Keep it Humble: There is Always More to Learn

I have been piercing since 1999. When I started piercing, there were only 2 shops in my city that offered tattoos as well as piercings. I apprenticed under a piercer who took the Gauntlet piercing courses in New York.
Given the fact that Gauntlet helped to pave the way for the APP (more or less), I did not realize how important his knowledge and experiences were. And in retrospect, I may have taken that for granted.
I was glad to have gotten my foot in the door at a reputable shop and absolutely thrilled to be a part of the body piercing industry.

In 2002, I opened Dead RockStar Tattoos and Piercings and, by this point, had built a solid and dedicated client base. I had become the go-to guy for people with piercing questions and/or complications and piercers from other local shops were calling to ask me about certain piercings, procedures, and whatnot.

This was all fine and dandy but what I did not realize was that, slowly but surely, my ego had begun to inflate. I do not consider myself egotistical by any means but when you have nobody else around you, that has the same level of experience, it can be hard to keep ye ol' ego in check and sometimes a "holier than thou" attitude (that pun is very much intended) can start to develop.

In 2006, I attended my first APP conference. I remember sitting on the airplane on the way to Vegas and thinking, "I have been doing this stuff for 7 years. I don't think I will get much out of this conference but it's worth a shot."  I could not have been more wrong. That first APP conference was one of the most humbling (and awesome) experiences that I have ever had. After the first day of classes I went back to my hotel room and re-evaluated my entire piercing career. I had a LOT to learn.

The rest of that conference was an experience I will never forget. The people I met, the experiences I shared and the amount of new information that I walked away with was amazing and very refreshing! I could not wait to get back to my shop and put to work all that I had learned in that one week.

Every year I look forward to the APP conference and I have never been let down. In fact, I am amazed at how the APP is in a constant state of progress to make things bigger and better.

All of my rambling on this can be summarized into one statement:
If you think there is nothing left to learn in this industry and you know it all, it is time for you to get out of piercing. Keep yourself humble enough to know that there is ALWAYS something else to learn.