Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Phillips.
Hi Michael, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I started with a traditional piercing apprenticeship in Lafayette, Indiana at a tattoo shop called Operation Ink. My mentor’s name is Daniel Mills. I am forever grateful to him for the opportunity. Since then, I have been all over the place. I have pierced all over Texas and Indiana. I pierced in Iowa for a little bit as well. I’ve even done piercings in Louisiana.
Finally, after working in many shops, I decided to do my own thing and open my own studio called Piercer Mike’s. This has been open for about a year now.
I’ve been piercing professionally for about 16 years and still, to this day, love every minute of it. It’s my pride and joy!
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
It has definitely had its ups and downs. Getting into the piercing industry is hard enough; then with a year apprenticeship not making any money, I was also working as a cook in a bar in grill across the street. After my apprenticeship, I ventured to Texas and started my professional career. There have been points in my career where I was at the very top and many times at the very bottom. My opinion is that it’s all about how you promote yourself and how you treat your clients. As well as selling and using quality products. Location definitely helps.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a professional body piercer. I specialize in all aspects of body piercing. Such as nostrils, septums, lips, ears, eyebrows, etc. All the basics. I also do a lot of the other stuff, such as genitalia piercings (males and females), punch work, play piercing, custom bending, anodizing, etc.
I will not do any piercing that puts my client at risk. Such as horizontal tongue piercings, eyelid piercings, or anything else that is not subtitle for the anatomy.
I also only pierce with high-quality hypoallergenic jewelry. All piercings by me are started with internally threaded or threadless ASTMF 136 titanium, niobium, 14kt gold, or 18kt gold. Unless it’s the big gauge piercings like punches in that case, I prefer to start with glass.
I’m very passionate about body piercing. I’m a total perfectionist as well. I will mark a setup 20 times if it doesn’t look right to me. Everything must be properly measured, following the anatomy, straight and centered.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
I actually do this with a lot of people. Especially fellow businesses and fellow artists. Such as my friends Justin at Broken Circle. The Painted Brow with Jessica, Dulce, and Payton. Tina at Tina Torres Cosmetics, Jon Hill over at Fade to Black, as well as fellow piercers all over DFW! We all network and send each other business. It’s like a small community of people helping people. Also, sharing work on social media and word of mouth from clients is always shows good support to me. The best way though is to come get a piercing, of course!!!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/piercer_mike
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/piercer_mike
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Piercer.Mike
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/Piercer_Mike
