Corset piercings tug at perceptions of beauty

Amid the tattooed throng at the Body Art Expo in San Francisco, Demitria Ruiz drew an iPhone paparazzi - quite a feat considering she flashed not a dot of ink.

The 20-year-old pizza parlor worker from San Jose wowed a decorated crowd that has seen it all with her corset piercing - a ribbon laced between rows of rings protruding from her back.

Familiar to body manipulation enthusiasts, corset piercing is now becoming more mainstream as young women, inspired by photos circulating on Facebook and other social media sites, are starting to wear them to prom, as Halloween or Burning Man costumes, or for weddings and gay pride parades.

"Your body becomes a vessel of art," Ruiz said. "It's so elegant-looking, Victorian and feminine. It outlines the curves and gives you an hourglass look."

And turns you into Lady Gaga, if for just one night. Ruiz and two girlfriends who pierced their backs spent their time at the expo posing for photographers, giving impromptu lectures on corset piercings, and taking modeling requests.

Corset piercings are temporary, inserted just under the surface of the skin and therefore must be removed within a couple days, when the body begins rejecting the rings much the same way it would force out a splinter, said Jess McLaughlin, who has done 15 corset piercings, most of those in the past five years, at Body Modifications in San Jose.

Most of her clients are women, but one man requested a corset piercing to wear to the San Jose Gay Pride Parade.

"It's enthralling to be able to sit for it, and for others to discover it for the first time," McLaughlin said. "It gives you an experience (of) being the center of attention, which many people don't often get to be."

Customers most often want to corset their back, said Paul Stoll, owner of the country's oldest piercing studio, Body Manipulations in San Francisco. But he's had requests for corsets on the back of the legs, the neck and the side of the rib cage.

Stoll, who has been a piercer for 18 years, said corset piercing started in the gay community in the 1980s. Within the next decade, ribbon corsets began appearing at events such as the Exotic Erotic Ball and fetish or goth dance parties such as Cat Club and Bondage-A-Go-Go. Now, the 18-to-30 crowd has discovered a new, arresting way to decorate themselves at a time when tattoos and nose rings have become ho-hum.

"Corset piercings are like the new jewelry now," Stoll said. "I think they are beautiful. It's like taking a concept of something external, a corset, and internalizing it to accent your own body," he said.

The juxtaposition of pain and beauty the corsets conjure is not for everyone.

Ruiz was kicked out of her neighborhood coffee shop by the owner, who was disgusted by her back.

Corset piercings are created by hand, with a 14-gauge hollow needle, and each corset takes about 30 rings. Customers pay about $250.

"I have small scars, but they are almost imperceptible now," said Ruiz, who said the pain got so bad she stopped the procedure at ring No. 26.

Public health officials urge people to be careful to disinfect the piercings, bathe in Epsom salts and have the rings removed in time to avoid infection and scarring.

Monique Millier, 22, heard about corset piercing on the Internet, and now she's done it - twice.

"It's fun to push your body and find your zen spot to get that many piercings all at once," Millier said. "It's intense, not for the uninitiated."

When some people want a new experience, they cut off all their hair or buy new clothes, McLaughlin said.

"Others, they get piercings."

E-mail Meredith May at mmay@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page N - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle