Portfolios have always been an essential part of being a professional piercer. It’s important for clients to be able to see examples of our work, check placement and jewelry, and feel confident in our skills as a piercer and ability to execute the work they desire. We all know this, and most modern piercers have taken to utilizing social media to showcase their work. On one hand, this is a perfect platform to connect with clients. On another, it does limit us- most platforms will not allow 18+ content to be posted, meaning it’s tricky for piercers to show off our genital and nipple piercing work for clients. We wither need to utilize platforms that allow this work to be posted, often with much more limited reach, or we need to have our own personal websites and portfolio hosting. This can be a hurdle for many piercers! So in the last year or two, a creative “workaround” has cropped up. Heavily editing images of genital and nipple piercings with flowers, animals, and objects in order to still post them on instagram and Facebook.
And can I be honest for a moment?
I hate it. I really hate it.
Now I have a lot of friends and peers in the industry who do these edits, and I in no way intend for this post to come off as an attack. Rather, I’d like to use it to show a different opinion, and elevate some voices on this issue that have gone overlooked. From the first time I saw one of these edits, I felt an odd discomfort in my chest about them. My main gripe was they were so heavily edited you couldn’t tell what the piercing was sometimes- and this is intentional to get around post guidelines on Instagram. But this also prevents clients from being able to see the piercing and assess placement and skill level accurately. A creative edit could easily disguise a crooked, shallow, poorly placed piercing and clients would be none the wiser. Now I don’t think most piercers who do these edits would do that….but I certainly think some do. We saw the same issues with folks using black-and-white photos to disguise questionable work. At first, I brushed off my feelings of dislike over the images and concerns about clients' ability to accurately see work by saying that likely piercers posted the unedited image somewhere for clients to still check, and this was just a way to advertise on Instagram. Except…many didn’t. For a number of piercers, the only way to see their genital work is to see heavily, heavily edited images on Instagram. I personally feel this isn’t fair to clients and doesn’t allow them the ability to properly check your work and see if you are a good fit for them as a piercer. Clients deserve the ability to make informed decisions for their bodies, and part of that is an honest, unedited portfolio (editing out some marker or an ingrown hair for a client is one thing, or cropping things to remove identifying information like a scar or tattoo. But still- the piercing should be shown in full). But that still didn’t quite put a finger on my discomfort with them.
If fact, it wasn’t till I opened up Reddit one day and saw a post from a client that I was able to fully name my ick over these images.
“hey, posting on a throwaway account. i had my vch done a few wks ago by a v well respected piercer in my area, and it was perfect. they were great and super gender affirming and even asked if they could take a photo of it cus it looked so good. i said yes, but a few days ago they posted it and it was all edited like a flower, everyone in the comments kept calling it pretty and girly and stuff and just…..idk if im overreacting but it doesn’t feel gender affirming anymore???? it actually just makes me feel kinda gross”
The comments were filled with trans people agreeing with this sentiment, particularly transmasculine folks who had seen a bevy of floral edits of vulvas that felt deeply feminine, ‘pretty’, and not at all in alignment with their gender identity. I reached out to OP and commenters for further comments on this blog, and they mentioned “Everyone was calling it such a pretty piercing and comparing the edit to vulva flower paintings. It’s not pretty, its not a clit, its my fucking dick! I feel weird about it, and its been over a year since my post and I still have bad feelings about the piercing that was supposed to be affirming, but instead just feels like a reminder of this body I never wanted to have and the way the world, even people who claim to be allies, view me as a woman.”
I realized that a lot of my discomfort with these posts was the subtle, but strong way they enforce gender roles. Floral ‘pretty’ edits for vulvas, and masculine edits with cactus or objects for penises. The more I saw them, the more I realized how they were, unintentionally or otherwise, enforcing a level of gender binary around genitals. I started scrolling my feed more- consistently 'feminine' coded images on vulvas and 'masculine' coded images on penises. I wondered how many clients had consented to these edits. I wonder how many felt too nervous about the power imbalence with their piercer to speak up if the edit made them uncomfortable. These restrictive gender roles- something I thoguht we were trying to move away from in piercing. One Black Piercer, who wished to remain anonymous, had even more to say.
“When the animal edits started, I checked out. I didn’t like the flowers, but I started seeing multiple animal edits, including monkeys and dogs, frequently used for dark-skinned clients. The same piercers, YT piercers, would edit pretty flowers onto a white vulva, and then a fucking gorilla onto a black vulva. It’s not even a microaggression anymore- it’s racism. And it’s always YT piercers. It’s disgusting.”
Meagan Kreiner had even more to say. “I think the act of hiding genitals in photo edits is complicated at best and misleading at worst. At the core, the idea is to skirt restrictions on explicit content, which is ideally in place to protect minors. As a parent, I can say- I wouldn’t want my kid scrolling IG and having genitals in their face (thats why they aren’t on social media yet.) That point aside, we come into the fact many trans people don’t equate their genitals with flowers or bugs or cat’s mouths, and it can feel dysphoric to have this juxtaposition placed upon them.
As far a being misleading- all these edits show potential clients is that you are skilled at photo editing- not that you are a good piercer who can place something properly- and I find this to be the most grievous issue. Being edgy is bad enough- but being edgy and potentially dangerous is a downright awful combo.”
Their comments bring up one of the most concerning points for me. Most studios pierce a variety of age ranges, from minors to adults. There is something I find unacceptable about potentially showcasing a minor's nostril piercing next to a vulva on the timeline. Clients looking to research your studio and get information about your work end up seeing adult content, without consent, on a site where they are supposed to be safe from it. If I were a parent, I would be bothered to find my piercer was finding ways to get around safety guidelines that exist for a reason to show genitals to everyone on their page- especially if this was a studio I took my minor children to. These separations online exist for a reason- we have sites and platforms for posting adult content that is targeted at adults. There are increasingly fewer and fewer places online and in real life where kids get to just be kids- and when we post these edits we contribute to taking these spaces away. The paranoid part of me also wonders how long it is before some studio faces dangerous accusations over posting these images like this. A 16-year-old going online to see the photo the piercer took of her ear does not deserve to see it next to a heavily edited penis. It’s just not ok.
Many argue that these sites already have adult content, and a single piercer or two shouldn't be responsible for policing a minors presence on the internet. And sure, I can agree with that. But what about our clients- the ones in our piercing rooms every day. I think we do owe them a level of respect and care. And if I were 16 and super excited to show my friends the cool photo of my piercing that my piercer took, I might feel a way about seeing my face next to an edited penis on their feed.
These edits have only been growing in popularity, and with them, my concern for the lack of adequate access to portfolios for clients, the potentially transphobic and racist undertones some of these edits can have, and the concern over what amounts to skirting guidelines to show genitals in a place that should be safe for minors- sometimes next to photos of minor clients. I want to restate that this post is not intended to be an attack, or to shame anyone who does or has done these edits- many of you are my friends and peers. Rather, I wanted to share some alternative perspectives on these and uplift some voices, particularly those of minority clients and piercers, who have been overlooked on this.
In the meantime, you can find me posting my unedited genital piercing work on my website (behind an 18+ warning), or on twitter and reddit in spaces where it is permitted.