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On this episode of Macro Beauty, we follow the journey of a person getting their industrial piercing redone. We head to Body Electric Tattoo to piercer Brian Keith Thompson's studio. Press play to see how this ear piercing is done.

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Transcript
00:00Piercers are trained to operate with infectious diseases without cross-contaminating,
00:07so these are practices that we've been doing for years.
00:13I'm Andrea, and I'm getting an industrial piercing done today. I had an industrial done
00:18on this ear by my friend. It was like 20 bucks, so I was like, why not? May 2017,
00:24I went backpacking in Europe and my industrial got really infected, which I,
00:32being a dumb 20-year-old, chose to ignore and use like soap and water to rinse it and try
00:39and keep
00:39it sanitary, which didn't really work because eventually I had to go to the hospital in Portugal.
00:45It was like thick and red and hot and itchy. It started like leaking yellow fluid, which is
00:55terrifying. A couple years later, here I am getting it redone.
01:00I'm Brian Keith Thompson. I own Body Electric in Los Angeles. I've owned Body Electric now as of
01:06July 1st for 14 years, and I've been piercing as long as I've owned the studio. It's still
01:11the love of my life. I feel it's the only thing that I'm good at. So the pandemic has changed
01:18the
01:18way I do business. I had to figure out how to make the studio appointment only and taking much fewer
01:26clients. I understand you want to get your industrial pierced. Yes. An industrial piercing
01:33is an extra-long barbell that goes pretty much from the forward helix to the helix. It's two piercings,
01:41of course, and they're done back to back. I think we should add two piercings to your lobe right here
01:47with it. I'm done. Yeah? Yeah, I'm so done. All right.
01:57Before I get pierced, try not to think about it. Just don't think about it.
02:01I lean all the way back. All right. Here we go. This piercing is called How to Make Grandmother Cry.
02:13I will position the industrial to work with the mask. I will place the needle on the other side of
02:22the helix. I will have my receiving tube on the inside of the ear, and I will be piercing down
02:28into the
02:28glass receiving tube.
02:58The
03:02As you know, industrials are two piercings.
03:07After that first piercing, I'm going to adjust, move my receiving tube to the bottom side
03:12of her helix, pierce again into it.
03:38I'm going to remove the needle with a taper, transfer the jewelry in to the ear.
04:02And remove the taper.
04:04So I wanted to bring a little color in there and White Gold's best friend is Rose Gold.
04:08They look great together.
04:09I put Rose Gold balls on the end, so I added a little color to it.
04:17I didn't want to just stop there.
04:19I thought she had great lobes to put a stacked vertical lobe piercing.
04:38I didn't want to just stop there.
04:41I didn't want to just stop there.
05:12I didn't want to just stop there.
05:13I didn't want to just stop there.
05:18So I used two Black Diamond bezel BVLA threadless ends.
05:24I just felt the bezels fit her style more because it's more industrial.
05:31And the Black Diamond, she just screamed Black Diamond to me.
05:35Like, badass.
05:36Hardcore.
05:40It's so cool.
05:42Look at it.
05:45I want to poke it, but obviously that's not a good idea.
05:48But it's so cool.
05:49Oh, yay!
05:54First thought was, oh, that didn't hurt as bad
05:56as I remember it hurting, so that's good.
06:00I was actually pretty stoked when I looked in the mirror.
06:02I was like, hell yeah, that looks sick as hell.
06:05So stoked.
06:06I'm really glad that I let him do his thing on there.
06:08I couldn't have chosen anything better personally, so.
06:11His signature little vertical piercing thing looks so sick,
06:15and I wear black all the time,
06:17so the black diamonds look really cool too.
06:18Her ear was perfect, and she was a trooper.
06:22She handled herself quite well.
06:23She was easy to pierce, and a lot of fun to pierce as well.
06:26So we did the industrial with a titanium barbell
06:30because it needed to be a little bit longer
06:31for the healing process.
06:33I don't recommend getting pierced with silver.
06:35Silver is an oxidizing metal.
06:37It starts tarnishing, getting that kind of black tint to it.
06:41That can actually be absorbed into your body.
06:43If you like the color, go with titanium or white gold,
06:47or if you're just a baller, go with platinum.
06:50An industrial is going to take you upwards of a year to heal from start to finish.
06:55It's almost impossible not to injure it or hit it or snag it.
06:59Less care is best care with an industrial.
07:01Wash it once, no more than twice a day, with a very gentle cleanser.
07:06So I think definitely after this experience and comparing it to my first one,
07:09first step, just go to a good piercer and not your friend that's piercing at a tattoo shop.
07:15So what is it like piercing during a pandemic?
07:18I must say it's like piercing any other day of the week.
07:21Body Electric has always been operating this way.
07:23We clean the studio together as a team every day.
07:26The mask also can make the healing much more intensive.
07:32Not being careful and pulling it off too quickly, snagging the piercing.
07:37Definitely glad that I did it again because, yeah, it's awesome.
07:41I love it. I'm stoked.
07:43Why not decorate your ears?
07:45Our face is covered now and the ears are the only things you're really seeing.
07:50You're seeing our forehead, your hair, if you have some, and your ears.
07:53So get them pierced. I mean, why not?
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