Paul King

Paul King is the Founder and a Committee Chair of the Body Piercing Archive, USA, and has served as Treasurer of the Association of Professional Piercers since 2008. The mission of the Body Piercing Archive is to select, collect, document, preserve, exhibit, and interpret the personal, social, and material evolving histories of Body Piercing to ensure these artifacts are available to present and successive generations. In 1991, he began a 1½-year piercing apprenticeship under Elayne Angel, author of The Piercing Bible (Ten Speed Press, 2009). He worked in all three and managed two of the former Gauntlet locations. King has lectured on body modification since 1993. He graduated from UC Berkeley with a B.A. degree, highest honors in Anthropology. He was awarded the title of Master Piercer by Gauntlet’s founder Jim Ward. In 1999, he opened Cold Steel, a piercing and tattooing shop in San Francisco.