June 28th is International Piercing Day!
Indeed, if you want a good reason to celebrate on June 28th, it has to be because it’s International Piercing Day! In our last blog about the Association of Professional Piercers (APP), we spoke about the Gauntlet. It’s an important name in the history of modern piercing because it was the first piercing to open in the United States, thus creating the piercing industry we know today.
Store front of the Gauntlet, source: https://thepointjournal.org/2020/05/26/point-85-in-the-beginning-there-was-gauntlet/
The Gauntlet first started its operations in Jim Ward’s house, the father of modern piercing, in 1975. It went on until 1978, when he opened his first commercial location in Hollywood. In the beginnings, the main clientele was mostly homosexual, sadomasochists men. As the years went on, the Gauntlet gained in popularity way past its base clientele.
Since then, it completely revolutionized the piercing industry. It manufactured its own jewelry, types of jewelry we still use today as well as terms that are still anchored in the vocabulary of body piercing, such as barbell, circular barbell and captive bead ring.
Amongst the employees of the Gauntlet, there was Elayne Angel, the first person to ever receive the title of Master Piercer, as well as the author of The Piercing Bible. There was also Michaela Grey, who would later become the founder of the Association of Professional Piercers.
Eventually, the Gauntlet started encountering financial problems, and Jim Ward had health issues at that time. It’s after a little over 20 years of activity that the Gauntlet closed its doors in late 1998.
Okay… so why is International Piercing Day on June 28th?
Well, it is simply the date of birth of the founding father of modern body piercing! 😊