Hello and Welcome to Needlework Body Art.

My name is Kayleigh-Anne Walker and I am a body piercer and cosmetic tattoo artist fro the North of Scotland. I am a health professional with extensive clinical experience, working primarily for the NHS as a nurse and midwife, and now spend my days teaching adult learnings how to become public health practitioners at a University in Aberdeen.

I fell into body piercing kinda by accident. I as setting up an Aesthetics business and thought I would train in piercing to fill up gaps between higher earning treatments to cover the cost of my room rental. Fast forward a few months and the entirety of my client base was from piercings, and it was the one “treatment” I actually enjoyed. I completed my training in Liverpool over a series of weekend practical sessions and hours of online training. This is different to the apprenticeship method of training but allows for the same process of set up with the local environmental health team and insurances. I hand plenty of practice on live models and have contact with my trainer who has helped me locate a wholesalers and identified the items I needed to get set up.

Doing lip fillers and anti-wrinkle treatments just did not suit my personality, and I didn’t feel like I could carry on with these treatments and sleep easy at night. Every injected poison into someone’s eyebrows then tried to get a decent sleep a few hours later….it aint for the naturally anxious girly I tell ya!

I started toying with the idea of focusing only on piercings and cosmetic tattooing. The idea seemed viable, but I would need a smaller rental as the earning potential for this was smaller. Fast forward and I rent a room in The Beauty and Wellbeing Collective in Inverurie town centre. The collective is situated above the hairdresser behind Mcleish the grocery store.

Working in a beauty salon is a different set up to the traditional body piercing concept and my idea is to capture the audience of people who may feel intimidated going into a tattoo parlour to get a piercing, but also want the safety of needle practice. My goal is to support the local residents avoid the horror story that is gun piercing with a side order of ear trauma and inevitable tears from the young crew who have decided they are old enough and brave enough to get some pretty sparkles. Nobody wants to see a child cry on their birthday! Pretty ear lobes for everyone!!

Right now, I am happy to carry out any “above the waist” piercings. So that’s ears, nose, lips……and so on. I left genital assessments behind when I left my career as a midwife and don’t plan on getting involved in the nether regions of strangers again anytime soon. Pants on only piercings my dudes. I’m happy to carry out jewellery changes, downsizing or assessment of piercings that just aren’t healing right. Full anatomy assessment and consultation is always carried out.

So, feel free to come along with me on my journey from sad, broken, NHS employee to fully functioning business owner and educator whilst I get myself off the ground with this idea. Feel free to reach out to me or come and visit me in our cutesy little salon in Aberdeenshire. My jewellery online shop is in the process of being stocked and I am always happy to chat with any budding piercers to help you get yourself set up with the right kit to get you up and running.

Kayleigh-Anne X