreed to add the labret piercing into the store policy as an “allowable piercing.” So after that everything was fine.

BME: So how did the problem come about?

Vickie: I kept working this job until March 2002 when I had found another one which I took. A few days later I changed my labret to a vertical labret and got double nostril piercings. However, I didn’t like my new job and wanted to come back to the old one. I called my old department manager asked for my old job back, and she of course agreed to re-hire me. I went back with my new piercings, signed the papers, and returned to work. I was given the employee’s guide which I signed certification that I had received — no where in it does it address body piercing.

After two and a half months of working there I was sent to the store manager’s office to get some tape. When I was in the office my store manager asked me how long I’d had these “piercings in my face.” I told him I’d had them for the entire time I’d worked there, and he responded that it was not acceptable for me to have these facial piercings and that I should remove them. I told him that wasn’t fair and I shouldn’t have to remove them, grabbed the tape, and went back down to my department.

BME: Before we continue, let me ask you if you were actually dealing with the public in your job?

Vickie: I was dealing with the public on a daily basis. Customer service was the main aspect of my job.

BME: And did they have any problems with your piercings?

Vickie: Most customers didn’t say anything about my piercings. If they did, it was always something positive. They would say things like “wow, that really looks good on you”, or “I’ve never seen that done before, I really like that.”

Anyway, a few minutes later, the store manager came back down and told me to get in his office now. When I got there he there told me I was trying to take advantage of the company and was going to get him fired. He was screaming at me and I began to cry. I didn’t know how to explain to him how much my mods mean to me. He would never understand.

He then told me if I didn’t remove the jewelry he would have to fire me. I replied, “I guess you’ll have to fire me because you are not being fair and I am not going to remove my piercings.” After that he went out of the office, came back with firing papers, signed them, and told me to get out. So I got my stuff and left.

BME: Were you the only person with piercings at that entire store?

Vickie: There were other people in my department with facial piercings — who might I add are still working there. Two people had nostril piercings, another had a labret, and another had a labret and a nostril piercing. I really don’t know why I was singled out. I don’t know if maybe the store manager was in a bad mood or something. I had never been written up before, so I know it wasn’t because of poor work.

BME: And it’s not as if there was a real “store policy”… The guy just made it up?

Vickie: If there was a store policy I never received anything in writing and it wasn’t in the employee’s guide. Nothing about it was ever posted to my knowledge.

BME: So what did you do?

Vickie: The next week I filed for unemployment, and a few weeks later I got a letter stating that I was denied because I broke a “reasonable” rule concerning dress code.

BME: How could they say that?

Vickie: I think they just said that because they didn’t have all the facts. I guess to them having body piercings is breaking dress code, but I don’t believe they had a copy of any store rules when they made that statement. I absolutely flipped out and immediately filed an appeal. They then sent me a letter with a date to appear in court. It took about four months from the date I was fired until the date of the hearing. I almost gave up a few times because of how lengthy the process was but I know I couldn’t let them get away with firing me.

On the court date I appeared before the judge and stated my side of the story. She told me I would receive the verdict in the mail. A few weeks later I got it and this is what it said,

"Had the claimant been informed at the time of hire that the employer would not hire her if she had more than one facial piercing, it is arguable that her decision to obtain such piercings would have breached the contract of employment and violated a reasonable employer rule.

In this case, however, the claimant was hired with these piercings in place and worked for two and one-half months without the team leader's comment, despite the fact that he had multiple opportunities to observe her appearance. Under such circumstances, it is found that even if the store policies did exist at the time the claimant was rehired, the employer has failed in its duty to provided sufficient evidence to establish that this infringement on the claimant's First Amendment right of self-expression is outweighed by the enhancement of the employer's business. It follows that the discharge was for reasons not constituting misconduct, within the meaning of section 1256 of the Unemployment Insurance Code.

The Department determination and ruling under code 1256 are reversed. The claimant qualifies for benefits."

BME: Wow! That’s awesome. Any advice for people in the same situation as you?

Vickie: If anyone finds themselves in a similar situation don’t back down. Stand up for your rights. Go through all the steps to get what you deserve. Nobody has the right to tell you what you can do to your body — it is yours. If you feel as strongly as I do about your mods, don’t give them up for anyone.

And if you’re shopping at a place that claims to be a “diverse company”, realize that in reality it may not be.

BME: Thanks for talking to us, and good luck finding a more tolerant job.

So there you have it! Sometimes the system does work, and perhaps body modification that doesn’t damage one’s work performance actually is protected. It may not seem like much, but this judge’s ruling could be an important small step towards fair treatment of modified individuals.

Good luck, and keep standing up for yourself,

Shannon Larratt
BME.com