A new Johannesburg studio is moving body- piercing and fetishism into the mainstream. DROR EYAL pops by for a prick
EVERYWHERE you go nowadays there are little techno babes in uncomfortable shoes, trying to score E, flashes of bare midriffs revealing discreet little navel rings. The happy shiny kids of tomorrow. Faceless techno music blasting out of every coffee shop.
Now I remember why I used to drink. Can’t think about that now though. I’m, like, interviewing someone here. In fact, that very someone is actually talking. In fact, he’s holding a rather large needle in his hand. In fact, he’s about to shove it through a rather sensitive part of my anatomy. This makes it rather difficult to concentrate on what he’s saying.
“Lets do some perforation …” He jokes, looking like some slightly confused Moses – a middle-aged man with a week-old beard and greying hair pulled into a ponytail, comfortable clothes, his hand grasping an outsized piercing needle sealed in a vacuum pack.
Fortunately, the figure joking above me is Eddie Graham, a minor legend in the Johannesburg piercing scene, who is set to open the first mainstream piercing and fetish shop in South Africa, this weekend.
Located at the corner of Rockey and Raymond streets in Yeoville, the shop is an ultra- modern construction of polished steel, grey tiles, mirrors, leather and burnt wood. More hi-tech dungeon then dingy cellar, it looks like something out of a cyberpunk’s wet dream. Eddie is adamant that “people shouldn’t have to slink into some dingy little hole” to get pierced, but should have a clean, safe, respectable looking place.
Determined to drag piercing and fetish clothing into the mainstream and respectability, Eddie has assembled the largest collection of rings, barbells, corsets, harnesses and a variety of other fetish gear to be found in this country. He also makes custom jewellery to order at the shop and if he can’t make it, he will send away for it.
I wriggle my back and try to make myself slightly more comfortable on the old- fashioned steel and leather barber’s chair. It’s hard getting comfortable when all you can feel is the ball of ice in your stomach, when faced with the primordial fear of a sharpened implement about to poke a hole in your hide.
Even my photographer looks a little disconcerted by the size of the needle. But Eddie’s professional manner is reassuring as he disinfects the nipple and marks the areas to be pierced.
With his five years of professional experience, and hundreds of satisfied customers who have spread his fame by word of mouth and built a minor myth out of the man, Eddie feels qualified to pierce anything that “is not harmful to the customer”. This has in the past included such weird requests as the elbows and the web of the tongue.
However, he does, rather sheepishly, admit that most people come to get their navels pierced, although he quickly adds that recently there has been quite a trend for the older female crowd to get their genitals pierced. He also hopes to expand into branding and tattoo removals as soon as the equipment becomes available.
The needle is through, and the surgical steel ring slowly gets inserted as the needle is pulled back. The bead is clamped on and it’s over. As the endorphins engulf my body, the thought that it didn’t hurt at all rushes through my head. “Hey Eddie, how come your piercings never hurt?” “You’re into pain … I’m into deprivation.” He laughs.
Its over, I’m now the brand new owner of The Erogenous Zone Formerly Known as a Nipple. Does this qualify me for the courageous journalism award?