The Coward's Guide to Body Piercing by Herbert I. Kavet and Martin Riskin is a humorous must have for anyone interested in body piercing. It helps you to answer your friends when they ask 'Why did you do that', and provides a light hearted overview of the cultural phenomenon. If you do not have a copy of this book, I have to ask Why Not?

On Feb 21 we ran an initial Groupon special offering $60 of value at Blackstar for $30. The response was phenomenal, and we have had a number of our clients ask when we are going to do it again. The simple answer is SOON.

If you are not following Groupon and their daily specials, we have to ask why not? The deals with local merchants in our and your area are phenomenal, and it gives you the chance to try something new at a very reasonable price. Not just for Blackstar, but see what other local merchants are offering.

This site is about piercing!

One of the features available to our privileged users is our newsgroup galleries, where we show photos of piercings we have collected from the usenet groups. Our purpose is to give our users some idea of the trends we are seeing in piercings, but the result has been a flood of questions about the usenet.

Usenet was the original public access messaging system, conceived in 1979 and started in 1980, more that a decade before the ARPAnet became the internet.(Read more of the history at Wikepedia.).

This is the first time Kingston has had its Santa Claus parade after dark. And Blackstar had front row seats.

I had a phone call today from a young lady inquiring about the price of a nostril piercing with a stud. She called back a few minutes later wanting to know how much it would be without the stud. ???

Its been a couple weeks now since my first experience at Rosie's. Just enough time to digest it all (and edit a couple photos).

We have never understood how normally conscientious people can choose a piercer by looking for the cheapest price! But it happens, and the people get taken for a ride. We see the results when they come to us and ask 'Can you fix this?'. Most of these problems would have been avoided if the people concerned knew the correct questions to ask.

Piercing aftercare has evolved significantly over the time I have been piercing. A number of myths about aftercare have gained prominence in the industry simply because of the democratic nature of the internet. Dispelling these myths, and finding aftercare protocols that actually worked has been an ongoing endeavor at Blackstar.

We have come to realize three basic principals.

I like piercing. Obviously I would not be here otherwise. Over the past two decades I have had well over 36 piercings although none are visible. Things poking out of the head excludes a person from many forums. I could never have worked in my milieu, suit and tie. with flashing whatevers. However, after hearing Jim Ward interviewed on CBC around 1986, I thought that such stimuli to the endorphins might be pleasurable. And so another life began. The disadvantage of this other lifestyle is that it is addictive, particularly for a bit of an exhibitionist.