High Street Spotlight: Pierce Me Jessi B, located on Church Street, Newark, looks back on her 13 year piercing journey

A needle-sharp businesswoman has been looking back on her journey from starting in the back room of a salon to now running her own studio in Newark town centre.

Jessi Bellaby has been piercing for 13 years now, and operates Pierce Me Jessi B offering dozens of piercings and aesthetic treatments.

She said that she has always been into piercings after having her ears pierced as a child, and gradually got more and more over the years — and now has more than 30, but still wants more!

“I think I’ll have more, maybe my ears or in my nose, but small dainty ones — there’s always room for more,” she said.

Jessi is a long way off breaking the Guinness World Record for the most piercings on a woman however, as that record has been held by Brazilian woman Elaine Davidson who has had 4,225 piercings in her lifetime.

Always a creative person, Jessi’s journey into piercing didn’t begin until she was living in Brighton with aspirations of becoming a singer.

As paid singing jobs were hard to come by, she began looking for employment in piercing studios, but she said the rejections she encountered made her more determined than ever to follow her dream and go it alone.

She was then accepted for a piercing apprenticeship in Norwich, and she said it was initially “very nerve-racking” as to pass the apprenticeship you must do several piercings in each area from the waist up, including ears, nose, lip, eyebrow, and more.

“The piercing isn’t too bad but the jewellery is the fiddly part,” she said, as piercings are done with a hollow needle to then allow the jewellery to be threaded through the new hole.

Jessi first started piercing professionally here in Newark when she rented a room from Escape Hair and Beauty on Kirkgate in 2012, and she was then able to move into her current location on Church Street in 2022.

Over the years has built up a loyal client base and earned a solid reputation for her clean studio and friendly demeanour.

“I have to have it so spotlessly clean, I’m so passionate about making sure I give the most perfect experience,” she said, “Everything is sterile and single use and everything is thoroughly cleaned.”

She said that her favourite part of the body to pierce is the ears, especially with current trends seeing stackable jewellery being designed for multiple piercings in different areas of the ear.

“I love being able to design an ear with the client and there’s so much pretty jewellery out there,” she said.

Jessi is keen to stress the importance of having any piercing done with a sterile, single use needle and not piercing guns which, as has been recently highlighted in the news and on social media, cause much more trauma to the piercing site.

She said: “It’s always been known that you shouldn’t have a piercing with a gun, but the more you get to learn about piercing with a gun, the more you learn about how damaging they can be.

“It can cause so much damage, infections and scarring, but you can walk into quite a few places and have one done quickly whereas its always best to book an appointment in a clean studio.”