Elayne Angel (born Elayne Steinberg, August 6, 1960) is an American professional
body piercer
Body may refer to:
In science
* Physical body, an object in physics that represents a large amount, has mass or takes up space
* Body (biology), the physical material of an organism
* Body plan, the physical features shared by a group of animal ...
.
Early life and education
Angel attended
Canoga Park High School
Canoga Park High School is a high school located in Canoga Park in the western San Fernando Valley region of the City of Los Angeles, California, United States. It is in the Los Angeles Unified School District. It is located at the start of the L ...
and
Chatsworth High School
Chatsworth Charter High School is a charter secondary school located in Chatsworth in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California, U.S.
History
The campus was built with one-story buildings around a central quad as land was inexpens ...
. In 1982, she earned an
associate degree
An associate degree is an undergraduate degree awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three years. It is a level of qualification above a high school diploma, GED, or matriculation, and below a bachelor's degree.
The fi ...
in
Sign Language
Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign l ...
Interpreting from
Los Angeles Pierce College
Los Angeles Pierce College (Pierce College or Pierce) is a public community college in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California. It is part of the Los Angeles Community College District and is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and C ...
. She has a certificate from the
Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising
The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (FIDM) is a private college in downtown Los Angeles. It offers degree programs in majors including fashion, entertainment, beauty, interior design, and graphic design. The college was founded in 19 ...
in Los Angeles.
Career
Angel became interested in body piercing after a casual encounter with a woman bearing a
nipple piercing
A nipple piercing is a type of body piercing, centered usually at the base of the nipple. It can be pierced at any angle but is usually done horizontally or, less often, vertically. It is also possible to place multiple piercings on top of one an ...
at a
Renaissance Faire
A Renaissance fair, Renaissance faire or Renaissance festival is an outdoor gathering open to the public and typically commercial in nature, which purportedly recreates a historical setting for the amusement of its guests. Some are permanent the ...
in 1981. Through her encounter, she became involved with and employed by
Gauntlet, then the first and only, body piercing studio in the United States. While employed by Gauntlet, she worked at the Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco branches. She was the first recipient of a Master Piercer certificate, from Gauntlet founder
Jim Ward, which she received on December 1, 1992.
Her technical contributions to the field of body piercing include the invention of several placements, including the
fourchette and the
lorum piercings.
In December 1993, Angel opened her own studio, Rings of Desire, in the
French Quarter
The French Quarter, also known as the , is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. After New Orleans (french: La Nouvelle-Orléans) was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city developed around the ("Old Squ ...
of
. Rings of Desire was the first body piercing studio to receive state licensing from the Health Department in Louisiana. Angel has been involved with the crafting of regulatory legislation regarding body piercing in Louisiana, as well as the training of the professionals who enforce those laws. In this capacity, Angel distributed the research study for the
University of South Alabama
The University of South Alabama (USA) is a public research university in Mobile, Alabama. It was created by the Alabama Legislature in May, 1963, and replaced existing extension programs operated in Mobile by the University of Alabama. The first ...
on the relationship between female sexual satisfaction and vertical
clitoral hood piercing
A clitoral hood piercing is a genital piercing through the clitoral hood surrounding the clitoris. There are two main types of hood piercing: the vertical clitoral hood piercing and the horizontal clitoral hood piercing. As the name indicates, t ...
. Positive results were published in the ''American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology''.
While in New Orleans, she established, with Justine Roig, a store catering to accessories for small dogs called Chiwawa Gaga.
Following
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...
in 2005, Angel closed her New Orleans studio and relocated to
Mérida, Yucatán
Mérida () is the capital of the Mexican state of Yucatán, and the largest city in southeastern Mexico. The city is also the seat of the eponymous Municipality. It is located in the northwest corner of the Yucatán Peninsula, about 35 km (22 ...
,
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
. In March 2009, her book ''The Piercing Bible--The Definitive Guide to Safe Body Piercing'' was published. Although Angel lives in Mexico, she works primarily internationally as a guest body piercer and piercing educator. Since 2005, Angel has been writing a column on piercing for the body art industry trade publication, Pain Magazine.
Angel helped popularize
tongue piercing
A tongue piercing is a body piercing usually done directly through the center of the tongue. Since its decline in popularity around 2011, it has seen a recent upsurge making it now the second most popular piercing amongst young women aged 18-25 ...
.
Personal life
Angel has been married three times, first to porn director Ernest Greene (also known as Ira Levine), who later became porn star
Nina Hartley
Marie Louise Hartman (born March 11, 1959), known professionally as Nina Hartley, is an American pornographic film actress described by CNBC as "a legend in the adult world".
Early life and education
Hartley was born on March 11, 1959 in Berk ...
's husband. Angel and Greene married in
Century City, California
Century City is a 176-acre (71.2 ha) neighborhood and business district in Los Angeles, California. Located on the Westside to the south of Santa Monica Boulevard around 10 miles (16 km) west of Downtown Los Angeles, Century City is one of ...
on February 14, 1987; they divorced in 1988. Angel was also married to English tattooer
Alex Binnie from 1991-1996.
Angel later married
trans man
A trans man is a man who was assigned female at birth. The label of transgender man is not always interchangeable with that of transsexual man, although the two labels are often used in this way. ''Transgender'' is an umbrella term that incl ...
porn actor
A pornographic film actor or actress, pornographic performer, adult entertainer, or porn star is a person who performs sex acts in video that is usually characterized as a pornographic movie. Such videos tend to be made in a number of dis ...
Buck Angel
Buck Angel (born June 5, 1962) is an American pornographic film actor, producer and sex educator. He is the founder of the media production company Buck Angel Entertainment. A transsexual man, he received the 2007 AVN Award as Transsexual Perfo ...
in New Orleans in 2003. They divorced under controversial circumstances in 2014, with Elayne Angel claiming he was not eligible for alimony payments due to Buck Angel's gender status under Louisiana law. Elayne Angel lost the case in a California court.
Trademark tattoo
Angel is widely known for a large tattoo of angel wings on her back. The lower right wing is interrupted by a
heart
The heart is a muscular organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as carbon dioxide t ...
with a
banner
A banner can be a flag or another piece of cloth bearing a symbol, logo, slogan or another message. A flag whose design is the same as the shield in a coat of arms (but usually in a square or rectangular shape) is called a banner of arms. Also, ...
across it reading "slave". This design, which was the inspiration for the logo for her studio, was registered as a U.S.
service mark
A service mark or servicemark is a trademark used in the United States and several other countries to identify a service rather than a product.
When a service mark is federally registered, the standard registration symbol ® or "Reg U.S. ...
(No. 2,645,270, issued November 5, 2002) and was done in 1987 by Bob Roberts of Spotlight Tattoo in
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
. It has since been cancelled due to the registration not being renewed.
After receiving the service mark for this design, the circled "R" was added to her right buttock by tattooist Joey Galiger at the advice of her attorney.
In addition to her trademark tattoo, Angel is heavily pierced and tattooed.
Her image is well known in the community from an uncredited photo by
Sheree Rose featuring her then incomplete wings, in the seminal publication ''
Modern Primitives'', published in 1989.
[''Modern Primitives'', ]V. Vale
V. "Valhalla" Vale (born February 4, 1944) is an American editor, writer, interviewer, musician and, as Vale Hamanaka, was keyboardist for the initial configuration of Blue Cheer, before it became famous as a power trio. He is the publisher and p ...
and Andrea Juno,eds., Re/Search Publications, 1989, p 112
References
Sources
*Millner, W.S., Eichold, B.H., Sharpe, T.H., & Lynn, S.C. (2005). First glimpse of the functional benefits of clitoral hood piercings. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 193(3), 675-676.
*Lawdit Reading Room U
Article About Copyright/Registration of Tattoos*Los Angeles Time
External links
*
ttp://www.yucatanliving.com/interviews-yucatan/interview-elayne-angel.htm Elayne Angel Interviewed on YucatanLiving.com*
ttp://piercingbible.com/ Website for Elayne Angel's book ''The Piercing Bible''*
ttp://thefetishshow.com/index.php/2011/05/the-fetish-show-15-piercing-vanguard-elayne-angel/ Interview on The Fetish Show
{{DEFAULTSORT:Angel, Elayne
Body modification
Living people
Body piercers
Los Angeles Pierce College people
1960 births
American expatriates in Mexico