We were lucky to catch up with Jon Pendergrass recently and have shared our conversation below.
Jon , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?
Six years into my piercing career and my journey as a jeweler, I am able to say that I earn a full-time living from my creative work, but it wasn’t an overnight process. I started with a piercing apprenticeship where I made almost no money for a year and a half, while what little money I did earn was thrown into learning everything I could about piercing and how to begin making my own jewelry. I was lucky enough to meet a few talented and successful people who were willing to share with me what they knew about the craft and the industry, experience gained largely through self-education. As more time passed, my knowledge and experience continued to grow with consistent effort and time spent on my craft. When Covid hit and the world was thrown into uncertainty, I knew in my heart that I was going to stay on this path no matter what it took, even if that meant struggling financially as I continued on.
Today, I have successfully built a stable and successful business with my craft. I continue to educate myself as much as I can, and I take various creative classes with seasoned jewelers. I know there is still so much room for me to grow as an artist and as a business owner, but I am beyond grateful that I can make a comfortable living while offering such a meaningful experience to so many lives.
Just the other day I was looking over one of my very first business plans, and on one of the pages I had Fern Piercing’s first month income. It was a truly humbling moment as I thought about where this journey began and how many amazing and successful people have been there to help me along the way. Without spiritual and business guidance from so many caring individuals, I wouldn’t be where I am today. There aren’t enough words to express my sincere gratitude. The best I can do today is to offer guidance and advice to those who reach out to me, to give help freely as it was given to me.
Jon , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I was born and raised in the foothills of North Carolina, and spent many years finding peace and inspiration in the beauty of the natural world. I always had a deep desire to be creative – I knew somewhere in my heart that I was an artist, but I dabbled in a number of creative outlets and nothing ever seemed to feel quite right.
When I initially got into body piercing, the goal wasn’t to create jewelry, but to be the best piercer that I could be. This industry offers such a unique environment for people to come and truly take charge of their appearance and how they express themselves stylistically. The confidence that grows in each client as their outside appearance begins to match their inside exploration is an amazing thing to get to be a part of. The piercing world allows people a safe space to come and make changes that make an individual feel more like themselves, and I immediately loved getting to be a part of that journey.
The making of jewelry evolved naturally following the immersion into this new and unique world. I discovered a creative outlet to express myself artistically, and it was one that finally felt like it fit. My work today is about co-creating with my clients, laying things out in a way that is stylistic as opposed to just putting something randomly in someone’s ear – though that can be a beautiful and fun expression also! Both the jewelry making and the piercing come together now. The ability to make my own pieces and curate looks for an individual based around who they are as a person and what they want allows me to dive as fully as possible into the original goal – to be a part of something deeply expressive for each individual client.
Fern Piercing itself is an accumulation of the things that have inspired me most throughout my life. My first love, the natural world, is definitely my biggest inspiration to this day. When I’m in nature is when I feel most connected to the world around me, and the creativity within myself. There are so many elements that inspire my work within that realm. There are textures and depth, colors and scents that are endless – and just when I think I’ve discovered and seen it all, something else comes along and widens the view even more. I work hard to bring that inspiration into the jewelry I create because I desire to share the vastness of the beauty of nature with my clients. I think it’s important to note that I’m not the first person in this industry to create like this, I’m not reinventing the wheel over here. People have come before me and have shared similar inspirations and visions, and have even been kind enough to teach me some things along the way. The beauty of being an artist is that no two people are the same, and no two works of art are the same – we each bring our own unique view to the world. I’m grateful to be able to share my view with my clients, and to also integrate their vision into my creations wherever possible.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
Within the piercing industry there is a desire to educate clients about quality of materials as well as standards of body piercing, which is definitely something that we as practitioners have an obligation to do. However, I came into the industry seeing a lot of piercers go about this in a way that can end up feeling rude, impersonal, and almost like we are chastising the public for doing something wrong. I had trouble early on unlearning that attitude, and recognizing that we are simply dealing with people who don’t have nearly as much experience with these things as we do. I wanted to bring a little more humanity into the conversation.
Learning to have those educational conversations in a way that is relaxed has been something I’ve put a lot of work into. I am in an industry that thrives off of fun and joyful experiences, inside a world that is exciting and unfamiliar to a lot of people. Yes, the young person coming in to get their earlobes pierced a second time needs to have aftercare explained to them, but I can do so in such a way that doesn’t make them feel terrible about how they’ve cared for any previous piercings. I can discuss changing to non-toxic metals in way that encourages love and care for their body as opposed to judging them for what they did before they knew better. I try to keep in mind the humanity of my clients, as well as my health and safety obligation as a practitioner.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
As a piercer and jeweler, I feel like I fall into a particularly misunderstood subsection of the creative world. We are often lumped in with tattooers, and then the whole group of us are often viewed by the public as glamorous free-spirited artists who live these amazing lives with little-to-no real effort. However, that simply is not the entire picture. I am only one relatively ordinary human who has a passion and drive to create, and to share those creations with my clients.
On the one hand, it is by far the most rewarding work I have ever done and it does in many ways afford me a lot of freedom. On the other hand, I spend so many hours in solitude behind the scenes, doing research on gemstones, trying out new techniques on my own, screwing up, trying again – so, so many hours doing very unglamorous work. Sometimes I feel like people try and haggle down on pricing, perhaps in large part because they don’t fully comprehend the amount of hours it has taken to get here, to this beautiful small stone set in gold waiting to find its home. It can be difficult to navigate a world where the running assumption is that an artist’s creative juices are always flowing, and that doing something I love must mean it is always effortless and therefore can be priced as such. This small stone set in gold has taken years of consistent effort, discipline to continue on in the face of struggles, mistakes and broken stones and broken tools. I can’t give that away for nothing.
That being said, I want to be sure to express my deepest gratitude that I have so many incredible clients who value my work, time, and energy beyond belief. I have people who have followed Fern Piercing on this journey for years, never once making me feel like I am expecting too much from anyone. I have so many clients who trust me and respect my work deeply, and I would not be where I am today without them. They show me every day that there is a place in the world for a successful creative career – that I can follow my heart and share my passions with the world, and also be able to live a good and stable life.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.fernpiercing.com
- Instagram: Fern_piercing
Image Credits
Sunlight Perspective Photography