The Pierced Revolution

By Fringe Staff

By Emily Farrington

Matte Erickson & Tod Almighty

Matte Erickson is wearing a loud t-shirt that says, “I Love Sharpass Needles”. He has oneinch gauged plugs in both ears and tattoos decorated on all four limbs. You’d think he’d give me a firm grunt of “hello,” but he is genuinely sweet behind his spectacles and burley mustache, and at the end of the interview he politely asks if I’m in need of a new piercing.

His office is sterile but friendly, and adorned with too-cute pictures of his beloved Bulldogs, and hilarious signs like, “Do my tattoos make me look fat?” … “Pimpin’ Holes” … and “You Pierced Your What?”

He’s the guru piercer at Fairfield’s Alpha Omega Tattoo and Body Piercing Shop and isn’t at all modest when it comes to his qualifications. With twelve years under his professional belt and a 9-year co-owner of the successful business, Matte admits there’s only a couple of “sketchy” body parts he won’t pierce, including eyelids and the uvula (that hanging-ball thing in the back of the throat). Otherwise, the sky’s the limit for his customers.

With eleven pierced parts of his own, Matte’s position on the piercing culture is that it “basically transcends culture because everyone’s getting them done, from the teen punk rocker to the soccer mom.” And while there’s still the notorious subculture where people get lots of heavy work done, today’s pierced person doesn’t fit into a specific mold.

One of the coolest things a professional piercer gets to do is attend a piercing convention. Besides being able to check out the extremely pierced attendees, bringing back lots of new jewelry to the shop, one gets to learn a wealth of new industry tips, hone skills, and get recertified on first aid, CPR, and blood-born pathogens courses.

Matt was fresh from his visit to the 12th annual Association of Professional Piercers convention at the Riviera Casino in Las Vegas held April 30- May 4. This industry-professionals-exclusive convention welcomes over 600 pros a year, costs a mere $300 to attend, and is loaded with talent, and plenty of celebrities in the business, like Steve Haworth, Jesse Jarrell, Elayne Angel, and Fakir Musafar.

With a Hawaiian Luau theme this year, and great food and drink, Matte hailed the “Splash Bar” as his favorite activity, a tradition experienced by 50-100 pros exchanging industry info and catching up on old times while hanging out at the bar. He says, “Most of us have known each other for years and only get to see each other at this convention.”

When asked if he had seen anything super crazy, Matte described the new “surface anchor” piercing, which is basically a single-point piercing that can go anywhere on the body by anchoring into the skin via the “foot” and the body healing around it.

Piercer; Peck

What’s popular now? He said, “Definitely the nostrils, although I couldn’t help but pry about the stretching craze. “Plugs or ’stretched lobes’ just look really cool…I saw one guy from Austin, TX who had over sixinch plugs!”

He recommends that first-time customers “don’t shop by price,” and that parents should let their child express themselves since the worse thing that can happen is they’ll take out the jewelry and have a small scar. The most important thing to worry about is making sure their kids are doing things safely.

As far as Matte’s plans for the future, he laughs and says, “Well I plan on coming into work tomorrow.”