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Piercing the surface

Tiffany Luu | Photographer
Tiffany Luu | Photographer

In life, things go wrong all the time, in one way or another. For sophomore Ally Forkas, not only does this statement reign true, but it is also accompanied by a barbell… and too much skin.

“I wanted my belly pierced so me and my friends got a kit and we pierced it,” Forkas said.  “Then people started asking me if I could pierce them, so then that’s how it all started pretty much. I just like it because it’s jewelry and you can have your own personal style with it. It’s like not everyone has it-you can make yourself unique with it.”

Although Forkas’ passion is evident, there are still some areas of the body she refrains from piercing.

“I like my eyebrow piercing and my belly piercing,” Forkas said. “There’s some [piercings] that I do not prefer doing, which is the tongue, because that’s really risky. If you hit your vein or if you hit a certain spot, your whole face could go numb. So, I don’t do tongue piercings, but I’m pretty much fine with every [other one].”

What had originally started out as a small hobby has developed into a career choice.

“I’m planning on getting my GED and then starting to get my permit soon and then starting […] by the time I’m eighteen,” Forkas said.

Although Forkas’ future seems to be rolling along as planned, her involvement with body piercings up to this point has been anything but smooth. Through her experiences and lessons learned the hard way-through suspensions and incomplete piercings, Forkas has compiled up a long list of stories, both lighthearted and gruesome, along with several words to the wise.

Tiffany Luu | Photographer
Tiffany Luu | Photographer

Forkas forewarns those  who are thinking of getting piercings.

“Definitely clean [the materials], that’s all I have to say about piercings,” Forkas said.

She also has advice for those who wish to administer  piercings.

“I got caught doing [piercings] at school and then I got suspended for that, so if you’re going to do piercings, don’t do it at school,”  Forkas said.

For those specifically interested in giving or receiving barbell piercings: always check the amount of skin before you begin.

“One time, my friend said she wanted a lot of skin on her belly button because she wanted a whole barbell covered with skin […],” Forkas said. “You can ask for how much skin you want. [But], then I didn’t check to make sure that [there] was going to be enough skin or too much skin and it turned out to be too much skin, so then it went through but then the bar wasn’t sticking out because there was too much skin.”

And, finally, for those worried about the negative stigma following the art of body piercings:

“If  people don’t like it then they’re probably not your kind of crowd of people,” Forkas said. “You just have to know what you like and only do what you like.  You shouldn’t care if people like it or not.”

 

Written by Chloe Jiang

Chloe Jiang is a senior and a co-editor-in-chief of The Sun, a tea aficionado, a La Jolla Cove frequenter, a grammar snob, and an advocate for gender equality. Among her favorite words are bougie and trite.

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