What makes a ROBOT?

I have been piercing since the early 90s and recently retired. After starting at Venus Modern Body Arts in NYC. I was lucky enough to have been exposed to the teachings of Fakir Musafar and Gauntlet second-hand from senior piercers from both schools of thought. Myself and my mentor, Dave Rodriguez, blended the styles and went on to start our own shop called Shaman in Manhattan's Lower East Side. Restlessness seized us and I moved to Boston to work at "The Garage" for a week, hated it, and rejoined Dave in California where I guested at Primieval in LA and Nomad in SF (both are now closed or relocated). From there I went back to NYC to help start New York Adorned where I stayed for another five years. During that time I had a side business called Red Beans and took the opportunity to be a guest piercer at High Priestess in Eugene, IN2U London, and Hot Rod Piercing in Pittsburgh PA. NYC got gentrified and the scene starting falling apart so I moved to Portland to work at Blackhole. After more than a year there, opportunity knocked and here I am operating the sexiest shop in PDX!

In 2000 Dave Rodriguez and I started Shaman Jewelry making bronze and silver ear weights. We were both over wearing enormous plugs in our lobes and loved the classic look of ear weights, but no one else was making them at the time. We did that for a couple of years, selling our stuff at APP and to other shops around the country, and then decided to quit the business and save the friendship. I went on to start Angry God Productions, continuing to make ear weights as well as silver and copper earrings and hoops. (Click here to check out Angry God jewelry.)

ROBOT was conceived on November 1st in 2004. These years have been kind to us, but it took experiences, good and bad, to get here today, otherwise, it would not be what it is today…..

I discovered body piercing through, of all places, an 80s heavy metal magazine. In its lurid pages was a picture of Axl Rose, glam rock front man for Guns N Roses. His nipple was pierced and it kind of freaked me out, but not in the sense of revulsion, but like “wow, that’s different.” After graduating high school in 1989 I was bored. I mean really bored. So one afternoon, I pierced my own nipple with a sewing needle from my mother’s sewing box. After an hour of pushing and sweating, it kind of worked its way through and I put in the tiniest 20 gauge silver hoop. This story in no way should promote home piercing, what I did was barbaric by today’s piercing standards, but back then there were no piercing shops so I made do.

After trial and error, I was pierced up and looked down upon. I was discovering the alternative side to life and it thrilled me. Frequenting NYC I discovered The Gauntlet. A friend got pierced there so now I knew where to go to get work done I was intimidated to do myself. As professional as they boasted to be, they were also complete fucking snobs. In their wake came the punkier Venus Modern Body Arts where I received my official training to become a piercer. After piercing thousands of people from all walks of life, I moved to San Francisco for a winter and came back to help open NY Adorned.

NY Adorned was a piercing/tattoo shop, or a tattoo/piercing shop, it depends on what your role is there. Tattooing had just gone legal and it showed, NY exploded with the good, bad, and ugly of the body art world. I was blessed enough to work with some unbelievable amazing artists, like Alex Binnie, Tin Tin, Mike Ledger, Scott Harrison, and lots other artists. I also worked with Miami Ink’s Chris Garver, Ami, Yoshi, and Darren Brass. These were some wild times and I learned a lot about business from owner/proprietress Lori Leven.

Through the growing popularity of body art more and more television stations were looking for heavily modified people for their documentaries. I appeared on more tv shows and in more magazines than I can count. By far my crown jewels of media would be when I was filmed for my adventures in Ethiopia with Jesus Camp director Heidi Ewing for the documentary "Rites of Passage", appearing multiple times in the New York Times, Newsweek, and Talk Soup. The other shows were fun I suppose, but these were great. I also had the opportunity to be featured in The New York Museum of Natural History’s Body Art Exhibit and acted as an advisor for the show.

Well NY can eat you alive, and after seeing countless people go crazy, OD, or flee, my time there was at an end but on good terms. I fell in love and moved back to Connecticut and got married.  CT.’s body art scene was virtually non-existant, at least by my standards, so when a job opportunity arose in Portland Oregon I jumped on it. After working for an un-remembered amount of time, I was given the chance to do things my way and ROBOT PIERCING was born. Bringing the art back to its grass roots and making it fun again was my only goal, and through the support of countless Portlanders I had achieved it.

Places I remember working in chronological order; Venus Modern Body Arts – NYC, co-owning Shaman Piercing – NYC, Chameleon(?) – Boston, some shit hole near SF, Primieval Body – LA, Nomad – SF, NY Adorned – NY, IN2U – London, Red Beans – NY, High Priestess – Eugene, Hot Rod Body Piercing – Pittsburgh, Blackhole – PDX, Optic Nerve – PDX, Adorn Body Art, PDX, ROBOT PIERCING – PDX!!!!