Body piercer has been the owner and operator of Bodified in Oswego for 23 years. She recalls how tough it was for a 19-year-old woman to start a business
By Stefan Yablonski
Known as Heidi’s Professional Body Piercing since 2002, Bodified is a longstanding establishment in the Port City. Located at 25 W. Bridge St., Oswego, Heidi Eggleston, owner, body piercer, has been in business for 23 years.
Q: What kind of business is this?
A: We have a 4,000 square-foot store. Bodified is a professional body piercing and jewelry shop. It has a wide range of body jewelry, fashion accessories and more. I’m CPR, bloodborne pathogens and first aid certified. I’m going back to my roots; downsizing the smoking side of the store.
Q: How did all this begin?
A: I started in 2002 – 23 years ago. I opened when I was 19 years old. I’m 42 now.
Q: So you have pierced just about everybody in Oswego.
A: Yes — some probably multiple times. I pierced kids that are older now and I have pierced their kids now. Sometimes three generations.
Q: Have you always done body piercings?
A: When I was 16 I started a job at the Great Northern Mall at a place that was kind of a rock band T-shirt kind of store. It had a little bit of everything. We sold body jewelry. It wasn’t very long and I became the weekend manager. We moved out of the mall and down into Liverpool- Baldwinsville area. I grew up in Hannibal and was driving from Hannibal every day. I wasn’t even 18 yet and I became the manager. When we moved [from the mall], the manager didn’t want to drive the extra distance so she quit. It hadn’t really crossed my mind to do body piercing then.
Q: So, were you planning a jewelry kind of store?
A: Yes. I had previously thought about opening a store in Oswego. Probably when I was 17 my mom and I went around looking at vacant places. I had managed the other store for a couple of years before I finally decided ‘you know what? I’m doing all this for someone else and I’m driving all this distance … I just want to sell body jewelry that I make (at my own place).’ I had been buying jewelry from a gentleman and I stuck with him when I first opened in Oswego. It was kind of under his influence — ‘you should be body piercing’ — that I started learning to pierce.
Q: Was it difficult to get started at such a young age?
A: As a woman at 19, nobody took me seriously. I had dealt with [then SUNY Oswego small business adviser] Larry Perras at the college. He helped me develop a business plan and I went to Pathfinder Bank. I started with nothing. I got [approved] for a $30,000 loan to buy body jewelry. I had maxed out my credit card. I borrowed money from my mother — the loan’s coming through, I told her. And at the last minute, they denied me because I had a month-to-month lease and I was supposed to have a four-year lease, which is something I should have looked at in the very beginning. So I actually started on terrible high-interest rate credit card debt. My mother helped me; some of the debt was on her card. At 18 or 19 I didn’t have a very high credit limit.
Q: But you made it.
A: It did take me about three or four years to pull myself out of that. I have put my life and soul into this business. All the money I made was put back into the business. I continuously put money back into the business. I started with nothing and now I own a big chunk of downtown Oswego. I think I’m one of the longest running businesses. I think Heagerty’s Hot Spot is about the same timeframe as me.
Q: You almost had to quit before you started, right?
A: My first location was on West First Street where the Army Recruiting Center is now. I’m learning how to pierce; I’m setting up my store. And this woman comes in the store and she was like ‘where is all the clothing?’ I said it’s body jewelry and I’m learning to pierce. She said ‘not in my building!’ Turns out it was the building’s owner. The realtor told her I was going to be a clothing store without my knowledge and she evicted me. A man from Rochester was buying the building and he said ‘don’t worry I’m buying the building. You can stay.’
Q: And then?
A: Later I moved out to Hillside Commons Plaza. Moved out there and almost went out of business because the rent was enormous and there were a lot of hidden fees, too. So I needed to move. I needed a better location. The location I am at now belonged to Tony Calascibetta of Cam’s Pizzeria. He was in the process of buying it and he was like ‘you can move in and rent the space.’ So within a year I was all over. In 2006 I bought the building from Tony for $225,000. In 2011 I bought the back part of the parking lot. And here I am now just chugging along.
Q: How has business been?
A: It’s been good. I do a lot of people from all over; a lot of out of state people. I have had people from Texas, Pennsylvania, Florida, Virginia, Ohio, Idaho — people from all over. Wish I would have done this a while ago; put up a map of America and put a pin in the places that people have come from that get piercing done here. New York would be filled.
I re-pierce people too. Because you get your nose pierced and then you work in a place that you can no longer have it and you have to take it out. But later, you say, ‘I want my nose pierced,’ I will re-do it.
What’s keeping me afloat is the piercing. I pierce Tuesday through Saturday. I do 12 to six and book myself every 30 minutes. I’m blessed — I’m always fully booked.
Q: Do you have a big staff?
A: Since COVID-19 I don’t have many staff. I did have about eight or 10 people at one point before COVID. Now I have three employees. I used to work 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day except Sunday. Now I take two days off a week and do shorter hours. You have to have some sort of life outside of work.
Q: What’s the best part of your job?
A: I really like the body piercing and interacting with people. Having the joy of someone come in scared nervous; I help them pick out what they want to get and then seeing them see the piercing the first time in the mirror and seeing their happiness. That is my most fulfilling reward. My motto is ‘Bodified; a little poke won’t hurt you.’
Q: How is the business regulated?
A: New York state doesn’t regulate tattoo or body piercing. I regulate myself. I go above and beyond for sterilization and health safety. Some other places don’t do what I do — it costs a lot more money to do. That is why some places offer body piercing cheaper.
Q: What are the most popular items that you do?
A: The most popular piercings are nostril, navel and ear piercings.
Q: If you weren’t doing this, what would you be doing?
A: If I wasn’t a business owner-piercer … I would love to be a stay-at-home mom and housewife and sell my art and photography.
