Paul King
| Paul King | |
|---|---|
| |
| Birth Date | |
| Birth Place | |
| Death Date | living |
| Occupation | piercer |
| Website | http://coldsteelpiercing.com |
Paul King is the co-owner of Cold Steel America, two piercing/tattoo shops in San Francisco, and has been piercing professionally since 1991. He was trained at Gauntlet and has worked at all 3 Gauntlet locations. King apprenticed under Elayne Angel for a year and a half. He travels regularly and is an amateur anthropologist, regularly speaking on the subject of the history of body piercing. Excerpts from his lectures appear in a number of the entries here. Paul is a long time APP supporter and member, and as of November 2003 he is the APP's Treasurer (he is a former accountant). In 2007, he received an award the APP's President's Award for his contributions to the industry.
Paul also performed one of the first televised piercings in popular culture on MTV, giving him an important, albeit amusing, role in the popularization of piercings among young people. The picture above is a very young Paul King circa 1993 appearing in Aerosmith's Cryin.
In 2003 APP EuroCon Report, Shannon Larratt describes Paul as
definitely a guy who I’d call a “piercing nerd” — someone who can go on and on about it and is interested in every little silly piece of trivia on the subject. Given that’s how I’d also describe myself, and given that it’s so hard for any one person to get a real picture of this community (so much of it is still oral history), it was wonderful to be able to assimilate his stories...
