Phil Rizzi: No I had
a more "punk rock" experience. Bands that I liked and people that I know
were into piercing, back
when not a lot of people had them. The first time that I saw a Labret
I thought it was the coolest thing that I have ever seen. I
did not get into the anthropologic side of piercing until I got into
piercing.
MM: You quickly became known locally as being one of the cleanest and safest around what do you attribute that to?
PR: Well I am Mainly self taught, although I did have an apprenticeship but that did not do anything for me as far as any kind of reputation, If anything that hurt me.
MM: Where did you apprentice at?
PR: I apprenticed
under a person named Wendy who worked out of Shocker in Waterford She was
self taught so that
"apprenticeship" ,if you want to call it that was minimal. It lead
me in the wrong direction, it was not really what I needed and
as far as quickly becoming known for anything. When I think about it,
it seems to me that I spent way to much time in the dark.
Piercing without the proper knowledge or equipment. Then again it is
all relative, back then.....well it was not that long ago, but
there were not as many qualified people around to let me know that
I was fucking up.
MM: so at after the "apprenticeship" you had enough knowledge to know that some of the thing's that you were doing where not right?
PR: At that point
I spent a lot of time in the library at Eastern Michigan University, I
went through and watched like 6 videos
about OSHA and different medical standards. These were only moderately
helpful, a lot of that stuff dose not apply or just is not good. I was
trying to be as studious as possible, I picked up all books that I could
come in contact with. I once had a stack
15 book high of sterilization requirements and theory. The science
was beyond me but I used them for charts.
MM: What was you driving force to learn all that you can about piercing?
PR: Basically the
fear of sucking. The main thing was cleanliness and sterility. You know
if I was a decent piercer that was
tolerable as long as I am a wonderful technician as far as all of my
cross contamination goes. That was really the important thing
to me. I did not want to be responsible for anyone getting anything
based on my carelessness.
MM: How did Generic
start?
PR: Lack of money,
I kept having problems with suppliers as the prices kept changing, and
ordering in quantity. Jewelry was a lot more expensive back then, and being
a metals concentration in school I know that I could make it as long as
I could
find the metals.
MM: When generic started did you offer a wider range of products?
PR: Oh ya, I mean
I was trying to be as experimental as possible, I mean I was not wildcat
or anything. But I was trying to make as many cool things as possable.
Then I was only taking 1/2 credit in school. Piercing was the main drive
in life at the time.I had a lot more time to make cool stuff. I just don't
have the time to make that stuff right now. Also at that time I had a partner
so things were a lot of easier.
MM: You do a lot
of Hard-core shows and festivals.
PR: There is a precedence
for that in the hard core/punk rock scene; there are probably at least
3 that i have heard of
"body jewelry" manufactures. the guy that i knew, his name is Chris,
he did Stigma jewelry it was all niobium, all rings
Most of it just ... sucked it was not really great jewelry but
niobium is easier to make, easier than
any other body jewelry beside acrylic maybe. But that is kinda what
I concentration on kinda my whole theory behind it was
that it seems to me, as if even know especially because Gauntlet was
real big back then. Piercing was becoming a
drive threw thing, i saw piercing become McDonalds, it is like the
people who are interested in doing it where
not people that I personally respected as individuals and the people
that they are performing it on where not people
that i respected as individuals and putting those together what you
get is something that is equivalent to tattoos which in general
in my opinion is not something that is political. what i am trying
to say is that is not a subculture of any kind. there a wide mix of people
that that have nothing to do with each other that are uniting only for
ink. and i don't like that, i don't like that about piercing in general
I would rather have something to do with people who i understand. it is
not that i am an isolationist or anything to a large extent. but as far
as that stuff goes i just. I was happiest working out of my house actually
even though it was harder, but when i worked in a shop i would have to
pierce sorority girls all the time. It is difficult do deal with those
people.
because there is so much gulf between you as individuals that as a
professional dealing with them, that is what you have to act like, you
cant act like a person, you had to act like a technician. I did not want
to be a technician i wanted to be
an artist and interact with people on a personal basis.
MM: So that is why
you decided to stop piercing?
PR: What I said
about working out of my apartment is true, I did like working out of my
apartment best. but I think I stated to realize after a while that that
is not.. it dose not look good. For me even though being a technician is
not really important to me. It is important to have everything to be set
up the way it need to be set up. and i don't just mean about your sterile
field, I mean from the time you walk in the door. From the time you get
the phone call you need to know that this person
is dedicated to the art of piercing. I spread myself so thin over the
years and increasingly thinner that I did not really want to make
that a responsibility of mine. to have that be a major influence in my
life. I was becoming part time as it was
I would only take 1 out of 4 appointments. and once that i got to that
part i realized that that it was no longer a big enough part of my life,
so it was kinda like time for me to step down.
MM: what where/are the other things that you where/are doing?
PR: I am a full-time student (15-18 credits a semester), I have to concentrations in my major, a minor. I just finished writing a book. I have two jobs and all the things that i do outside of those things to keep myself occupied drawing, painting, crafting fine jewelry. Basically my big drive in life is to be a renaissance man. I want to be able to do everything. so i am consistently trying to break into things. you know i don't master it all, but i dabble in a lot of stuff that hopefully will turn into more than that.
MM: A book.....
PR: It is a short
novel about my father I started it last winter and have been working on
it for the last seven or eight
months. so i just finished it and it is being printed right now 2 different
record labels and me are putting in the money to make
300 copies as just a totally introductory thing and this winter i will
press 1000 or 3000. I hope that people will give me input on it, tell me
what they would like to be changed. what works and what does not work,
since it is my first book I think that there will be a lot of things that
will need to be changed
MM: Are people going
to be able to buy this book?
PR: The web site of my best friend is vgkids.com, that is one of the web sites that i maintain. the entire book is on-line. and then once we actually have them we will put an order form on line. I done even know what the price will be something like 3-4 bucks.
MM: You said that vgkids is one of the sites that you maintain?
PR: I got a TRS80 when i was 8 years old and i pretty much had computers since except a laps in the early 90's. so i always have been interested in computer. I am in no was a programer, i am pretty much an end user but I am pretty interested in them especially as far as graphics software goes. the web is something that i started. Working with the web is something that i started to do approximately. 2 years ago. i am all right at it so it just works and a lot of people don't know how to do it so i seem like i am really good to them i built and maintain a web site for a group at school called the intermeadia gallery. i also built and maintained the site for generic jewelry, which is on vgkids.com and then i also built and maintain vgkids.com . which is for my best friends vegetarian grocery store in downtown Pontiac.
MM: Vegetarian grocery store?
PR: James if a really
young kid and he took an inheritance from his mom. He decided that he wanted
to do something that was positive with it and at the same time stabilize
himself. So he opened a grocery store in downtown Pontiac. The vegetarian
grocer opened officially in April. It did punk rock shows for a while,
those got closed down and now at the end of the month the vegetarian grocer
will be having punk rock shows again. As for the web site I have pretty
much let James have control of it at this point. Because the structure
of it is there which he and I both worked on, I think I have gotten
him to the point where he knows how to update it. So from this point forward
it will be James site. It is a resource for the store, for everybody to
come to and see what is going on at the store, where he needs help and
what he has to offer. The site is a fluid thing that changes all the time.
there are also pictures of bands that played there and friends.
MM: About the
more aggressive piercings that you did? did you have any mishaps
PR: The worst piercings
that I ever did where actually the most standard piercings septum piercings
where the most difficult piercings for me. As far as the more aggressive
stuff I would say that I did not invent anything I did not even come
close. Any thing that I did I had heard about. I don't think that I
ever tried to do anything that was not done before. All the piercings I
got the idea from someone else and then spent a few months trying to figure
out how I was going to
pull I off without fucking myself or someone else up. The 2 most dangerous
that I ever did in myself ... no wait I did the lower pallet on someone
else first. but the uvula was on me first.
MM: Where did the
idea for the jaw piercing come.
PR: I actually heard
of someelse doing it and then researched it. found out that is was possible
and then did one on a friend of mine and that turned out good. they are
hard to heal. especially for me cause of the beard that wants to grow around
it
after the first piercing I did my own and kept that for 8 or 9 months
MM: did it heal fully in that time?
PR: oh ya, the only problems that I had with it where when I tried to stretch it. I stretched it up to 8ga and that was not the best idea. I mean it was a good idea as I did not want the thin 14ga to tear but it did not want to stretch. the muscle was inflamed up until a month before I took it out.
MM: what are the shops that you worked out of?
PR: I have only worked
out of one shop, that being insane creations in Ann arbor under Rob Petroff
who really only worked there for maybe the first 3 weeks and then started
his new shop in flint. And left me and Tochina, who was kinda a manager
I worked there for around 7 months. up till it closed.
MM: Is that where
you got you experience with sorority girls?
PR: Ya that is the shop that i worked out of where i had to do that, and not to say that "normal people" are all bad or anything it is just that i find it more gratifying to work on people that are there because they share the same interest I realize that everyone can be caught up in trends, myself included but that is not to say that there are more people that are more disingenuous about it. I am not sue if I want to contribute to that. Then again it is very difficult to turn people away, especially if they are there with money. I mean what are you going say "i wont work on you because i don't think you are serious about piercing"? that is another thing that i need to reevaluate "is where piercing is away of life of not". it is a way of life for the people who do it, the "technicians" but should it be a way of life for the piercees? when it comes down to it is just ornamentation even if it is a for a reason i.e. tribal people, it still secondary to what it means. rites of passage are more important than the ornamentation.
MM: You still have you Labret and stretched ears....
PR: I used to think
that it would be a violation of principal to take out a piercing for a
job. I don't think that I feel that way anymore. in general I feel like
it should not matter weather you have piercings or not in that it is not
much difference than hair. In the same time I have become less dogmatic
about it. I know weigh things differently, instead of having so much on
the side of the piercing. I am willing to let that come up for certain
types of jobs or situations. I am willing to compromise and just realize
that society is generally bigoted about piercing and maybe I don't want
peoples first impression of me to be blinded my the fact that I have piercings.
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