Simultaneously, I had found the man of my dreams and our relationship was flourishing. I met him only a couple of weeks after starting my apprenticeship. Truth is he was nothing like anyone I had dated before, not quite "my type". I had decided to give up on these ideals I had built because it was not working. Granted I was only 20 years old, but my longest relationship had been 3 months! LOL So after a bit of hesitation, and a mind expanding journey ;c) I had fallen in love. Very shortly after becoming official, I moved in with him <3 Fernando has been one of the strongest forces pushing me and supporting me throughout my entire career. Every day he pushes me to be the best and expand my horizons <3 He is my hero ^.^
Being the apprentice of course meant that everyone could mess with me. When I was stretching my septum, which is terribly painful, one of my co-workers Nicole would love to flick the tip of my nose O.O uuuuggghhh sooo painful but it never bothered me too much because it was expected. Nicole loved to mess with me but she was never a dick about it. I had one tattoo that I got at the shop one day and refused to disclose to anyone what it meant. It was a mysterious set of 3 numbers on the inside of my finger LOL. She decided to fart on me every chance she got in an attempt to get me to tell her. I could never be bothered by Nicole though because she was just so hilariously silly about everything. The only time I believe we ever had a problem was when she asked me to do paperwork for her while I was in the middle of watching J.D. do a piercing. I was meant to be the piercing apprentice so my doing something for the tattoo artists when I was trying to learn was not my job. Maytee got a little peeved with her so Nicole got a little peeved with me but we definitely got over it though, it was no big deal. Of all people I think J.D. was the most upset by it. He hated when I let people "take advantage of me" and I always did Nicole the favor because I usually was not busy. This time I was though and it bit me in the butt and so he got defensive on my behalf.
J.D. and Nicole were pretty close though, even kind of played the "cool kids" role and made fun of one of our other co-workers for being "cheesy" and bitched about hearing all his same "lame jokes". They were a little cliquey sometimes but in the end we were all family. They loved to put me in uncomfortable situations though. Like making me have the awkward talks with customers and making me pierce those J.D. did not want to deal with.
There was one man who we are pretty sure was homeless. He had a layer of grime on him, was a bit stinky, a little out there and awkward. He had quite a few different piercings and every once in a wile came in for another. One day we saw him walking up to the shop and Nicole and J.D. quite literally told me "this ones on you!" and ran out to Nicole's car to hide. Oooooohhh man! I had done maybe 1-3 Navel piercings and it just so happened this is what he wanted to get pierced. This was a much older man with a big pot belly btw. Here is a picture they took as they laughed at my misery LOL
So now add to the normal stress of a piercing the fact that this man had Alligator skin!! I literally put all of my body weight into it and could NOT break his skin. After many embarrassing attempts I had to bring over J.D. Even he couldn't do it for a bit at first but eventually got it through. It was quite terrible but it was part of the learning experience.
There were also fun little rituals we had like watching Cheaters every day at 3 PM! This was a must for Nicole and myself, I still love this show haha! My mentor Maytee and I also would watch Beavis and Butthead DVD's whenever we got bored <3 One of our favorite clips was from the episode Beavis and Butthead Take a Lap. Beavis and Butthead run to the phone after being completely brain washed by this commercial and their faces and sounds just made Maytee and I laugh HYSTERICALLY!
Overall I loved my apprenticeship <3 It had its ups and downs, the struggles of being broke, trying constantly to impress and make myself seem worthy of the knowledge I was receiving. Many have had it much worse than myself but I was lucky. It was still tough, don't get me wrong. My apprenticeship lasted a whole year almost exactly and I finally became head piercer at the second location on February 13th, 2009. It was Friday the 13th actually and boy was it a crazy welcoming on my first day. We continue the journey next time! ^.^
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