Placement: More Than Just a Mark on the Body

Placement is one of those topics that sounds simple until you really start talking about it.

Most people think placement is just where a piercing sits, but for those of us who have watched this industry evolve over decades, placement tells the story of body piercing itself.

Where We Started

In the beginning of modern body piercing, placement wasn't really about beauty.

It wasn't about creating perfect symmetry, balancing an ear, or selecting jewellery that complemented someone's anatomy. It was about creative freedom, self-discovery and, if we're being honest, giving a middle finger to society's expectations.

Much of the early community existed within alternative and fetish subcultures. Piercing was an act of individuality before it was fashion. It wasn't trying to be accepted, and that was exactly the point.

The Late '90s & Early 2000s

As we moved into the late 1990s and early 2000s, something began to change.

Piercing started becoming aesthetically driven.

Women became the predominant clients, and with that came a shift in how body piercing was viewed. It wasn't abandoning its roots - it was expanding them.

It's no secret that many women are drawn to beautiful things. Feeling beautiful, comfortable in your own skin and connected to yourself isn't shallow - it's deeply personal.

Piercing became another way for women to reclaim ownership of their bodies. It was still a rebellion against society's expectations, but one that existed alongside beauty rather than against it.

Much like stopping to smell the roses, body piercing became something that brought joy, confidence and self-expression. Women were joining the same movement for freedom, just through a different lens.

2010–2018: The Wild Years

Then the men came back.

While women continued exploring aesthetic piercing, many men entered the conversation looking for something much bolder.

Some women, myself included, happily joined that movement too, although for a period it wasn't a space that felt particularly female. That slowly shifted between 2014 and 2016, and today diversity exists throughout every corner of the body modification community.

This era saw body modification explode in popularity.

The internet, and particularly platforms like BME, brought underground modifications into public view.

Custom industrials became trends.

Large gauge piercings.

Dermal punches.

Extreme stretching.

Scarification.

Tongue splits.

Ear shaping and pointing.

Subdermal implants.

Eyeball tattooing.

Even amputations.

For a while it became a race toward the next shocking modification.

Today those procedures no longer have the same "wow factor." They've become better understood, discussed more openly and viewed through a much broader lens than they once were.

2018 to Today

Today we're doing body piercing differently.

Gold jewellery entered the mainstream in a way our industry had never seen before.

Customisation exploded.

Creativity reached an entirely new level.

The dominance of the industry's long-standing "big three" manufacturers start to lose their monopoly over the industry, allowing more studios and independent designers to create jewellery with their own vision and identity.

It would be impossible to discuss this era without mentioning Maria Tash.

Whether people love the brand or dislike parts of its business model, denying its influence would be unrealistic.

Many piercers understandably disliked seeing trademarked names attached to placements or styling concepts due to someone making it popular. More so if those placements or concepts technically, weren't invented by one company.

But personally?

I don't really care. I thinks its great Maria Tash helped expose the joy and freedom of body piercing to a whole new demographic, I'm all for it plus I love her range and one of very few to be a proud stockist in Australia.

As a small business owner, I could never achieve that level of global exposure that MT did.

Because of that exposure, I now spend more of my career doing what I genuinely love - creating beautiful piercings and styling jewellery and more importantly, clients benefit.

Studios like ours have expanded beyond simply learning how to pierce. We're investing in gemmology, metallurgy, jewellery design and styling because clients now expect more than simply being pierced.

They expect artistry.

Placement Then vs Placement Now

When I think back to how I started, I began in what I'd call the generation of defining placement.

The eye for detail I developed wasn't handed to me. It was something I built through experience, observation and a genuine obsession with making piercings look like they belonged on the body they were placed in.

One of the biggest compliments I ever received was hearing clients say,

"I knew you did my friend's lip piercings just by looking at the placement."

That meant everything to me.

It fuelled my passion for educating both clients and other piercers about creating piercings that worked with anatomy rather than against it.

That passion eventually led me into education.

I became a lead piercer across multiple studios, trained teams to create consistency, wrote my own piercing manual and developed apprenticeship programs.

Even today, I still believe there is great placement.

Good placement.

Okay placement.

Bad placement.

But there is now another category that didn't really exist when I started.

The unknown.

The Unknown

The unknown is why I believe respectable piercers should be very careful before judging someone else's placement.

Unless there are genuine concerns about safety or angle, there are simply too many variables we don't know.

Perhaps that piercing was intentionally positioned for a very specific piece of jewellery.

Perhaps it was designed around a future project.

Perhaps the client requested something unconventional after a full discussion about the pros and cons.

Those conversations happen every day.

Clients won't always remember them, and another piercer certainly wasn't there to hear them.

A piercing positioned specifically for one piece of jewellery will almost never look "perfect" if traditional jewellery is later inserted.

Without knowing the original intention, judging the placement can be incredibly misleading.

Experience Teaches Humility

This is where I think some newer and less experienced piercers can get themselves into trouble.

Instead of asking questions, they offer opinions.

Instead of being curious, they become critical.

Sometimes it feels as though pulling down a more experienced piercer somehow elevates themselves.

In reality, it rarely does.

Personally, I think commenting on another piercer's work should always be approached with professionalism and tact.

There is simply too much context missing.

I generally favour giving another piercer the benefit of the doubt unless there is a very good reason not to.

I've also been piercing long enough to see beautiful work from excellent piercers heal poorly through no fault of their own.

One example that has always stayed with me involved a piercer I don't even particularly like on a personal level.

I had reviewed one of their piercings from the day it was performed through to the final outcome.

It healed terribly.

Could I have blamed the piercer?

Sure.

Would it have been true?

No.

And I have no interest in being dishonest simply because I dislike someone.

Respecting someone's professional standards doesn't require liking them personally.

Likewise, I don't believe trash-talking other piercers benefits anyone.

It makes clients uncomfortable.

It damages trust.

And more often than not, it says more about the person speaking than the person they're speaking about.

The Future of Placement

Placement today is no longer defined solely by traditional locations.

That may still be the case within many franchise or highly commercial environments, but boutique and luxury studios are moving in a different direction.

As long as the placement is safe...

As long as the client understands the intention...

As long as transparency exists throughout the process...

...the possibilities are almost limitless.

We're no longer restricted by traditional placement alone, we're designing around anatomy, around jewellery, around styling, around long-term curation.

I do think simple jewellery and traditional placements will continue to cycle back into fashion they always do.

But overall, I believe the future of placement has never offered more creative freedom than it does today.

The only real limitations are imagination, anatomy and long-term viability.

And personally, I think that's an incredibly exciting place for our industry to be.