I'm a professional body piercer. With the body piercing, how I got into it, when I was a little girl, I had all these dreams that I wanted to achieve. I wrote it down on a piece of paper. So one of them was becoming a body piercer.

Before I was a body piercer, I was a massage therapist. That's because I didn't really know what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. So I tried the massage therapy thing and I just, I did not like it. It's just not for me. It's not for everyone. I guess I was going through like, after high school, I didn't really know what to do with myself. I didn't really believe in myself and I didn't really know my talents. I was still trying to figure out who I was and what I wanted to do. So I did massage therapy just because I needed to make money. And then I just decided one day that I had enough of not living my dream. So I think I was 23 when I started piercing.
I don't think it's a coincidence. I know that's so funny because I didn't really think about that, but I don't think it's a coincidence. I think that was meant to happen for me to, understand the body better. Because when I went to school for massage therapy, I went to school for anatomy and a whole bunch of other things, but it's totally about the body.

It's so funny because even before I was a piercer, I was still in the spa industry, the reason why I stopped doing massage therapy was because, I feel like when you massage someone, a part of you takes their energy with you. And I just felt really drained afterwards. It's just, it's a very physical job. So that's why I left the massage therapy. Another reason why I left massage therapy was because I also wasn't comfortable with just men being weird about getting massaged, so that's why like I left, massage. That's why I'm retired. It's different now because I'm only, I only have a few minutes with this person. It's short. So I am touching their body, but I'm wearing gloves. I still feel like that energy exchange is there. But since then I've been working on my spiritual side to myself as well. Like I've been reading books about how to protect my energy, and how to protect myself with energy, and since I know that, I feel like it's very different now. So, while I still feel like I'm empathetic, so I do feel the person's like energy, and, I feel like the difference between massage therapy and then body piercing is, that I have a few minutes with this person, while with the massage therapy, I have one hour, 90 minutes, or two hours with this person. I prefer body piercing because it's just, it's just really quick and I don't have to touch you to line. When I started, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. I got to connect with people. But it's a massage. Everyone who gets a massage doesn't talk. It's relaxed. It's the purpose is for the person to relax. It's for the person to help with their muscle aches. And a whole bunch of other stuff that, well, I wasn't, I didn't have enough knowledge on that. But, I guess, at a point I stopped, I stopped liking massage therapy because, from my own personal life, from my own personal, traumatic experience, I realized that I'm not comfortable.

I only have one sister and she was the main inspiration in my life. And she was very into, rock music. She will listen to Linkin Park, she will listen to a whole bunch of other rock bands that were so popular during the 2000s, early 2000s, so that's like the Y2K. If I could describe my sister's fashion during that time, it would be gothic Y2K. She would wear a black lip liner, with black eyeliner, black nails. She would wear a lot of red colors too, and that was her favorite color. She would wear long maxi black skirts with a red corset top, fishnets, and boots or wedges. So she was my main inspiration. And then, also, my parents, mainly my father, my father would not let my sister go out and hang out with her friends unless I go with her. So that's another reason why I got very influenced by my sister. And her friends were also very into rock music, and they would dress alternative.

I have a chosen sister. She's not my blood sister, but she's a family friend of ours. She's also one of my inspirations too, because she had a very hippie kind of fashion. She would listen to The Doors. She will listen to Jefferson Airplane, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Janis Joplin, Sublime, Fish, Slightly Stupid, like all those reggae, hippie kind of music from the 70s. She would wear jeans, but not skinny jeans, just the straight one. And she would wear vans. She would wear tie dye shirt. She would wear a leather jacket with those hippie glasses. Actually, no, she did wear skinny pants. She did wear skinny jeans. Yeah. So I feel like music and my sisters really played a lot in my fashion sense.

Oh, and I have my aunt. She also was an inspiration to me because, she would take me to New York City, and we would go to stores like Trash and Vaudeville, which used to be in the east, the east village, now it's somewhere else, I forgot, but, this is when the store owner was still alive and his name was Jimmy, rest in peace, Jimmy. But yeah, she took me to Trash and Vaudeville, which is like a punk gothic clothing store. And I was so blown away when I saw the store, she bought me on my first trip, New York City brand, trench coat. But her style was very different. Her style was bohemian and I guess like bohemian dark, dark aesthetic, but still bohemian. So she would wear, like ethnic, I guess, the chokers or like really big necklaces with crystal rings and crystal earrings. So like spiritual bohemian, but still dark aesthetic.

I feel like the goth community, they, I feel like what they share in common is, not everything in life is happy, rainbows, and sunshine. It's, for me, like being alternative, for me, it's, also embracing the dark side of myself. Nobody talks about all the bad things that you don't talk about, so for me, I relate a lot to this community because, not that I'm trying to be different, but it's just not everyone talks about, really tough times that they're going through in their lives. Back in the day, everybody wanted to be positive, just talk about positive things and positive and like rainbows and sunshine. And it's not rainbows and sunshine all the time. Sometimes life happens. Sometimes you got to go through really bad stuff in your life to make it to the other side to make it to the positive side of that, I feel I love this community a lot because it embraces your dark side. And it doesn't necessarily mean that you're evil, it just means that you're a real person with real emotions, you're a human being, you go through life, you go through really tough times. And you also have to face that you have to face the side of yourself that you do not want to see, that you're that you're uncomfortable with. So this is, this is why, I love alternative music. I love, I love rock music. I love alternative community, gothic community because of that.

My father passed away when I was 13. And so for me, that was very traumatic. And I went through a lot when I was younger. And for me, like, the alternative scene, the gothic community, I felt like I met people that were just as miserable as I was. It was like comforting. But also they wanted to improve themselves. They wanted to overcome this. So, this is why I'm always going to do that. Like I'm always going to dress alternative, listening to rock music. It's just me now. I feel like I'm always going to be like that. I'm going to be those old ladies that has a lot of tattoos.

When I'm going through, maybe I'm not having the best time with my partner, that's painful to me, when I don't have, like, the best relationship with my family, that's pain to me. It's more emotional for me. In terms of overcoming pain in the physical sense, it would be like having piercings, getting a piercing that I want, but I'm scared, but I'm doing it anyway. I remember when I had an argument with my partner. And I wanted to relieve some stress. I just wanted to feel something else other than just anger and frustration. So I gave myself a nipple piercing. So I just pierced my own nipple. Because I was just so mad. I was so mad that I wanted to relieve my pain, my suffering. So, for me, it goes together, emotional and physical pain. It's connected.