Pinch perfection

If you’re tired of seeing the same jewellery everywhere and want to put your own stamp on your next purchase, Pinch Piercings is the app for you.

With the use of the Pinch Piercings App, customers can choose the type of jewellery, the colours, and materials they want, and owner Lindsy-Chaé Fabres will make it and ship it free of charge. “It’s all up to you. Make it unique. Everybody has something that is just theirs, that no one else will have,” she said.

However, 32-year-old Fabres does not create the usual earrings, but jewellery designed specifically for use in body piercings. These include plugs and tunnels for ear stretching, navel, nipple, and tongue rings, barbells, labret jewellery, fake plugs for people who want the illusion of one, skin tone jewellery to make piercings more discrete, and much more.

To make it as safe as possible for her customers she uses grade 23 titanium, niobium, PTFE, wood, and epoxy resin for beads of various shapes. She anodized metals – using electricity to change the colour of the metal – instead of using dyes, powders or paints to which people can have an allergic reaction.

“To me everything is moving from websites to apps. I wanted to make things as convenient as possible for customers. They need to be able to shop from the palm of their hands because they’re always on their phone anyway. I never understood why no one in the local piercing industry ever took advantage of that so I just did it.”

Pinch Piercings is currently available for Android and should be on iOS in a few weeks.

Fabres said she noticed people downloading the app but then they would message her on social media to order. “So far they just like to talk to or message someone in person. It’s something new so I don’t know if people just don’t understand how easy it is but I’m sure people will catch on.”

Customers can also book piercing appointments on the app. All one has to do is open the app, choose the piercer (which is only Fabres at the moment), and choose the type of piercing. The price will appear then a display of available appointments from which the customer can choose.

One client, Carmen Rosa, praised Fabres’s light hand. “I have had a lot of piercings over the years and Lindsy’s is quick and not overly painful. Believe me, I can tell the difference.”

Fabres said the clitoris or ‘vch piercing’ (vertical clit hood) piercing is relatively popular in TT. That and the tongue are the fastest healing and least painful body piercings. Nose and navel are the most popular, followed by the nipple piercings. “The nipples are considered one of the more painful piercings but every single client has said to me it wasn’t as bad as they thought it would be after its done.”

She does not do male genital piercings, or pierce anyone with anaemia as their blood is too thin which leads to a lot of bleeding.

Fabres also does not use her jewellery for piercings. She said her pieces are very expensive because of the higher quality material and she wishes to keep her prices competitive. Instead, she uses stainless steel but if anyone wants to use her jewellery they are free to order and purchase a piece in advance for her to use in piercing.

Prior to going into the piercing industry, Fabres ran a bar for about two years. However, she “burnt out” and went into a depression where she did not leave her home for three years. “By mid-2016 I really needed to make money but after those three years the only way I was going back to work at all was if I found something I liked, some kind of passion.”

She has several tattoos and is passionate about the art but she knew she would not have the patience to sit and tattoo anyone for hours. Therefore, she decided to try piercing. In early 2017, she called popular tattoo artist Trevor Alexander of Inkwerx Tattoos Studio and asked if he would be willing to take on an apprentice. He agreed and she trained with him for a year.

During that time she noticed that unique piercing jewellery was missing from the market, decided to take advantage of the gap in the market, and taught herself how to make them. “I’m a fast learner. I do a lot of different things for fun. If I want to do something I’ll buy everything I need and I’ll learn how to do it. It just needs to be something creative.”

Registered in January 2019, the company is already gaining traction. “It’s only a few months old but Pinch Piercings is getting very popular. I think it’s mostly because it’s different and people can get pieces nobody else has, pieces that they design. It’s also very convenient.”

Fabres also designs and creates pieces for sale at markets and plans to start selling ready-made pieces wholesale for businesses interested in selling her jewellery retail. In addition, she recently started selling her ready-made pieces on the international market. “Initially I just catered to TT but with how popular my work is becoming I did not want to limit myself. So a few weeks ago I started selling on ETSY (look for PinchPiercings – all one word) which is the Amazon of handmade jewellery.”

In the future, she also hopes to work with other tattoo and piercing artists so customers could book appointments with them through the Pinch Piercings app.