1. How did you first get interested in/involved in body modification?
The word modification is very vague. I have always loved changing things about my body, but I assume were talking specifically piercings and tattoos: If I can remember it correctly I was very young; small enough to sit on my dads shoulders. He was carrying me through the shopping mall and I remember seeing a bunch of "goth" kids-one of them was a girl with blue hair and multiple facial piercings. My father put me down, noticed I was staring and said something to me like "You would never do that to yourself right?". I nodded my head but all I could think about was how amazing this girl was. I was so fascinated by her and I wanted so badly to look like her. Even though I was very small it had a very deep impact on me and I knew I wanted something to do with piercing ever since then.
2. What are your thoughts on what “body modification” actually means?
Body modification is doing anything to your body to make it look different then it would on it's own. It's a pretty straight forward term.
3. What is your place/position in the body modification world? ie artist, collector, etc. Please explain I am a body piercer. It's my dream job and I feel lucky that I live somewhere where I can do exactly what I love and support myself doing it. I collect piercings and tattoos from my friends; I like having their work/mark on me. My friends mean everything to me and without a lot of them I would not have had the help to get where I am now.
4. Why is body modification important to you?
Maybe it's becuase I am a girl, and women in general love to edit their looks. We like having control over the way we look and we like changing our appearance. Maybe it is instilled into us from when we are young. I know personally from a very young age I was very aware of my body and there have always been things about it I would like to look different. Even though I am often told otherwise I don't think their is anything necessarily wrong with that either. As we grow as people we want to mark the milestones. Some people mark it differently and for my I guess It's superficial things. I am always changing.
5. What is the WORST negative response you’ve received in regard to your modifications?
To be honest Ive gotten called a lot of names in the past and they hardly phase me anymore. I mostly hate it when I receive poor service at a restaurant or a store becuase It's assumed becuase of the way I look I have no money to spend. That probably pisses me off the most.
6. What do you have to say to people who look at modification and don’t understand it/judge it unfairly/don’t recognize its importance/say it’s “disgusting” and “pointless?”
I try never to get mad, becuase I think a lot of the time it's what people expect. I usually just tell people I think what I do makes me beautiful, and it makes me happy and that's really all that matters. Maybe I am vein but I love looking in the mirror and seeing my piercings and tattoos there. They make me feel good about myself and they remind me of the people who did them and how much I like them.
7. How do you deal with discrimination against your mods? For example, my family and some of my friends are very unaccepting of the few modifications I have, but I try my best to explain to them what modification means to me and get the point across to them. Sometimes I get too upset and just ignore them. How do you handle discrimination I try my best to ignore it. I'm not very close with my family anyways and I feel like my mods alienate me more, but if that's how they want to be then there's really nothing I can do to change their opinion. They are allowed to have it. I'm sure I discriminate against certain people, I think everyone does. It's not right but it's something we cant really change sometimes. It's how our brains are wired.
8. What is your favorite modification(s) that you have?
I love all of my tattoos and piercings. I feel very pulled together. My septum is probably my favorite piercing though, and I would be most reluctant to get rid of that particular mod. I went through a lot of fighting and stress with my parents over it so I'm stubborn about it not being there I guess. I hate when I have to take it out for xrays.
9. What was your first mod?
I started piercing my ears a lot when I was 13, then when I was 14 I had both nipples pierced; obviously behind my parents back.They were less then thrilled when they found out. 10. What do you do in your spare time/hobbies? Explain hobbies both related to and unrelated to body modification.
I love to paint,and I have been doing it for as long as I can remember. I scuba dive occasionally-not nearly as often as id like. I love to swim and have always loved being in the water. Hiking outside is also very fun. I play bass but not nearly as often as id like to.
11. Did you have any jobs prior to entering the body modification world? Do you hold any other jobs currently in addition to this one?
I've had part time jobs when I was younger. I was a lifeguard, a salesgirl at a high end lingerie store, a salesperson at an aquarium store. Those were my favorite jobs; I have had others but I either didn't have them long or didn't like them much. I am a full time piercer now and it's what I love to do.
12. How do you think the body modification world and outsiders’ PERCEPTION of the body modification world has changed? Definitely the fact that it's all over tv has changed it a lot. The industry is always changing really though. In some ways the changes are good becuase I feel like visible tattoos are slightly more accepted. I feel like this questions would take me 3 pages to full answer and I'm not up to that right now.
13. Fun fact(s) that you want to share about yourself.
There are a ton. If you want to find out I would love to meet you! I love to met new people.
