Allison

This image, shot with a medium format camera and printed on gelatin silver paper, is one of 36 printed for a show entitled Piercing Portraits. I wanted a way to practice making portraits of people I did not already know. A friend gave me the idea to hold shooting sessions at tattoo and piercing parlors offering free 8x10s to volunteers. Piercing had become quite the fad. I was interested in finding out if it were addictive and why people got piercings. Allison was a piercing and tattoo artist working to put herself through college. It took three rolls of film for her to let me get this final image of her.