Not Every Client is Your Client

As piercers we spend a lot of time considering how to grow our clientele base. How should we market ourselves, what services do we offer, what communities are we looking to serve? We share tips for advertising, social media, and the best customer service possible, all in an effort to grow our business and our studios and bring safe piercing to more and more people. Most of us truly love piercing, and we especially love our clients and what to do everything we can to bring them the best services possible. But what about the other side of this situation? What about clients who maybe we don’t enjoy working with? What about the type of clients who we not only don’t want to bring in more of…..we don’t want the ones we currently have?

A common issue I see people posting about online is difficult and problematic clients. Piercers lament certain customers who come in often, who express that they are literally filled with dread every time they see a certain name in their books. And to this, I say- not every client has to be your client. Not every piercer is going to be the right fit for every person. And it’s a very important lesson for us as piercers to learn to identify what those boundaries are and how we need to enforce them to ensure we have a comfortable and safe working environment. So let’s talk about it- understanding the clients you don’t want.

And to the clients reading this, please note that this goes both ways. Not every piercer has to be your piercer, and it's entirely ok for you to move on and find someone who is a better fit for you if this applies to your relationship with your piercer.

No Client Should Make You Unsafe

Perhaps the most important point in this blog- no client should threaten your safety, in any way shape, or form. This is a strict, zero-tolerance policy for me. I will not allow someone into my studio and workspace who makes me unsafe, who has made threats towards myself or my staff, or in any way behaves in a way that makes me question my safety. The most extreme examples of this are obviously blatant threats or violence. I wish I could say this doesn’t occur in this industry but it does. I’ve had clients throw water and coffee at me, I’ve been spit on, and I’ve had clients threaten to follow me home (sadly enough all of these altercations were over asking clients to provide the legally required identification documents for their services. Super fun.) This behavior is an immediate ban from the studio. I don’t care how angry or how upset a client is, there is never any excuse to behave this way to someone working to provide you a service.

There are also more subtle ways a client may make you feel unsafe. I’ve had clients try to flirt with me and ask me out, and not respect my no or push my boundaries with this. The moment I notice I feel anxious and nervous when I see their name on the books because of how they have pushed my romantic or sexual boundaries, I know it’s time to call it on working with them. I’ve had coworkers deal with stalkers at work who came in the studio and hung around to see them, and this too obviously puts your safety at risk and is also unacceptable.

And then some clients violate safety policy in seemingly small ways, but it remains a safety hazard. At a former studio of mine, we had a tattoo regular who just couldn’t quite follow all the rules. He would sneak hits of his vape in the studio, and laugh it off when we reminded him not to. On his breaks, he would argue about being wrapped to take a smoke break, but then would wander around the studio and often cross-contaminate surfaces. He invited himself into other people’s stations, even when they were working with clients. He had been a regular and had many tattoos from the shop, so my coworkers felt uncomfortable asking him to go elsewhere. Finally, after another appointment where he cross-contaminated the lobby putting staff and other clients at risk, a new manager stepped in and told him he would be unwelcome as a client if he couldn’t not follow our policy for safety. These may seem like minor infractions, but they do risk our safety and are important.

We also need to consider in which ways we create safe spaces in our studio. A peer of mine had a newer regular client who is well known on the internet as an Anti-Trans Anti-LGBT presence, constantly pushing for anti-trans legislation and making horrible statements online. My friend wanted to try to remain neutral, but when this client began ranting about pronouns on the paperwork and using slurs in the lobby, they ended up telling him to leave and that he wasn’t welcome back. Their studio is supposed to be a safe space for clients of all genders, sexualities, orientations, and backgrounds. That means blatant hate speech from another client in the lobby makes the studio no longer a safe space for others. We should have a 0 tolerance policy for racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and any other form of discrimination in our studios- for staff and for clients alike.

No matter what the issue is, if you feel genuinely unsafe in any way shape, or form with a client, please do not put yourself through that. It is more than ok to tell someone you are not the piercer for them and ask them to please find a new service provider.

Clients Who Refuse to Respect or Listen to You

Now when I say every client is not your client, I mean that not everyone is going to want to work with you the way you work, or even be able to work with you the way you work. Nowhere is this more evident than with clients who refuse to respect or listen to you.

While working in Florida I had a regular client who seemed to repeat the same process every time. She would come in and get pierced, I would explain the aftercare to her, and she’d leave. A few months later she could come in very upset that her piercings weren’t healing well. I’d take a look and her jewelry would be swapped out for acrylic pieces and random plated jewelry that was turning green. Multiple times I would discuss with her the issues that come from changing your piercings too soon and the quality of the jewelry, and she would argue and insist it was fine to do because “she saw someone on YouTube who did it.” We’d swap back to quality, baby the piercings, they would eventually recover. She’d come back in, get more piercings, and do the same thing all over again. Eventually, she began to get rude, coming in for new pairings saying “I hope you do it right this time so I don’t get bumps.” After one or two instances of this, I politely let her go as a client, telling her “I looked over our client records, and for the last seven piercings we’ve done for you, you have changed the jewelry within 2-3 months of getting the piercing done, come back with issues, and we’ve documented it being due to the jewelry. We’ve discussed needing to allow your piercings to heal before swapping them, and the reactions to material you seem to have. At this point, it is clear you have no interest in listening to our advice and guidance as professionals. Unfortunately, I don’t think I am able to meet your expectations for your piercings, and our studio aftercare and procedures clearly do not align with how you prefer to treat your healing piercings. I believe you would be better suited to finding a different piercer who better aligns with your needs. Best of luck.”

Honestly, I wish I had done it sooner. I recall seeing her name in the appointment book and my heart sinking, knowing she was going to come in with an attitude, be argumentative, and blame myself and the staff for her continued refusal to follow aftercare. I knew she would fight about the cost of the jewelry and insist she was fine wearing the cheap stuff even as it was actively turning green in her ears and face. The amount of stress I felt, before she had even set foot in the studio, was immense! And frankly, I don’t need that stress in my day-to-day life, and neither do you. The client who is always late, sometimes extremely so to their appointments, and then demands to still be seen. The client who insists on special treatment, and discounts, argues with you about studio policy. A client who is rude or disrespectful to front-of-house staff, even if they are polite to the piercers or artists. If this sounds familiar, if it sounds like a client you’ve dealt with before, allow me to urge you to strongly consider letting this client know they may have a better experience with someone else.

Clients Who Are Just the Wrong Fit

Sometimes….there truly isn’t anything to explain. Two people’s personalities just simply don’t mesh well. Or perhaps two other people’s personalities mesh better. Whatever the case may be, sometimes there’s just no deeper meaning other than you not getting along ideally with a client, or them getting their needs better met with someone else. This can be an interesting situation when working with other piercers, and seeing how we end up ‘trading’ clients. We may as piercers realize there’s a mismatch in personalities or attitudes, and politely suggest one of our coworkers. Or the client may end up seeing someone else and deciding they like their technique, methods, or presence better. Whatever the case may be, it’s something we should try not to take personally. I for one know what it’s like to just simply…not get along with someone else’s personality. There is nothing wrong with them, they aren’t a bad person, we just aren’t too people who flow together easily. And that’s ok! I find these situations usually sort themselves out on their own, but sometimes a helpful nudge of suggesting another piercer for a follow-up, a different service, or something of the sort can help ease things along if you simply aren’t vibing.

I spent a long time at the start of my career trying to be the piercer for everyone. I let myself be in unsafe situations, stressed myself out with clients I didn’t get along with and who disrespected me or my methods, and took it extremely hard when a client preferred my coworker or peer over me. It took a long time for me to realize how much easier and more comfortable I was as a piercer when I started enforcing my boundaries, listening to my needs, and accepting that sometimes my client’s needs and wants wouldn’t always align with mine. Now I simply try to show up and do my best every day, and for the clients who align with me, that is enough. For those who don’t, I truly wish them the best in finding the piercer who is right for them.

I won’t be the piercer for everyone, and I don’t want to be. I want to be the piercer that’s right for me, and work on the clients who see that, appreciate that, and respect it.