It’s 11am, and I was supposed to meet Rachel, Norm, and Stephan for breakfast at 10am. Whoops! I was woken up by a phone call. It was Rachel… turns out, everyone was still recovering from the night before, so I didn’t miss out on anything. What I was missing though, was my voice. Somehow, from last nights shenanigans, I lost my voice and sounded like an 80 year old mafioso.
Taking my time, I gathered up my things, took a shower, and then headed down to the main casino area of the MGM Grand. With all the crazy moths flying around in the place I was staying, I figured I would be better off over at the Tropicana. The convention was there, my friends where there, the bar was there, and it was only $45 for the one night.
Rachel and I agreed to meet up at the Lion exhibit downstairs by the entrance, so that I would have something to do while she lollygagged her way over. While I was waiting, I sat on the floor, and decided to play with my new phone. Since I just got it yesterday, it needed a lot of work done to it, and knowing Rachel, I would have the time.
I sat down next to the Lion exhibit and started to hack away at it. I had already downloaded all the software that I would need the night before, so it was going to be a pretty straightforward process. Once I had it setup so I could connect my computer to the internet through the phone, so I was able to download everything else that I needed. I love technology =)
After sitting around for about 45 minutes, and listening to the recorded “tour” of the lion thing about 10 times, I was getting antsy and hungry. Where the hell was she? It’s a 5 minute walk across the street to get here… did she get lost, or fall back asleep? Finally, I saw her and Norm coming down the escalator.
Me: “Where the hell were you?”
Rachel: “I got sucked into playing Deal or No Deal”
Me: “You were playing a slot machine?”
Norm: “She really wanted to get the case thing”
Me: “FOOD!”
Rachel: “Shush! I won $250, so lunch is on me =)”
Me: 
We meandered around the casino trying to find the buffet. The inside of a casino is worse than a hall of mirrors. Damn near impossible to find anything (especially the exit). When we discovered the entrance to the buffet, Rachel plopped down some of her winnings for us (go Rachel!) and we proceeded inside like a bunch of Mongols descending on a defenseless Tibetan village about to be raped and pillaged. I have no recollection of the process of collecting the food, I was on auto-pilot. From my college years, I have mastered the skills of how to take full advantage of a buffet. I’m a master stacker and drink very little. See, they think they’re being crafty by giving you smaller plates. I know how to stack the shit out of some food. Pasta on top of rotisserie chicken? Good. Jello on top of macaroni? Bad. It’s a skill.
After hitting up the buffet for the third time, and fighting off the food coma that was slipping around us, we waddled out of there and back to the Tropicana. I hadn’t seen the sun in about 3 days, so when I opened the exit door and had a blast of 98 degree desert sunshine in my face, I shrieked and cowered back inside to find my sunglasses. They have the super-tinting on the windows to trick you that it’s not that bright outside. Not a cool move.
On to the Tropicana to check in. I wasn’t going to be spending another night with my moth brethren. I got my room keys and headed upstairs to drop off my stuff. The rooms at the Tropicana are just what you would expect a tacky old-ass Vegas casino to be like. There was even a bamboo framed mirror on the ceiling! Haha! But hey, it was $45, and a bed. All I needed.
Now I needed to go back downstairs and check into the convention to get my pass. Time to check out what this APP conference is all about. While I was picking up my pass, they asked me if I wanted to purchase a ticket for the banquette that night. It was only $40. Arg… Knowing that all the cool kids were going to be there, I dropped the cash and snatched the ticket. Apparently there were only three left anyway. Guess that’s what happens when you wait until the last minute to do everything =). Oh! And it’s a “Formal” banquette, meaning that my ripped up camo’s and Slayer cutoff T’s weren’t going to fly there. Wonderful. Now I need to go out and buy a shirt that at least has a collar on it. I’ll worry about that later.
I picked up my conference program and started to run around to the different rooms to check out the different lectures that were going on. I didn’t stay for all of them, because I’m not a professional piercer, and I’m not really planning on becoming one. From what I did see though, there were a lot of courses offered that covered a wide range of topics that anyone in the industry would be ecstatic about checking out. If you are a professional piercer, or looking to start piercing as a career, the APP conference is definitely the place for you to be. I haven’t seen or heard of anything else anywhere that’s this comprehensive and filled with industry all-stars. Want to learn about suspension? Why not take the class that Allen Faulker is teaching? Interested in Pearling? Steve Haworth is the instructor. All the instructors there were at the top of their class, and giving very detailed instructions on what they were covering. Here is a brief list of some of the classes that were going on:
- - Precious Metals and Gemstones: Terry LeRoi and Peter Lozada
- - Stretching: Jamie Clark and James Weber
- - Piercing Documentation: David Vidra and Ed Chavarria
- - Employee Manual: Rick Frueh and David Vidra
- - Cross-Contamination Prevention from Room Setup to Tool Processing: Dana Dinus and Ed Chavarria
- - Exploring Pearling: Steve Haworth
- - Ritualized Modification: Paul King
- - Body Piercing - A Lifetime Career: Jesika Bornsen
- - Suspension Saftey: Ed Chavarria, Allen Falkner, Steve Joyner, and Dana Dinius
- - First Aid: Red Cross
- - Aftercare and Wound Healing Dynamics: Betsy Reynolds, Steve Joyner, and Tom Brazda
- - Head and Neck Anatomy: Betsy Reynolds
- - Technique - Femal Genital and Nipple: Elayne Angel, Jesika Bornsen, and Danny Yerna
- - CPR - Red Cross
- - Scars - Understanding and Prevention: Bethra Szumski
- - Internet Networking: Rachel Larratt
- - Surface Anchors: Didier Suarez, Pat Tidwell, and Michael Kolar
The only class that I stayed all the way through was Rachel’s “Internet Networking”, I think for obvious reasons… to heckle her =). Not really… well, maybe a little ;). She seemed a bit nervous before the talk, so I helped out by giving her my bottle of Jager. With a little mockery and cajoling from the crowd, she took a big swig. Then ran right for the water cooler, Haha! I give her props for trying, but I think maybe she took a little too much. The talk was pretty good for people that aren’t too computer savvy. Telling them to blog, get on facebook, twitter, and all those other online things. At one point she was pointing out popularity comparrisons between all the online body mod sites and she poked at me by saying that BodyMods.org (with an S) was 960,000+ down on the list. I couldn’t sit there quietly on that one, so I made sure to point out to everyone that my site is BodyMod.org (no S) and that we were 100,000. That’s a huuuuge difference =) Not quite BME size… not yet anyway ;).
I did want to give credit to her for opening the floor to Q&A / discussion. She made it very clear that she would answer any question that anyone wanted to ask. Kind of hinting towards the whole Shannon topic. But no one asked. Not sure if people were being nice, or didn’t want to be “that guy”. All-in-all, it was a good talk that plugged BME a lot. Hmmm… I’m thinking that maybe I should start doing talks. Whaddya think?
My next stop was the vendor area. It was huge, and had jewelry makers from all around the world. The best hand-carved body jewelry that I have ever seen was there. I walked around the entire area and tried to talk to each booth to get the low-down on their wares and their mission (if they had one). There were some people there to just sell bulk regular jewelry, custom one-of-a-kind mammoth ivory earrings, show off their new innovative products, and some where there just to promote other conferences.
With over 60 vendors there, you had the best pickings of some of the top custom jewelry in the world. Every material you could think of was there: precious stones, bone, glass, and precious metals like gold and platinum. Whatever you wanted, you could find it there. Some of the big names in the industry were there as well, with some pretty impressive displays: Jimmy Buddah’s Diablo Organics, Jason Pfohl’s Gorilla Glass, Tawapa, Industrial Strength, Anatometal, Maya, and Wildcat.
I think I spent the most time hanging out with Jimmy and Jason because they had setup a cool little lounge area between their booths, and Jimmy was playing Slayer most of the day =).
It was getting kind of late in the day, and the banquette was fast approaching. I still needed to pick up a shirt, so I headed over to Caesar’s Forums. Some of the best clothing stores are all there in one small space. Whatever I can do to make my shopping experience the quickest is what I’m all about. I’m not really into shopping for clothing (or anything for that matter), so I just wanted to get a shirt and get out. The first store I saw as soon as I entered was a John Varvatos outlet. Lots of black stylish pho-rock-n-roll clothes? Works for me. I strolled on in and was immediately presented with a beer. I’m liking this place even more now. I told the sales guy what I was looking for and he jogged to the back and came back with exactly what I needed. Tried it on, paid for it, and walked out the door. Perfect. Now back to the conference!
I dropped off my clothing in my room, and changed into my swim trunks. I was going to hit up the hot tub for a bit before the banquette was going to begin. After being on my feet all day, I just wanted to relax a bit. I met a couple cool people in the pool and we chatted it up for a bit. It helped that they brought their own cooler of beer down and was hookin’ a brotha up =). It was 8:30pm and the banquette was in full effect, so I headed upstairs to change and make myself look all pretty.
When I got to my room, I saw a new text message on my phone. It was from Rachel…”we’re coin to get married now”. What?! They were supposed to be going after the banquette. Crap! I called her up to see if I missed it and I did. Apparently, they exchanged vows while I was shmoozing in the hot tub. LOL. Oh well, down to the banquette to get my eat on.
When I arrived back at the pool (it was a pool-side banquette), there was some live Salsa music going on, and I saw a table with all the crazy Germans at it. I knew where I was sitting =). I filled up my plate with some food (crappy food), and then shoveled it all in my face. We then proceeded to dessert (aka. the bar!). I have absolutely no photos of the banquette because I left my camera in the room and really just wanted to have a good time for a while. So I want to give a huge thanks to the official APP photographer, Sean Hartgrove for the photos he hooked me up with! All the photos in the gallery that are of fancy people outside at night are all his (they’re also the ones that are of way better quality / in focus =). You should check out his site too, good stuff!
Once everyone was good and drunk, the music ended and the speeches began. A few of the prominent APP members of their council gave a few talks, and presented some awards. You like how in depth that description was? Yeah… I totally wasn’t paying attention, and by this time, I was a half a fifth of Jager (yes, the whole bottle, just ask anyone in the vendor area ;), 4 or 5 beers, and a few cocktails in. You’re lucky I remember even being there =).
The banquette wrapped up sometime at night… that’s about as close to a time as I can give you here, and we all headed inside to the bar. We grabbed a table in the back and proceeded to drink the night away with a bunch of new friends. There were a lot of photos taken, but unfortunately they’re mostly blurry as hell. Looks like someone forgot to turn on auto-focus. There should be a feature on cameras where it can tell that you’re drunk and just takes over the controls. Kinda like an auto-pilot. Or maybe even a timer. So I can set it to auto, say, after 11pm. That’s a safe bet. Someone get on that!
I’m not sure when, or how, but I did get back to my room and fell asleep.
The next afternoon, I woke up and my friend Stephan (he’s the guy giving the crazy eyes =) let me throw my things in his room since I had to check out and I was leaving later in the evening. We then went to lunch and proceeded to talk shop. I don’t want to get into the specifics here, but there’s about to be a big change in the world of online body mod communities, and all for the better =) More will come out about this as we progress. It’s only in the infant stages now, but I’m pretty excited about where it’s going.
After lunch I ran around the hotel trying to get my goodbye’s in to everyone and then found out that it was just easier to chill at the bar and catch people as they walked by. By about 7pm, we had another little group of awesome at one of the tables and decided that we should all head over to the Wynn and hit their buffet for dinner. I was down. I grabbed my bags from Stephan’s room and we all took a cab over to the hotel.
The buffet there was delicious, but due to the long line to get in and my flight home, I had to shovel the food in my face and then bolt to the airport. I had just made it in time, and made sure that I still had my phone on me. I boarded the plane to Charlotte and relaxed. My friend gave me a move to watch on the plane, “Martyrs”. He told me that it was even more fucked up than “Inside”. I trusted his judgment on this and eagerly awaited the “ding, you can use your electronics” message to come over the PA. It was a French film, and in German, but I was still able to follow it pretty well, and my friend was right. This movie rocked! There was one part where this little girl is being skinned alive, and I glanced over to the stewardess who was handing me a drink. That’s when I saw the look on the lady’s face next to me. Apparently she was watching it too, and was white as a ghost. I’ve never seen such a look of horror on anyone like that before. It was hilarious! Thanks Ragnar!
When I landed in Charlotte, it was 6 in the AM, and my connecting flight to NYC was at 10am. Crappy. I didn’t want to sit around for 4 hours, tired as hell. I just wanted to get home. That’s when I saw an 8am flight to Laguardia. I wound up having to pay $50, but I got on the earlier flight and was outta there! I was so anxious to get home, and I was really missing my girlfriend at this point, so I was on a mission to get home. The flight was only supposed to be an hour and a half long. So, when I look outside and I’m over Jersey two hours later, I begin to wonder.
Turns out that the airport only has 1 runway open for take-offs and landings, and we’ve been circling over Jersey all this time waiting for a landing pattern. Then the pilot came on, “well…. we’re almost out of fuel, and we can’t land at Laguardia, so we’re going to Philly”. WTF?! Philly?! Why not JFK or Newark? We can get home from those, AND THEY’RE CLOSER! Idiots…
The plane hangs a louie, and we land in Philly. They then tell us that they’re going to refuel, and then make another go at it. I asked them if they know that they will be able to land or not, and they said they were unsure. Not happy with this, I decided to leave the plane. Apparently, I wasn’t “allowed” to exit and that we were about to depart again. Knowing how this game works, I threw a fit and started cursing at the stewardess. Now I wasn’t leaving the plane, I was being thrown off =). Hey whatever works!
I left the airport, jumped in a cab and took a ten minute ride to the train station. I bought my ticket to NYC from my phone while I was on the way. I got there just as the train was pulling in. Perfect timing! An hour and a half later, I was home. I checked the status of the plane that I got off of… still “en route” (read: still stuck circling over Jersery!). Hahaha! Suckers =)
My first APP Conference was over, and I had an amazing time. The only thing that I’m going to do differently is to get there sooner so I can enjoy it more! If you have anything to do with the industry, or are even just looking to have a great time with awesome people from all around the world that “get you”, you have to come to this thing. I had a blast and am looking forward to next year!
I will be posting an article either tomorrow or the next day with a ton of photos and details of all the vendors and their jewelry. I’m putting together a big list so that you can contact them to get some of their amazing pieces!
Thank you everyone that made this happen!
.: Adam
