Young man fulfills a dream for his own piercing studio
When he was 11, Rob Morris got an ear pierced and came away from the experience with more than just a hole in his ear lobe.
He became fascinated with body piercing that day, and after a few dozen more personal piercings over the years, plus tattoos, he decided to open a piercing studio.
Morris, 23, of West Ashley opened Mr. E's Body Piercing on Jan. 7. The shop at 2578 Ashley River Road markets body jewelry, tobacco pipes, incense, herbal blends and, of course, body piercings. Morris' wife, Shelby Morris, 19, keeps books and serves as hostess; their infant son, Carter, often relaxes in his swinging chair.
"It's family owned and operated, and we treat customers like family," Rob Morris said.
He said he's provided piercings for young and old. State law now establishes 14 as the youngest age a person can get a body piercing with parental permission, but Morris said he recently pierced the nose of an 84-year-old woman. The minimum age requirement does not apply to piercing ear lobes.
Morris said that at one time he had 63 piercings. He cut that down to 26 after Carter was born. "People sometimes give me funny looks and comments," he confided.
He said he didn't want his son to grow up subjected to that. "It's just a way of showing self-expression," Morris said about his body piercings. "But after we had the baby, I toned it down a bit."
Morris' youth was spent moving back and forth between South Carolina and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Pa. At 10, he moved in with his dad, Robert Morris, in Columbia. He then returned to Pennsylvania and came back to Columbia to visit his dad the next year. "I was 11 years old when I went with my father to get my ear pierced in Columbia." Morris said his father, who now lives in North Charleston, got his nipple pierced that day.
He added that the state law establishing the lower age limit was not on the books back then.
That first piercing made a lasting impression, literally and figuratively, on Morris. "I just thought it was really cool, and it started my passion pretty much." From that day on, he said, his desire was to be a professional piercer.
Opening a piercing studio requires more than just tools, he said. A comprehensive law requires prospective piercers to take classes in first aid and blood-borne pathogens and to work 400 hours in a licensed piercing studio.
Morris said the shop's name, "Mr. E's" stems from a nickname. "They named me Mr. Exotic," he recalled about his early years.
Morris said there's probably nowhere on the human body that he can't make a piercing. "If you can pinch it, I can pierce it." Some piercings can be painful, he said.
For Morris, the career he's chosen is the right one. The best part of having the studio is, "Waking up every day knowing it's mine and it's what I really want to do."
E-mail mrebodypiercing@aol.com or call 225-9604. For piercing regulations, visit www.scdhec.gov/health/licen/hrbodyp.htm.
