Piercings, Parental Leave and Moose

Piercings, parental leave and Moose Body Piercing

What do piercings and parental leave have in common?

is what you might be asking after reading that sentence. The truth is, not a lot. But it might explain my recent absence from Moose Body Piercing a bit better!

A Bit About Me

I’m Moose Robinson and I’m the owner and head piercer here at Moose Body Piercing. I am also, it’s only employee. Which means I wear a lot of hats within my business. Piercings, jewellery orders, customer service, administration, digital marketing, accounting, sterilising and sanitation, and everything else in between. This has been my career for the last five years and I love it.

But when I fell pregnant with twins that meant I had to hit pause. Holy moly was I excited and crazy nervous when I found out I was going to be a mum. But, I had no idea how I was going to keep my business up and running while on parental leave.

Not expecting to be pregnant anytime soon, I hadn’t put finances aside for maternity leave and had instead reinvested that money back into my business. So I was really aiming to continue working in the studio up until three weeks before I gave birth. However, two months before my due date my water broke which sent me into spontaneous labour. Thus my baby boy and baby girl were born two months premature.

Life Update

Not only is having two premature babies and a traumatic birth pretty stressful, but because I hadn’t expected to give birth so early I was inundated with messages from clients every day.

There’s nothing like receiving a message asking if I had time for a last minute walk-in while I was mid-contraction! Of course how would the client know I was about to deliver two babies—they just wanted a navel piercing!

As someone who lives with bipolar disorder, the mental stress of having two premature babies was a lot. I was trying to juggle our finances and was making the 40 minute trip to visit our babies in hospital twice a day. My husband and I spent over $1000 just on parking tickets and fuel. The mental stress is nothing I’ve ever experienced before.

I wish the body modification industry was more regulated. Because then policies like parental leave would be a sure thing and people like me wouldn’t have to choose between their career or business, and having a family.

Moose Body Piercing Now

The road back to normalcy has been a long and tiring one. As each day passes I feel more like myself and although motherhood is still challenging, I’m being challenged differently compared to how I felt when I first had my babies.

Five months and two healthy babies later, and I am VERY excited to be back at work. I am thrilled that I get to swap vomit and wiping bums, with having adult conversations with someone other than myself.

I can’t wait to blast my music in my car without have to worry about little ear drums being damaged. I can’t wait to not think about when their next feed should be. But most importantly I cannot wait to be back in my element, doing the thing I love the most and feeling secure in the knowledge that I am able to provide for my family again!

My books are now open and I am taking appointments from 3rd of November onwards on Fridays and Saturdays! With no walk-in appointments available, booking an appointment is the best way you can access my services.