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[[Image:Elayneangel-wings.jpg|Elayne Angel's distinctive backpiece with registration mark|thumb|300px|right]]

'''Elayne Angel''' is a professional [[piercer]].  Her long career has touched on many of the defining people and places associated with the movement.  She is well known for her "angel wings" back [[tattoo]], the first tattoo registered by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

==Early career==
Angel became interested in [[body piercing]] after a casual encounter with a woman bearing a [[nipple piercing]] at a Renaissance Faire in [[1981]].  Through her encounter, she became involved with and employed by [[Gauntlet]], the first, and at the time only, professional 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]].  Her technical contributions to the field of body piercing include the invention, naming, and popularizing of several placements, including the [[fourchette]] and the [[lorum]] piercings.  She is also widely credited with popularizing and promoting the [[tongue piercing]].

==Later career==

In 1993, Angel opened her own studio, [[Rings of Desire]], in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana.  Rings of Desire was the first body piercing studio to receive state licensing from the Health Department in Louisiana.  Due to Hurricane Katrina, Rings of Desire closed on March 12, [[2006]].  According to the Rings of Desire website, Angel is relocating to Meridia, Mexico, where she is planning to open a bed & breakfast & piercing shop around June of 2006.

Elayne has been involved with the crafting of regulatory legislation regarding body piercing in Louisiana, and the training of health professionals who enforce those laws.  She has also worked with the University of South Alabama on research related to the relationship between female sexual satisfaction and [[Vertical Hood Piercing|vertical clitoral hood piercing]].

==Involvement with the Association of Professional Piercers==
Angel is a member of the [[Association of Professional Piercers]] (APP) and previously served on its board of directors in the position of Outreach Coordinator and Medical Liaison.  She has edited their newsletter [[The Point]], authored a variety of brochures that have gone on to be industry standard for piercing care, taught workshops internationally and attended and participated in yearly APP conventions.

==Her modifications==
Angel is best known for her large tattoo of angel wings on her back.  The lower right wing is interrupted by a heart with a banner across it reading, "slave."  This design, the logo for her studio, is registered as a U.S. service mark (No. 2,645,270, issued November 5, [[2002]]) and was done by [[Bob Roberts]] of [[Spotlight Tatoo]] in Los Angeles, California in [[1986]].  After receiving the service mark for this design, the circled "R" was added to her buttock by Joey Galiger of [[American Electric Tattoo Company]] in Los Angeles, California, at the advice of her attorney.

Her entire lower body has been tattooed with fish-like scales and fins, giving her a mermaid-like appearance from the waist down.  This was done over an eleven-day period by artist [[Juli Moon]] at her studio,  [[Juli's Bed and Breakfast]] in Seabrook, New Hampshire.  Symmetrical tattoos of flowers and vines extend from her wrists to her biceps, done in [[1991]] by her former husband, British tattoo artist [[Alex Binnie]].  Small flames were tattooed over her eyebrows by Cap Szumski of Timeless Tattoo in Atlanta, Georgia in January of [[1998]].  She also has small tattoos of flames behind each ear, which were also done by Galiger.

Over the years, Angel has had a variety of body piercings, including multiple [[tongue piercing]]s, various [[genital piercing]]s, [[nipple piercing]]s, [[ear piercing]]s and facial piercings.

==Trivia==
* Elayne was formerly married to tattoo artist Alex Binnie.
* Angel is currently married to [[female-to-male]] [[transsexual]] porn star [[Buck Angel]].
* Angel has an Associate of Arts Degree in Sign Language Interpreting from Pierce College, in Woodland Hills, California.

==External links==
* [http://www.ringsofdesire.com/ Rings of Desire] (esp. [http://ringsofdesire.com/angel-bio.html Elayne's biography])
* [http://lowerdecaturstreet.com/MeridaHome/index.html B&B&P]
* [http://www.bmezine.com/news/steppingback/20050527.html BME/News article (on wing tattoos) featuring an interview with Elayne Angel]

[[Category: Former Gauntlet Staff|Angel, Elayne]]
[[Category: Piercers|Angel, Elayne]]