Name: Linda Date of Birth: 02/26/66 Place of Birth: Atlantic City, NJ Outside Interests: Music, Travel, Family, Friends, CGT Webmaster Musical Tastes: Bowie, Hole, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Janis, Beastie Boys Body Art Influences: More than a decade ago a friend loaned me a copy of RESearch's Modern Primitives. Tattoos as Art rather than ugly blue blobs, Piercings as adornment instead of abject mutilation...I was hooked! Stacy met Linda in 1995 through a mutual aquaintance. She had been piercing privately for 2 years and desired to work in a reputable studio. Linda entered Chrome Gardens as a piercing apprentice under Stacy's former studio piercer, Larz. Linda also trained under Bryan Campbell for a short time, and was instructed in proper sterile procedure and blood-borne pathogens by a registered nurse, with continuing education being provided to her by a certified medical assistant. After a year, she was Chrome Gardens full-time piercer and since that time has increased the studio's piercing and jewelry sales by more than 100%. Linda On Piercing: Body Piercing is a way by which we connect ourselves to our own bodies. In a world where it is perfectly socially acceptable to insert bags of saline in womens' breasts and plugs of hair into mens' scalps, it amazes me to see people being discriminated against for modifying their bodies with jewelry, a practice that certainly has a much more glorious historical and cultural past than silicon augmentation or liposuction. Not to mention the fact that both of those things are far more painful that most Body Piercings. I try to focus on precision rather than pain when it comes to technique, because I believe that the average piercing client is not interested in experiencing overwhelming sensations; they want their piercings more for ornamentation than the feeling of being pierced. I understand many people like to be pierced just FOR the feeling, and that's cool...but I realize that most of the client's I see are nervous and expecting much worse then what a professional piercing amounts to, which is a very quick sensation. And I feel good when a client walks away from a piercing happy that it was not as bad as what they had been anticipating. I consider each client's physical features when helping them choose proper sized jewelry and placement for the piercing they've requested. It's not about 'just putting a hole in someone'; you have to have an under standing of what you're putting a hole into, how to do it in a safe, sterile manner and how to assist your clients in the healing of their piercings. I believe that good piercings should be an enhancement to the client's features and tailored to the client's anatomy. I am not a frustrated tattoo apprentice who's only doing piercings because I'm not allowed to tattoo yet. I have been piercing professionally since 1996 and I feel privileged to be a Body Piercer and honored by the people who come to me. |
