The Piercing Bodz
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About us - Who we are.
We are Carl and Shirley. (I'm working on a better photo - this one's awful !). We have been married since 1991 and have 2 teenage children - Ryan and Hayley. We have worked together in our own studio for most of our married life.
Carl and Shirley
Carl has been piercing professionally for many years and is fully trained and experienced in all aspects of piercing. He has written articles about piercing for various magazines and newspapers and has appeared on television and radio. If you don't like the weird music we play Carl is the one responsible. ( He particularly likes : Shpongle, Lemon Jelly, Moodswings, Juno Reactor, Stone Roses, Banco da Gaia and The Polyphonic Spree).
Carl tells really bad jokes, so please don't encourage him by actually laughing at any of them.
Shirley is the one who has to listen to Carl's awful jokes over and over again. She does a wonderful job of keeping things organised both at work and at home. Shirley manages to shine, even though she has to juggle looking after the studio with looking after her family. Shirley could, theoretically, make a really good piercer, but tends to fall over when the adrenaline hits, so she looks after the studio instead, making sure that Carl can concentrate on piercing. If you need to know anything about body jewellery - Shirley is the person to ask. They both have their own areas of expertise and make a good partnership.
Carl and Shirley work together on female nipples and intimates and Shirley is always available as a professional hand-holder, if you need one. Just ask if you'd like her to hold your hand for you.
Piercing - Our Way
Piercing is an ancient Art with a history going back thousands of years. It has a very deep Spiritual, Moral and Ethical basis that underlies everything that we do. Piercing isn't just a fashion accessory , it's a lifestyle choice. We believe in a holistic approach to Piercing that reflects our spiritual beliefs.
As well as checking whether your anatomy is suitable for the piercing you want, we take your general health and well being into consideration too. Your immune system needs to be functioning correctly in order that you can heal your piercing. We believe very strongly that the immune system should not be overworked. If you spoil your natural balance then nature will do anything she can to return that balance.
To these ends we believe in honesty, even at the expense of our business. If we feel that it would not be appropriate for you to have a particular piercing, then we’ll be honest with you and tell you. We will be honest about how your piercing is likely to feel, and we’ll be honest with you if you develop a problem and do our best to help you sort it out.
Our aim is to make the piercing experience as pleasant and as easy as possible. It is of paramount importance to us that your piercing heals well. A truly successful piercing is one that you keep for a lifetime, and that teaches you something along the way.
So much care and thought has gone into the way we do our job. 'Modern Primitivism' is just what it says - 'Primitive' ritual and 'Modern' Technology - Hand in Hand. It's about taking ancient ritual and improving it with futuristic science.
Sinks
Soap and towels
We utilise scientific advancements to suit what we do. Our service is constantly evolving and changing to take into account new research in almost every scientific field. We are cautious regarding new procedures and always run trials for many months before adding anything to our repertoire
All the instruments and needles we use are geared towards causing as little pain and damage as possible. We pierce between layers of tissue and between blood vessels, nerves and lymphatic vessels so that your immune system doesn’t have to work too hard to heal the piercing.
The post of the jewellery that we use in your piercing is made of a very strong, unsnappable, medical plastic with the surface properties of teflon (nothing sticks to it). It is 100% non-allergenic and 100% bio-compatible and threaded balls stay a lot tighter than on metal bars. (It's very difficult for a piercer to work with, and there's a lot of waste, but it's worth it for the benefits.)
All this makes it really easy to care for your piercing, just allowing nature to take it’s course and helping nature along only when it’s absolutely necessary.
We care about our planet and our future generations, too. We seperate paper products (paper towels, couch rolls etc.) from our other rubbish for recycling. We use biodegradable, environmentally friendly, disinfectants instead of bleach, so we don't harm our environment and we don't release solvents into the air in the form of freeze spray. It's all about working in tandem with nature's energy instead of battling against it.
Our History
Bodydecor at Quiggins
Before moving into our current premises in Chester in May 2007 we had spent many happy years in Liverpool. We started in the 'Quiggin Centre' as 'Bodydecor Piercing' (the original piercer from Quiggins), hidden away down a long corridor. We soon got too busy for the space we were in and moved into our own studio at 'Petticoat Lane' on Bold Street.
Bold Street
We were hidden away on the 1st floor, down another long corridor, but it was perfect for us. We stayed on Bold Street for many years and many people came to rely on our oasis of calm in the middle of the hustle and bustle of Liverpool. Our studio became the place to sit and chat with like minded people, and many of our customers became lifelong friends (2 even got married !). We were forced to find alternative premises when the building changed ownership, and spent a small amount of time working from a friends studio at "Fallen Angel" on Lark Lane, whilst we were waiting to move our studio into Lewis's Department Store.
Lewis's
Opening a piercing studio in a department store seemed like a seriously whacky idea. The General Manager at Lewis's had been trying to persuade us to move in there for about 4 years, but whilst we were happy on Bold Street we didn't want to spoil things. When we had to move our studio from Bold Street, we had a re-think about Lewis's. We thought it would be a really good way of bringing piercing into the mainstream and try, in our own nice way, to change some peoples attitudes and prejudices. We knew it would be hard work, because we would be hidden away in a corner again, but we managed to toil through 3½ years and were just beginning to see some results from all our hard work, when we learnt that Lewis's had gone into administration.
We were stunned !! We were faced with a very difficult decision - We could stay put in the hope that a buyer for Lewis's might be found (which would leave us with no premises to work from for 3 months if it closed), or we could look around for alternative premises.
Looking for the perfect location
We had been discussing a possible move into one of the new units at the Paradise Street development, but that wasn't going to be ready for a while and we needed somewhere straight away. We scoured Liverpool for premises, but could find no-where suitable for our use. We had another re-think. We had planned to (eventually) move our studio to a more quiet area (once the kids had left home), just so we could relax and work at a slightly slower pace and we worked it out between us that we could bring that move forward if we all pulled our weight. When we discussed our options with the family, the same place kept cropping up, and as we'd always liked Chester - we decided to go and have a look.
Chester
We were pleasantly surprised. During our wander around Chester we bumped into some of our customers. After stopping to talk a number of times, it was obvious to us that a move to Chester might even suit a lot of our customers, too. We had a lot more luck finding suitable premises as well, but premises in Chester are very expensive. There is a road in the City Centre where the business rates are more expensive than Regent Street in London. We still found 3 places that would have suited us and our budget, but one stood out above all the others.
Rufus Court
One of our friends had mentioned Rufus Court as a possibility and we eventually came across a sign and strolled into the courtyard to have a look. We were pleasantly surprised. It felt more like Italy or France, with a cafe, shops, hairdressers, music venue and restaurants - all hidden away, off Northgate Street, in one of the most striking courtyards we've seen. We knew we'd found the perfect place for our new studio. It occured to me that the word 'hidden' describes all our best studios, so that really didn't bother me. What did bother me was the landlord. The landlord didn't like piercing and definitely did not want a piercing studio spoiling the courtyard. She had refused a piercer just the week before and things didn't look promising, so we kept our options open and looked at other places as well. We had a long meeting with the landlord and showed her photos of our previous studios and eventually won her over. It did help that we got on well with each other.
Click here for the Rufus Court website (opens in a new window).
The old Violin Shop
What a mess !
..And so dark
Tags hard at it
Even Fyfe helped out
The old violin shop
The old Violin Shop had been around for years, but the services of a specialist violin shop were no longer needed in our modern times and the owner had struggled to make ends meet for a long time. The violin shop went out of business in 2007 and became available for lease. It was a mess, both inside and out, and had obviously had no maintenance for many years. It was really run down and badly maintained, but it had an appeal that outweighed all its negatives. It was dark and dusty. Bits of the wall were falling off. The floor hadn't had a proper clean in years and the old counter and display cabinets were still in there. The light from the window was blocked by a grotty display area with what might have been white net curtains, since turned various shades of brown. It felt like a cave that a hermit had lived in for years, but I suppose that is exactly what it was.
...And a lot of hard work
We decided the best course of action was to completely demolish and strip the inside of the shop. We ordered a skip and a gang of us armed with sledgehammers went in to smash everything up and knock down some walls. That was great fun. The alarm proved to be awkward, though. We were told it didn't work, but when we knocked down the wall that the control box was fixed to - it went off. Mike is used to that sort of thing, though, so it was soon stopped.
Neal came over from Anglesey for the day and built the walls and doorways. Nigel was astounded at the speed Neal works. We weren't surprised - we've seen him at work before. Then the worst thing happened. Neal was assaulted at his wifes birthday party and we were worried at one point that he might be losing an eye. He couldn't work or drive, so Carl was left to finish off the work that Neal was doing. (Neal came down 3 weeks later, once he was allowed to drive, just to check the work Carl had done was ok and do some little jobs.)
The plumbing was a chore. There was a sink with a cold tap, but the drain didn't go anywhere, it just ended against a wall, so the first job was to find a drain and sort out somewhere for the water to go. We installed a good water heater and sorted out the plumbing to the 3 sinks with the help of Carl's dad. Carl built the units in the studio and installed the glass sink. That's when it started to feel like a piercing studio.
We had a wonderful gang of people in to decorate. Emma came over with Neal and we had Nigel and Tags helping, too. Cameron, Amy and Uter came down for 2 days in the sunshine, but I think they got more paint on the floor and on themselves than anywhere else. Carl went stir crazy painting the small autoclave room and vowed never to paint that room again. Shirley painted all the floors. She's had a bad back ever since and says she'd gladly swap jobs with Carl next time.
....To the perfect piercing studio
Click on the pictures to see the full image.
Our Mural
In May 2009 we had a mural painted on the wall seperating the shop from the studio. We had planned a mural from the start, but things conspired against us and it never happened. Jay Hollings, at Blackblood designs, came up with an idea that he thought would look good in our studio. He is a fan of Guy Aitchison, whose speciality is abstract organic designs and he thought something similar would compliment our space beautifully.
This is actually very different from Guy Aitchisons work. It's more organic and less 'bony'. It's actually been a very organic process, too. I can honestly say I've enjoyed spending the last month's days off watching paint dry. The title of the work is 'Arborian' - for very obvious reasons. It's very tree-like, but seems to move more than trees do, almost alien in nature.
Click on the images for the full picture
Jay has been airbrushing bikes and clothes for aeons, his portrait work is really good and the dominatrix in his outside loo is superb, not to mention the rock stars round the 'Chester Bells', so we knew he could come up with something spectacular. It's the first time he's done something on this kind of scale, though. We think he's excelled himself. All the work has been done freehand from the pictures only Jay can see - inside his head. He's always available for commissions and is learning to tattoo. A legend in the making !!
That's us ....mainly
From time to time someone comes along that we really like, and we develop an attatchment to them. More often than not because these people wanted to do some piercing. Many of these people have helped to keep our little studio going. People like Helen, Chris, Kiera, Carla, Nicky, Jenni, Matt, Grant, Gail, Andy, Robb, Star and Frank. We've come a long way. Thank You for everything. You came to learn piercing, but we learnt so much from you, too. Our Best Wishes go to all of you.