Building a Sense of Community Within the Piercing Industry
Finding a sense of community can take a job and make it into a career. Being able to connect and interact with your peers can oftentimes give you a greater sense of purpose, and can help you to feel included!
If you're looking to gain a greater sense of community within the piercing industry, keep reading.
1. Establish Yourself
Before building a network of friend and peers within the piercing community, you need to establish yourself as a piercing enthusiast/professional.
Whether that be getting a counter position at your local piercing studio, starting a piercing apprenticeship under a mentor you admire, or getting online and submerging yourself within trending piercing hashtags, forums, and online resources!
The APP offers a great directory of reputable piercers all around the world. Click here to look at their directory.
We love listening to the Piercing Wizard Podcast to stay up to date on trending topics within the industry, as well as hear captivating interviews with industry professionals.
Educational podcasts are great place to start if you're looking to learn a little more about the industry, and enjoy a behind the scenes look at piercing practises, customer service techniques, and insight into jewelry brands.
2. Interact with your clients
Customer service is a huge aspect of being professional in the body modification industry. A great way to establish a sense of community with your clients is ensuring you go above and beyond for them! Striking up appropriate conversation, and providing professional bedside manner is a great way to make your clients feel respected and comfortable in your presence.
If you're feeling a little disconnected from your current clients, start interacting with them! Take advantage of the fact that we are all glued to our phone and create a professional social media accounts and encourage your clients to follow you.
Responding to direct messages, sharing studio updates, and showing off a bit of your personality is a great way to make clients feel more comfortable interacting with you on a more regular basis!
3. Attend conferences and workshops
Educational gatherings can be a great way for you to feel connected to those within the piercing! Depending on your location (and their bylaws regarding social gatherings) you may be able to find local workshops and or meet ups for those within the piercing community!
Many piercers have begun to offer online resources and workshops as well, some of which are live and interactive. A good way to find out about these events is by following piercers you look up to on social media.
Oftentimes they will post info on how to register for upcoming online/offline workshops. Here is an example of a Yoga for Piercers online workshop we hosted in collaboration with Lola Slider. We will be sure to post about more upcoming Mindful Sunday events for our Junipurr community.
We hope to attend the annual APP conference in the future. We would love to be able to meet so many of our amazing clients in person. But for now our DM's are always open!
4. Tag brands and suppliers you work with
This is another tip for establishing online connections! Tagging brands you use on a regular basis will not only get their attention, but in many cases will allow them to see your work, and possibly repost it!
Being reposted on a brand's social media is great exposure for your work and your studio, and may allow you to reach a wider audience.
We absolutely love featuring our clients amazing work, be sure to tag @junipurrjewelry for a chance to be reposted on our social media.
5. Participate in online discussions, giveaways, grants, etc.
Sharing your interests, opinions and praise is a great way for others to get to know you. For example if someone asks for feedback in their Instagram caption, drop a comment and join the conversation! If a brand you love is doing a giveaway, go out on a whim and enter!
We have a piercer growth fund that we offer to one individual in our community every month. We encourage you to apply for a chance to be our next recipient. Our growth fund was created so that we could support piercers within our community to better their career! Click here for more info.
6. Support your peers
Support, support, support! We are firm believers in celebrating our peers accomplishments. Leave a comment when you see a beautiful piercing another piercer did, share curations you think are beautiful, or stop by a new piercing studio to say hello when you're in the area!
Kindness is free, and the easiest way to make another person feel good. So many friendships start with a single act of kindness.
7. Guest-spotting
Guest spotting is a really cool way to get to know a new studio, location, and clientele! If you have friends at a different studio who are looking to host an additional piercer, reach out to their studio manager and see if they would be willing to set up a guest spot schedule for you.
Sometimes all it takes is asking for the opportunity! Many studios who don't have a full time resident piercer are often open to hosting guest spots. This not only allows them to offer piercing services more frequently, but also allows you to reach a fresh clientele which is mutually beneficial.
Please ensure you travel responsibly during this time. We encourage you to check travel restrictions for destination and follow proper Covid-19 guidelines.
8. Collaborate with other businesses
Collaborating is a great way to work with brands or businesses that have similar values to you.
Collaborations do not have to be on a huge scale to be impactful and beneficial. For example, you could ask a jewelry brand to collaborate on a online giveaway. Or ask a local shop to host a piercing pop-up at one of their physical locations.
The key to a good collaboration is to ensure both parties feel as though they have benefited.
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