jar gun

i want to address a term used not just by the current generation of young folk, but some far too old to make the same mistake…

the words “piercing” and “jewelry” are no more interchangeable than the words “ring” and “finger”.

why do i have to explain this?

i guess we all have our things – back in the day harold used to bitch if you called the “studio” a “shop” because a “shop” is where you take your car to be fixed, art is created in a “studio”. i believe he’s since let that one go. a universal in our industry is folks that call a tattoo machine a “gun”. a “gun” has a projectile, which tattoo machines do not. on the other end of the building (typically), a lot of piercers have issue with plugs and other such jewelry being referred to as “gauges”. i can also let that one go, as we are the only country in the world (‘merica!) to use the american wire gauge standard to measure body jewelry thickness, even though we then use conventional measurements for length or diameter. seems like using the same thing for both, as the rest of the world does, would make more sense as compared to the literally backwards wire gauge standard that’s been around since before american civil war I, again quite literally.

but swapping “piercing” and “jewelry”? how did that become a thing?

it gets worse when there’s a language barrier. we had a girl come by who barely spoke english, but had a guy with her who was translating. she came in with her own nose ring, stating, and i quote, “i have my own piercing i need put in my piercing”. i replied, “one of those words wasn’t right.”

the gentleman interceded, stating, “she has her own nose ring she needs put in”. i verified she ALREADY had her nose pierced, we just needed to put jewelry in it, and he agreed in the affirmative. then, when sarah took her back to the room, we found out she did NOT have her nose pierced, she just thought we could cram the jewelry in. when it was explained that she would have to be actually PIERCED first, and we don’t do that with outside jewelry, and she was sent back to me to do paperwork, it turned out she had ZERO identification and we couldn’t do anything with her regardless.

this happens a LOT more than it should.

or i have people call and ask if we have nose piercings. when i reply that yes, we do in fact, DO nose piercings, they reply back with, “oh, my nose is already pierced, i just need the piercing.”

do you not hear yourselves?

i always follow, “well, even a second nose piercing is going to run you $65 including jewelry“, hoping that saying the “j word” will alert them to their error and correct things indirectly. typically, no. they just continue, “NO, i don’t NEED it pierced, it’s ALREADY pierced, and i don’t want it pierced a second time, i just need to buy a new PIERCING!”

to which i finally interject, “NO, you DON’T, you need to buy new JEWELRY – the piercing is the hole in your body…”

usually they either say, “EXACTLY!”, or they hang up. more often the latter than the former.

again, why is this so hard and why daphuk did it become a thing?