Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexis McDaniel.
Hi Alexis, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I began my piercing journey at 14. I grew up in a small town north of Beaumont, and my family opened the first tattoo studio in my hometown of Lumberton Texas. I was already interested in the body modification industry as a whole, gravitating towards the early works of piercers like Jim Ward, Eylane Angel, and several others. As a teenager I was curious about piercing more than anything else. I spent time fascinated with the history of piercing and the way it evolved into what we know as modern piercing today. At 14 I was asking thousands of questions a day about why this is used for this or what this chemical does or how it protects us, I learned about cross contamination and was taught how to set up and break down a piercing procedure tray. At 16 I began working as a front desk girl at a local tattoo shop in Pasadena and slowly started learning how to pierce. What originally started as something I was only pursuing part-time quickly snowballed into something I couldn’t live without. I quit teaching and dedicated myself to piercing. It’s an art form that I love, being able to watch people’s faces light up when they see their new sparkle, it allows me to bring families together by either giving a kiddo their first lobe piercing to a grown woman and her mother getting a piercing together. In the last five years I’ve grown to appreciate more about my industry while also evolving into a better and more refined version of who younger me would’ve been excited to meet. This year after eleven years of piercing I finally achieved my dream of becoming a member of the association of professional piercers, something that truly sets me apart from other piercers. It’s a large network of piercers that achieve a higher standard of care or quality within the industry ensuring that every-time you get a piercing you are safe and properly cared for. I’ve met some amazing people along the way to where I am now, and am forever grateful to those that have supported me from the beginning to those I meet even today that support what we as professional piercers do. It’s always important to research who you’re being pierced by, and I try my hardest to be open and transparent with every person I interact with, and if I can’t make your dream happen there’s only a handful of other piercers in our city I can proudly say I could trust.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road to where I am today has not been smooth. Who I learned from originally was honestly a great teacher, but they too were limited to what they could teach me. About five years into my career I went to a new studio, and got the opportunity to work alongside some of Houston’s longest standing piercers, it was such an eye opening opportunity. I learned new ways of performing certain piercings, new styles of jewelry, and really got to see first hand what it meant to be an actual piercer. I had a lot of people that doubted me, and even more that simply wanted to see me fail. Being a piercer isn’t easy, it’s not just taking a needle and putting it into someone’s skin, it’s meditative, ritualistic, and extremely dangerous if someone’s uneducated. Now days we have tons of YouTube taught piercers, two or three day get rich quick baddies. It takes years to get to the point I am in today and it’s still a challenge. It takes more than two or three days to learn even the basics of cross contamination and bevel theory. Recently I worked for a major company and it was a humbling experience, they really make you focus on your craft. It put me in a spot where I truly wanted to just give up, throw in the towel, and just walk away. Being graded on every angle, placement, and technique really can beat someone down. But a few months later i left, i got to know some of the best people, I continued my education, and I started at a studio where I was free to just be a piercer and not expected to be robot. Even as a piercer we make mistakes but it’s what we learn and how we handle the mistakes that truly help us evolve and that situation did just that.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Curation is one of my favorite parts of my job. Helping clients deck out their new or existing piercings is so much fun, and the time I get to spend with them doing that truly means the world because it allows me to make connections. I love having clients that eventually turn into something more. I have a client named yeji whom I love with my whole heart and soul, I’ve been piercing her since i literally was a baby piercer. Shes followed me to three or four different shops all over Houston, I’ve gotten to know her so well, I’ve seen her get engaged, married, I got to help her with her earrings a few weeks before her wedding, and I’ve met her in a parking lot when the shop was closed because top to an earring fell off. I would literally be there for her through anything. And then there’s India. India first got pierced by me at 14, she was so terrified. It took me two hours to calm her down enough to get her navel pierced. I’ve gotten to see her get her drivers license, show her baby goat Atticus in an FFA livestock show, and pierced her probably twenty times now. She’s like my kid now! It’s those types of connections that I love the most, those are the ones that even on days when I feel like I suck where I’m like you know what no. I’ve gotten so many opportunities doing what I do, it is truly a blessing to come to work and do what you love with people whose smiles light up the room.
What makes you happy?
The fact that I’m a piercer allows me to make my own schedule and do things I never thought would be possible. I love being able to travel and meet piercers in other states and listen to them talk about their craft, it allows me to learn and also make connections! I would say learning makes me the happiest, it allows so many more doors to open, it allows the possibilities to be endless, and being able to deliver something special and see someone else smile makes me happy!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://painstakingarttattoo.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/piercingpandahtx?igsh=bHk0bnM5MncyZXZr&utm_source=qr
