To begin the story, I guess that we'll go back to where I began as a body piercer. It was about four years ago that I had started apprenticing privately from my house in Alliston, Ontario. I had a friend named Chris Harrod who was tattooing and piercing in a Barrie shop called "Rising Son's". He had put some ink into me as well as pierced me before, so I trusted his skills and experience. Awhile later I inquired to him about getting an apprenticeship, for learning techniques to practice body piercing myself. I had been collecting piercings for most of my life, and through the years have had friends ask ME to pierce them just because of the amount of piercings I had collected! I didn't know how the hell to pierce a navel! All I ever had to do was lye or sit there and let someone else do it for me!
At A Glance Author Foxx Contact russfoxx@hotmail.com IAM Foxx When N/A Artist Russ Foxx Studio Foxx Works Inc. Location Alliston, Ontario Eventually, Chris and I had worked out a deal that would work out for the both of us. This deal totally excluded the shop that he was working for, except for the fact that we were using THEIR tools and sterilizing THEIR equipment without THEIR knowledge. That was Chris' bright idea. I would set up a studio in my house, line up my own clientelle, and pay him X amount of dollars for his services. I would charge each client a small fee to cover the costs of jewelry and equipment as well. Chris, in turn, would take all the contaminated tools back to his shop with him to re-sterilize, and would wait to hear back from me about another day of work. We pretty much stuck to weekends only. Surprisingly, I was rounding up 10-20 different piercings for each day we got together. Now that's organizing!
At first, I wasn't piercing at all. I was watching, listening, learning; basically taking in everything I could at a rate that now seems way too fast. Learning processes should be taken step by step, one stage at a time. That way you'll always remember everything that you have learned in that one stage, and be able to apply that knowledge to another more experienced procedure without forgetting any of the basics. Chris was just throwing knowledge at me like a dump truck load at a time. It took me quite awhile to be comfortable enough to even try it with my own hands. There are a lot of people out there who are piercing with little to no experience or training, or even proper knowledge of health standards. Bad news. That's where all the major risks come into play. Someone who doesn't even know the basics of CPR or first aid having to deal with a client who has went into shock from the procedure they have just underwent, or even worse, someone who has had an artery or a nerve clipped during a simple piercing. If any of these things were to of happened to me when I was doing this out of my house, there could have been BIG trouble. Chris should have taken this into consideration. Maybe all he thought about was the money. Not exactly the first thing you should be in this industry for, in my opinion. Luckily, I never ran into any major problems during my experiences with learning this practice. It could have been very easy for something bad to have happened though. I see this now.
After about a year of doing this from my house under Chris' supervision, I felt that I was ready to take this to a new level. I had built quite an extensive portfolio by then, and had paid Chris off in full. I had even took a loan out from the bank and purchased myself my own autoclave, ultrasonic, equipment to pierce with and a stock of initial piercing jewelry. Then I was off to find myself a job where I might be able to pierce for a living. I looked at going to a Barrie shop, but I felt no urge to sign any contracts or be a part of the tattoo shop politics in that city. I was not a biker, drug dealer, or an asshole for that matter. All I wanted to do was pierce and have fun at work. This I could not find in that city. I found work in other shops in places such as Kitchener, Wasaga Beach, Newmarket and Midland. I travelled all over Ontario to do what I really wanted to do. I didn't care if I had to sleep on couches to do so either. It was worth it to me. I found that I lea rned quite a lot from working with different artists in different sceneries. It was really nice to work with people who shared the passion that I had for this beautiful and eccentric industry. But after quite a bit of moving around, I was starting to miss my real home. Even though it still wasn't all that far away...
A few of my family members had been running their own businesses for most of their lives, so they started throwing ideas at me. I realized that to be the sole proprietor of MY OWN business, it really wasn't at all out of reach. I went to a local economic development agency and applied for my own business. That, in itself, was a piece of cake. At that point, my journey down the long path to where I am now had begun. I was lucky to have such a supportive family to back me up for anything that I could have needed during this tough time in my life. Running a business proved to be quite the money trap. That would probably be due to the fact that I'm such a perfectionist. Everything had to be done perfectly. No cutting corners. I always wanted the best of the best, in every case. Even being limited to going back to running this studio in my own place. I made sure that I had all of the equipment that I could ever need, as well as the basic CPR and first aid knowledge that I could aquire and apply to my practices. Anything that could be of any use to me I would seek out. There was no stopping me at that point. I was young and on a mission to excell.
By that point I had built up a strong professional reputation in the small town that I lived in for a good chunk of my life. The small town that I was actually BORN in also. This town watched me evolve into what I am today. They embraced it as well. Many people still can't believe how I could pierce in such a small town and actually make money, but they weren't me. I could do anything I wanted here. And damn it I'd do it to the best of my ability too! People quickly picked up on my name and the talk started. Every person that I did work for referred their friends to me. The amount of navel piercings that I was doing from my home was quickly getting out of hand. Did I really want to keep inviting total strangers into my own home to get work done? That made me nervous.
Then at that point there was a funny occurrence in my story. Someone from up North decided to open up a tattoo shop in Alliston, called "The Tattoo Cafe". Knowing that this town was growing at a fairly fast pace, they thought that it would be a good idea to run a tattoo shop/coffee shop up here. In MY town to boot. They quickly realized that cigarettes, coffee, piercings and tattoos had no place in the same shop. I don't even know how the hell they got past the health department inspections! I continued to practice from my house, and considered them to be my competition. I felt that working in the same town as me, they should at least be friendly with me. Or to at least uphold a professional attitude toward working against me in a small town. I got along well with them all at first. I even stayed up at the owner's house in Haliburton once! They were great people to me. I knew that they would always get a lot of business just because they offered tattooing to the public and I didn't. I was fine with that, although it lingered at the back of my mind for a long time. I spent time hanging out with their piercer as much as I could, just so we'd be close and there to help each other if either of us was ever in need. It was nice at first, then in time he proved to be quite arrogant and ignorant in many different ways. He had an obvious problem with anybody who wasn't of the same ethnic beliefs as him, and I would start hearing from people that he was slandering my name and work to his clients. Too bad for him that most of his clients knew me for most of my life and would not stand such rudeness. He was older than me, bigger than me, and always had something to prove. Not to mention that he worked in a shop with a couple tattoo artists, which gave him more strength on a professional level than myself out of my house. I didn't let that phase me. I held strong for the year that they were in business, then that piercer was the downfall of their studio. I t wasn't even the cigarettes that killed them! Isn't that ironic! Afte r the owner had decided to say fuck it and went back up North to stick to his old practice of tattooing en route; and the piercer was everything including run out of town, I was back in full speed. Another year under my belt. And a tough one at that! Back on my way!
At that same time, I had a couple of friends named Jason and Jamie who were brothers and ran a skate shop uptown for that same year as "The Tattoo Cafe" had existed. They called their skate shop "Trefpunkt" and did really well actually. The only problem was, they were finding that they didn't work well together and as brothers, could never get along. This was their falling out. A damn shame for them. I watched this quietly, and dreamt about what would it be like to team up with someone and open an actual shop of my own. That seemed impossible considering what I had witnessed happening between their partnership. Brothers who couldn't stick together.
Jason had disappeared to Toronto at that point to go hide from all of his responsibilities. Jamie kept his head pointed in the right direction and kept on working toward his goal of successfully running his own store. He opened a new shop on his own and called it "The Tunnel". It was a small shop, but bigger than the last one nevertheless. And he was on his own this time. He was open for a few months at the point where we sat down and began to talk of possibilities between the two of us. He had extra space and a large overhead, so he was interested in having me set up in the back portion of the shop. His expectation was that this would lighten his load, and also help bring him in more business. He decided to go out on a limb and try me out for Alliston's August long weekend festival, "The Alliston Potato Festival". Sounds corny eh? Well, I'll have you know that during this festival, Alliston jumps in population by AT LEAST 500 percent. It gets crazy out here. Not to mention all the campers that are residing in the provincial park in Alliston over the warm seasons. This was my chance!
I brought my studio from my house to The Tunnel, and began setting up. I covered the walls in my own pictures and certificates and began trying to get used to my new surroundings. This was rather hard, considering the room was painted a horrible pink colour and the floor was definately less than in perfect shape. But we had only a couple of days until the craziness began, so it would have to do for now. All I could do was put a sign on the front of the store saying "Professional Body Piercing", cross my fingers and hope for good business. Well, to make a long story short, from piercing alone I made a lot of fucking money that weekend. Then jewelry sales on top of that. Jamie and I were ecstatic of how things went. He immediately sat down with me and started discussing what would have to be done from there. We decided to split bills and stay open seven days a week. I began transforming the back into a beautiful piercing studio. It took a lot more money to get everything the way that I wanted it, but the payoff of seeing everything done was well worth it. I had it all! My own shop right on the main street of Alliston!
We stayed there for a year and a half, then the opportunity arose to grab a bigger and better building to work out of. This building would give me a whole upper floor to set up for my practices. At this point I was looking back and thinking: "How the hell did I work under those conditions"? That was all in the past now. Full speed ahead! I set up my new and improved studios, incorporated my business, and watched my income quadruple. Mind you, my overhead doubled at least as well. A small price to pay. I was ready for anything!
In closure of this experience I'd like to add that it's not as easy to run a successful business as I make it sound. I just jammed four years of hard work into twelve small paragraphs. On top of that, to pay the bills with piercing alone isn't always possible for a lot of people. I personally know many professional piercers who do not make much money if any, and still do what they do because of their sheer love for what they do. This type of work can definately be considered an art form of sorts, and also one of the highest risk industries that you can find short of being in the medical industry. Take caution in fulfilling your goals, and be sure to follow the right paths! Everyone needs help, and everyone needs discipline. That is a must. Seek out and research any learning possibilities that you can, and strive to learn every possible piece of information that is available to you. I truly believe that if you want something bad enough, there is always a way to get there. Ju mp on every opportunity to learn something new, and always look for a better way. This industry has came a long way in the last twenty years, and I'm proud to be a part of it's development. I hope to see all of the future artists upholding the highest of standards and picking up where we all have left off. That will make me a happy, retired piercer one day.