Jason Hinchee

I was born in Winchester Massachusetts but I moved to NH at a very young age and have lived there ever since. I spent basically half of my life living in Londonderry and Manchester alternately back and forth. From a very young age I was a problem solver as well as an endless tinkerer and experimenter. I was also fascinated with the human body and how it works. I kinda wanted to be a surgeon or an engineer, but knew the schooling would be, shall we say, cost prohibitive.

When I was in high school, a few of my friends wanted to become a piercer- though it had never really occurred to me to become one myself. But since I was not squeamish, had steady hands, and could quickly diffuse near-panic situations. I was asked, on a few occasions, to run damage control on unsuccessful attempts of friends piercing one another. I am relentless in my quest for knowledge and learn everything I can about current hobbies and fascinations. After doing just a little research I realized there was A LOT that could go wrong in piercing so I started trying to warn them, knowing they would do it themselves instead of going to a professional; they started asking me to pierce them instead.

After exhaustive research from every source I could find, getting a job selling jewelry for Spiderbite Body Piercing in Manchester, NH, befriending and relentlessly grilling the piercers at the shop, and doing a few piercings on myself, I finally somehow found a shop that would apprentice me. I officially started my piercing career at Magic Needle in Hudson, NH in the summer of 1998. My apprenticeship was fairly short compared to what is required nowadays, but the piercer wasn't there as much as I would have liked. I again took it upon myself to learn as much as i could and started practicing on myself, then friends, and finally, paying customers! I still remember the first few piercings I did on customers.

After spending a few years at Magic Needle and becoming fully licensed in 1999, I left the shop where I began. I then started piercing part time at my dear friend, mentor, and former employer, Wayne Morel's, shop: Wayne's Tattoo World. I also held full time blue collar jobs early in the day- if you consider 50 hours a week at the tattoo shop "part-time". My big break came when the piercer at my old friend's shop, Spiderbite, up and left with no notice. The owner called Wayne, asked if I was still piercing there, and then told him why he was calling. Wayne, a true friend, decided to pass the message along, knowing he would be losing a piercer because Spiderbite is arguably the most famous and busiest shop in the state.  Having, hands down, the biggest body jewelry selection in NH, I would be piercing a lot more and making enough money to only work ONE job. Thanks Wayne.

I spent around four years piercing at Spiderbite; this is where I became what I would call a "real piercer". The volume at my new shop was very high and the workload was rather large. This is where I made the most progress, got the most practice, and learned how to do almost any piercing. I also had the tremendous fortune of working with other very experienced piercers who would push each other, challenge each other, and really push the limits of what could be done with human skin and the metal we put in it. I also had the honor of teaching Jen Minuti, one of the best piercers I have ever met. I helped teach her, with my friends and fellow piercers, and watched her become a very highly skilled and technically proficient piercer very quickly. She eventually moved on and became a piercer at Infinite Body Piercing in Philadelphia, which was owned by the president of the Association of Professional Piercers (APP) at that time. This was my proudest moment and the pinnacle of my career. Thank you, Jen.

After leaving Spiderbite, I started working at Mayhem, a tattoo shop in Nashua, NH. I worked there for another three and a half years, during which I also worked other jobs. I spent a few summers building and then haunting at Spookyworld /Nightmare New England, another passion of mine that I have been doing for nearly as long as I have been piercing. After working full-time building as well as working at Wayne's AND Mayhem during the week in the summer of 2010, I had nearly no free time.

Once November came the construction was over and the piercing business dropped off dramatically, which caused me to seek out a factory job to guarantee I made enough to pay my bills. After a few months repairing iPods, I was offered a few piercing positions. I went back to work for Wayne for the spring and summer, and after my second annual week-long guest spot piercing at Haven Body Arts, I could not refuse when Penelope offered me a full time position. I started the first week of August 2011.

So far, I love my new shop and my new boss, my new co-workers and my new part-time home, and especially my new clients and customers in Northampton. I hope to meet (and pierce) many, many new clients at the best shop that I have ever had the pleasure to work in.

I have always wanted to be an APP member, but due to very strict guidelines and meticulously selective screening admissions, there were (and perhaps still aren't) any APP approved shops in my home state. In order to be an APP member you must work at an APP shop. I had basically figured i would never become a business member because there was nowhere around me that was an APP shop. But I'm halfway done with my application process and look forward finally becoming an APP piercer after 13 years of hard work, many hours of training, and thousands of beautiful people who let me make them a little more beautiful.