Identification Requirements

To be pierced at Rockstar Body Piercing, you must be at least 18 years old with one of the following government issued photo ID’s:
• Driver’s License
• Passport
• State ID card
• Military ID

We WILL NOT accept any other form of identification.  It is important to note that Massachusetts temporary ID’s cannot be used.  We may ask for secondary ID if we deem it necessary to establish your identity.  ID fraud is a VERY serious crime, and we will prosecute anybody who presents a fake ID to the full extent of the law.

Parental Consent

You must be at least 15 years old to be pierced at Rockstar Body Piercing.  Your birth mother or father must be present. 

Your parent will need to have:
• Driver’s License
• Passport
• State ID card
• Military ID

The child being pierced will need:
• Birth Certificate
• Military ID
• Driver’s License
• Passport
• State ID card

Again, we WILL NOT accept any other form of identification.  Last names and street addresses MUST MATCH between parents and children.  If they do not match on the ID's, a birth certificate must be presented.

Some common questions:

Q. Can my brother, sister, uncle, foster parent, “legal guardian” etc. etc. etc. sign for me?

A. Unfortunately, no.  At this time only biological parents can sign for clients under 18.

Q. What about my social security card, school ID, health insurance card?  Can you take those for ID?

A. No.  Only the ID’s listed above are acceptable.

Q. I forgot my ID, and I just drove all the way from ________.  Can I email/fax/bring it to you later?

A. No.  We must have ID before any piercing can be performed.

..........................

So you want to become a body piercer?

  

I get asked for an apprenticeship nearly every day I work.  Obviously,
that means I need to say “no” to an awful lot of people.  It’s not in my nature to be painfully honest
and tell people what they don’t want to hear. 
That having been said, a lot of you folks out there that are looking for
jobs in the piercing industry are just not the right fit.  So I have written the following not to be
insulting, self righteous, or egotistical. 
I’ve written it to be as honest and helpful to you as I can possibly be.

.. ..

There are a lot of things that can make you a good candidate
for an apprenticeship, and a lot more that can kill your chances. I want to be
very clear about the criteria and qualities necessary to be a piercing
apprentice at my shop:

 

1) I need to have a place for you to work.  

Why? Well, let’s say I train you and you become a competent piercer.
 Won’t you be frustrated that you aren’t actually piercing for a living?
 I know it would bother me that I could pierce well and wasn’t actually
making money doing it.  If you find yourself working one shift a week, or
just substituting for the other piercers, you are going to go stir crazy.
 Eventually, I’m going to lose you to another shop, and now I have trained
someone who will be my competitor.  Keep in mind, taking on an apprentice
is extra work for me, and now I’ve worked for months (or years) on someone who
will be a competent competitor.  That’s bad business.

 

2) I need to know that you are really motivated to be a great body piercer.

Being really motivated seems easy enough, right?  I mean, you are already really motivated!  Well, at
least you think you are.  To
work at my shop, you must attend the Fakir Musafar Basic Piercing Intensive.
 When I hear you say, “I’m really passionate about body piercing, but I
can’t afford the school or the flight right now” it means to me that you aren’t
really all that passionate.  Essentially, you will need to save about
$2500 to take the class and stay in ....San
Francisco.....  If you can’t save that in a year, it
means to me you are either too irresponsible to save money or you want instant
gratification.  That is just not enough to be my apprentice.

 

3) Getting an apprenticeship is a popularity contest.

Rockstar doesn’t need the brooding, quiet, introverted type.  We need the
body piercing equivalent of a cheerleader.  We need happy, friendly,
positive folks that can light up a room with their smile.  Body piercers
need to be clean, smart, creative and passionate, but they also need to be
likable, approachable, and able to command the center of attention for the
length of time it takes to perform a piercing.  If you hate people, hate
public speaking, and hate awkward social situations, why on Earth would you want
to be a body piercer?  Make no bones about it: body piercing is a job for
people who like people.    


 

4) My shop is not the stepping stone to a tattoo career.

Piercing is not the way to get into tattooing.  That’s sort of like
becoming a dentist so you can eventually be a gynecologist.  Don’t waste
either of our time.  Start drawing.

 

5) When your apprenticeship is over, do you want to open your own shop?  

That’s good!  You’re an entrepreneur and I can relate to that!  You
will need to pay for your apprenticeship, though.  No one wants to train
another piercer out of the goodness of their own heart.  We, the
established piercers, need to see a profit in the future, whether that is from
your work as our employee or from actually being paid for the apprenticeship.
 I think you will save us both a lot of drama by being up front about
this.  By being forthcoming and being prepared to pay for your
apprenticeship, you also nearly guarantee that you’ll actually get taken on as
an apprentice.  This also goes back to #2, and if you pony up a large
chunk of money for an apprenticeship, I know you are serious about becoming a
good piercer.

 

Here are some final tips for making yourself into an attractive piercing
apprenticeship candidate not only to me, but to most good body piercers:

•      Wear good body jewelry.  Better yet, wear body
jewelry from my shop.

•      Have retail sales experience.

•      Take a bloodborne pathogens class from an OSHA approved
instructor.

•      Learn CPR/First Aid at the American Red Cross.

•      Take anatomy and physiology classes at your local
community college.

•      Volunteer to promote my shop by flyering.

•      Read a lot about piercing.  Learn its history.

•      Work on your people skills.  

•      Go to Sky Renfro’s apprenticeship primer class from
Professional Piercing Information Systems.  More info is available at www.Propiercing.com

•      Go to the Fakir Intensives Basic Piercing class.
 More info is available at www.Fakir.org

Here's an interesting article about antibacterial products, like antibacterial soap, and the harm they cause. 

Years ago almost all piercers recommended cleaning with antibacterial soap.  The Fakir Intensives school was one of the major forces against that sort of thinking.  Most piercers have sinced figured out how bad of an idea that is.  Whatever side of the H2Ocean debate you are on, we can all agree that AT LEAST we're past antibacterial soap.

http://www.sciam.com/print_version.cfm?articleID=024FEAE8-E7F2-99DF-323D8E02C4E48BF6

By Jef Saunders

 

At Rockstar Body Piercing, we suggest the use of sterile, preservative free saline solution in a spray can for cleaning piercings.  There are a lot of saline solutions out there, though.  Here are some that are available and the reasons they do or do not work.

What Makes Sense

Wound Wash Saline

This saline solution is great because we know exactly what it is and what it does.  It is a 0.9% isotonic, preservative free saline in a metal can (so it doesn't ever get contaminated).  The only conceivable downfall to wound wash saline is that it does not contain buffers to make the pH more body compatible.  Some piercers like the lack of additive(s); some prefer the pH neutrality of a contact lens saline.  We don't think it really matters either way.

Contact Lens Saline

This saline solution is sterile, preservative free, and has buffers added to make the product pH neutral.  Using this product on a piercing is, in reality, using it for a purpose it was not intended.  If that bothers you, I would suggest Wound Wash Saline.  We like contact lens saline because its cheap, it works, and the difference between it and Wound Wash is negligible.

Nasal Spray Saline in metal spray cans

Here is another spray, sterile, isotonic saline.  It's a little expensive but is just as effective as contact lens saline.  Again, if using the product for a different reason than indicated makes you uncomfortable, use Wound Wash saline.

PDI Sterile Wipes

These wipes are isotonic, sterile, and single use.  They are also difficult to find and very expensive.  Still, they work beautifully and are great for taking on trips. 

 

What Does Not Make Sense

Irrigation Saline in a screw off top

This saline is sterile and preservative free.  It is also instantly contaminated by air (or q-tips, gauze, your hands, etc) as soon as you open the packaging, which makes it wonderful for a single use only.  You absolutely must throw this product away after a single use, which makes it relatively useless for piercing aftercare.  The product packaging is very explicit in this regard.  If you'd like further information, call Kendall, the manufacturer of several brands of irrigation saline. 1-800-962-9888

Contact lens Saline in plastic squeeze bottles

This contact lens saline starts out sterile, but is contaminated by air as soon as it is opened.  To help remedy that problem, the manufacturer adds preservatives.  These preservatives could irritate your piercing.

Multi-purpose Cleanser

This product is in the contact lens aisle, but its only "purpose" is contact lenses. You cannot multi-task multi-purpose cleanser, it is not saline.

 

H2Ocean

I won't include a picture for fear of having to look at the awful packaging.  How could I suggest a product that won't let me know what's actually in it?  This isn't really saline, but more of a saltwater pseudo-scientific product.  It might actually work really well, but I can't recommend it until I see a complete ingredients list, a pH, and a salinity percentage listed on the packaging.

 

One of the most pervasive body piercing myths is the idea that if you drink a brewed alcoholic beverage, you will get "yeast" into the piercing, thus getting a "yeast infection".  Fortunately, nothing could be further from the truth.  Why is this? 

 In the same way there are lots of different cars, there are also a lot of different yeasts.  Some are good for baking bread, some are good for brewing beer, and some are pathogenic.  Beer brewers and bread bakers do not use pathogenic yeast to brew beer or bake bread.  In the same way that you cannot change a Chevy Malibu to a Nissan Altima, you can't change edible yeast to pathogenic yeast.

 An example of a pathogenic yeast strain is Cryptococcus neoformans (which usually causes a disease called Cryptococcosis in people with compromised immune systems). [1] An oral yeast infection in an otherwise healthy person is known as Candidiasis.

"Candida is commonly found as a commensal yeast in the mucus membranes of humans and other warm-blooded animals. However, sometimes these same strains can become pathogenic... The pathogenic yeasts of candidiasis in probable descending order of virulence for humans are: C. albicans, C. tropicalis, C. stellatoidea, C. glabrata, C. krusei, C. parapsilosis, C. guilliermondii, C. viswanathii, C. lusitaniae and Rhodotorula mucilaginosa. Candida glabrata is the second most common Candida pathogen after C. albicans, causing infections of the urogenital tract, and of the bloodstream (Candidemia)." [2]

So we know that Candidiasis is caused by Candida, which makes a lot of sense.  What kind of yeasts do beer brewers use? There are actually quite a few different kinds that result in different beers and different brewing styles.

"Beer brewers classify yeasts as top-fermenting and bottom-fermenting... An example of a top-fermenting yeast is Saccharomyces cerevisiae, known to brewers as ale yeast. Bottom-fermenting yeasts are used to produce lager-type beers. These yeasts ferment more sugars, leaving a crisper taste, and grow well at low temperatures. An example of a bottom-fermenting yeast is Saccharomyces uvarum...

Brewers of Bavarian-style wheat beers often use varieties of Torulaspora delbrueckii, which contribute to the distinctive flavour profile. Lambic, a style of Belgian beer, is fermented spontaneously by wild yeasts primarily of the genus Brettanomyces." [2]

You will notice that none of those yeasts is a Candida variant.  That's because Candida yeast is drastically different from brewing yeast.  The point being that drinking a beer is totally safe because the yeast in it cannot under any circumstances cause an infection.  Beer yeast is not pathogenic yeast.

It is frustrating that body piercers will come up with fallacies like the oral piercing yeast infection myth, because it takes so little research to disprove.  The Association of Professional Piercers (APP) made it very easy by writing an article in the winter 2003 issue of "The Point".  The same article, written by Elayne Angel, was reprinted in the February 2005 issue of "Pain Magazine". [3]

My suggestion to anyone who has heard this myth is to educate your friends and, if need be, your piercer.   By allowing misinformation to flow unchecked, we are doing a disservice to the body modification community. 

If your piercer is telling you these poorly researched myths, what else might they be wrong about?

 

[1] http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000966.htm

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brewer's_yeast

[3] http://www.safepiercing.org/PDFs/Point27.pdf

 

 

 

1)Call Ahead! 401-272-0345. Even if you give us a "heads up" an hour before you come in, we can better accomodate you.

2)Bring ID! Rockstar insists you have a Valid (non-expired, non-altered, undamaged) Drivers License, military ID, passport or state issued ID card from the DMV.

If you are under 18, call ahead for the specifics of what paperwork you need to bring.

3)Eat something!  Trust us!  Getting pierced on an empty stomach = no fun.

4)Don't drink anything alcoholic beforehand, do any drugs, or "numb" the area... it will only make us not pierce you.

5)If you have questions,call and ask them, or email us!  We want to help you through the piercing process, and no question is unimportant!

Welcome to our Blog. It is in this blog that we will attempt to show you new jewelry, piercings, and aftercare. if you have qustions, please email mosjef@rockstarpiercing.com

The following 14k Gold jewelry comes from our friends at Body Vision
The photos are courtesy Xina Giatas