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Bob Parr 04/15/2025
I started piercing professionally in 1999 when I began my tattoo apprenticeship in Ames, Iowa at Lasting Impressions Tattoo & Piercing. But really I started piercing 10 years before that when I was 15, in my parents bathroom with a sewing needle and some earrings when I pierced my own nipples. I was hooked immediately and began piercing friends and anyone else who would let me. Unbeknownst to my parents, I was honing my body mod skills and priming myself fo my future career. I never though it would go this far but I'm ok with it now.
Professionally, I was immersed in the very busy business of satisfying the college students in Campustown at Iowa State University. With the shop being right on the main strip directly adjacent to the college campus, business was very good. We were very busy from noon to 10pm every day. I got lots of practice with the common piercing like Tongue, Navel, Nostril and any simple and complicated ear piercings and projects. I eventually got experience doing more interesting piercing projects like ear industrials, lips, labrets, nipples and even surface piercings and below-the-belt exotics.
Eventually I started my own studio and began doing much more complex body modifications beyond what I ever imagined when I first started out. Micro-transdermal implants, or micro-dermals, had become popular and I was one of the first in the area to start doing them and making them available for the mass public. Along with micro-dermals, surface piercings and more advanced exotic genital piercings became available for everyone as long as they were 18 years old or older.
And then I witnessed scarification done with scalpels. Scars were not that well-known or well-accepted but for me, they are a mix of tattoos and piercing. It's an artistic art form using the bodies natural healing abilities to make beautiful markings on the skin. And in contrast to tattoos showing well on light skin, scars show well on darker skin. Scarification is an ancient artform that provides a totally different experience from tattoo or piercings. I predict a resurgence of the artform once I can get the word out that I have the skills to perform the service.
And when the artform of body modification intersects with the artform of performance art, that's when we get to experience the Body Mod revolution known as Play Piercing. Play piercing is when we take sterilized fine-gauge hypodermic needles with hubs and pierce the piercee multiple times in artistic designs anywhere on the body. ANd when people gather to watch the performance, then it becomes entertainment. It's exhilirating, fun, exciting and really doesn't hurt that much. If you like the idea of being the center of attention in a performance piece and feel the rush of art being performed on your body, you may consider a play piercing session. I have everything needed to accomplish this.