WHEN Marios Soteriou got his first piercing at the age of 13 in 1976, society still believed that only homosexuals, gypsies or drug users engaged in such activities.
Now 45, Marios is the owner of Station Piercing & Tattoos, with two studios in Nicosia.
“Times of course have changed and piercing is considered normal now,” he said.
Soteriou explained that he, “always wanted to be involved in something different and unusual”, and this train of thought led him to open his first studio on Onasagorou Street back in 1994.
“I used to get around ten customers a year back then and times were hard but I stuck at it and one year ago opened my second studio, on Makarios Avenue. Now, there are thousands of customers every year.”
The 160 square metre studio certainly was impressive. Extremely modern and high-tech, there was a constant stream of teenagers and young people coming in throughout the duration of the interview.
“Generally speaking, if you are under 16 years of age, you need written permission from a parent or guardian in order to be pierced,” he said.
One of his many teenage customers was 14-year-old Paris Eliades. Accompanied by his father, Paris had come in to get his lip pierced. He had badgered his parents for months to get the necessary permission.
“When I saw a lip piercing for the first time, I just knew I wanted to have one,” he said. “It’s a New Age thing and really big everywhere.”
Paris said he thinks most piercings are attractive, and having one done is also about identifying with others.
“If I see a group of five tough-looking guys on the street without piercings, then I might feel a bit scared,” he said. “But, if you see a group with piercings then I would feel much safer. I feel like I know them, that they will be more like me.”
His father, Nicholas, admitted he and his wife had been very reluctant to let their son have one done.
“I’d refused utterly to entertain the idea for months. It was non-negotiable. Then suddenly it struck me one day Paris was being no different to how I was at 14 – except then I insisted on expressing my teenage identity in another way – with long hair, rolled up Levis and Doc Martens,” said Nicholas.
“The style infuriated my parents, although I could never understand why, in the same way Paris couldn’t understand our opposition to a lip piercing. Now he’s had it done, I can’t see why we made a fuss. It doesn’t look bad either – I don’t consider it a mutilation.”
Soteriou said it was very important to look after a piercing in order to keep it clean. Apply antiseptic soap and not get sand or dirt in it.
He also emphasised the need for studios to have clean and modern equipment.
“My customers are mostly Cypriots, with 80 per cent aged between 12 and 18. Foreigners tend to be interested in more extreme piercings.”
As well as offering piercing and tattoo services, the studio is also home to one of the biggest collections of body piercing jewellery in Europe, as well as clothing and accessories and other tit-bits.
According to Soteriou, he is the only person on the island to have a bachelor’s degree in piercing and he has also attended specialist courses in Thailand and Australia, as well as Association of Safe Professional Piercers’ seminars and health and safety courses.
“Many piercers in Cyprus are not adequately trained and this gives a bad name to the industry. However, things are gradually improving with more and more getting specialist education on the subject.”
He added that the Health Ministry has been asked to clearly set out the law.
Soteriou, who has previously had 12 piercings and three stretchings, explained that the most popular locations are ears, followed by navels, noses and lips.
“The youngest needle piercings I have performed were on two ten-year-old twin girls, on their lips, while the oldest was a 36-year-old woman who wanted a genital piercing.”
On that particular subject, Soteriou said similar requests are pretty rare – “only around five per cent, mainly women.”
He has also refused to do some piercings on safety grounds. “One guy wanted a piercing through his neck and into his tongue while a homosexual wanted an anal piercing.”
Another story he recalled was when “an extremely well-built basketball player came in wanting his ear pierced. As soon as I started, he fainted, even though the sensation of being pierced is similar to that of a mosquito bite!”
History
Body piercing (including ear piercing) has been practised by people all over the world from ancient times. Mummified bodies with piercings have been discovered, including the oldest mummified body discovered to date, that of Ötzi the Iceman, which was found in a glacier. This mummy had an ear piercing 7 to 11 mm in diameter.
According to online encyclopaedia Wikipedia, the modern body piercing culture emerged from the gay leather and BDSM (bondage, discipline, domination, submission, sadism and masochism) subcultures. In 1967, New York jewellery maker Jim Ward joined the New York Motorbike Club, a gay S&M group, and experimented with nipple piercing. Ward then moved to Colorado, where he and other members of the Rocky Mountaineer Motorcycle Club experimented more broadly, with genital piercing in particular. In 1973, Ward moved to West Hollywood where he met Doug Malloy and Fakir Musafar. Together these men developed the basic techniques and equipment of modern body piercing. Malloy introduced the use of the autoclave and hypodermic needle. Ward developed the fixed bead ring and internally threaded barbells.
Elaine Davidson is the ‘Most Pierced Woman’ according to Guinness World Records.
When examined by a Guinness official in May 2000, Davidson had 462 piercings, with 192 in her face alone. She has more piercings in her genitalia than in any other part of the body – 500 in all, externally and internally. The total weight of her jewellery is estimated to be about three kilograms. As of May 2008, Davidson’s piercings total 5,920.
Station Piercing & Tattoos: 76 Makarios Avenue and 76 Onasagorou Street, Nicosia.
Telephone: 99 89 48 84
