anyone here a body piercer or tattoo artist?

basically, ive wanted to do bady piercing/branding/scarring since i was 10, and latly ive been thinking about more seriously, but i have a couple questions about the industry.

1. is it hard to get into without knowing anyone or having any experience?

2. is Fakir Intensives respected? im thinking of enrolling in the basic piercing and branding courses, how would you look at a certificate from them if you were an employer?

3. how would the pay work for a piercer/brander working in a tattoo parlor? is it hourly, commision, or does it depend on the owner of the company? and how likely is it they would hire a non-tattooing piercer/brander?

any and all information and tips would be greatly appreciated

I'm not a piercer but was thinking about becoming one. Fakir Musafar is respected but you could probably find an apprenticeship with a respected piercer for cheaper. You also normally apprentice for a couple years so a class probably wouldn't be enough to land you a job. There is TONS to learn so you could always do that program in addition to an apprenticeship. If there is a local well respected piercer you could talk to him or her about apprenticing. This site would be a good one to help you find an apprenticeship: safepiercing.org. The APP also does a convention every year in Vegas where they have lots of classes and you can network with other industry professionals. You can also check out bme.com and can find lots of people to talk to and seek advice from there. As for how the pay works to the best of my understanding it varies from shop to shop.

Also if you're interested in learning branding and scarification make sure you are learning from someone who knows what they're doing and is not just a hack. There are some GREAT people out there and some real dirt bags.

Hope that helps. Good luck. :)

thanks, i posted a question on bme, but that sites dead, nobodys been on for months, but i'll try the other one

http://ask.bmezine.com/2008/04/30/a-...-mod-industry/
There probably have been other similar questions posted and if that doesn't give you the desired answers you could submit your own question. I haven't been on bme in years so I don't know "how it works" anymore. Do they still have IAM? If so that's like Facebook for heavily modified people and they have groups and such and if I remember correctly at least one for "I want to be a piercer".

ive only been there once to ask this question so i dont know how it works either really, but that post actually answered quite a bit for me, and it looks like i'll start by looking into anatomy classes, i know the basics like where arteries and nerves are, but thats about where my knowledge stops, thanks for the help