Tatyana: Hi! I'm Tatyana. This is Haute Mama, the maternity life style series that offers you diet, style, beauty and product advice, to keep you one haute mama. I am here at Venus with Maria Tash. Venus is regarded as the most established piercing studio in New York city. Maria has pierced many well known celebrities like Britney Spears and Jessica Alba.
Maria how have you managed to turn a passion into a business?
Maria Tash: When I started I had most of the body jewelry which was very industrial, very steel, steel rings, steel ball, and that wasn't my personal aesthetic and I didn't consider that beautiful. So I just felt compelled to create some beautiful jewelry that were based on my particular taste.
Tatyana: And a lot of that also included navel jewelry.
Maria Tash: In fact that was what I concentrated on a lot in the early 90s and then it is expanded from there.
Tatyana: Do you have a lot of pregnant women who come in and looking to get a temporary piece of jewelry?
Maria Tash: We do. We have a lot of people coming in, not sure what to do when they're pregnant. They have had the piercing sometimes for short period of time, sometimes for years, not sure if they need to take it out and it's our job to advice them, see how they are going to expand. And they want to hold on it and they want to know the best way to maintain their sense of beauty and a lot of times they are feeling sexy, which is a lot of what navel piercing is about.
Tatyana: Is there a way to tell if you are going to need when does your skin get tight, does it get red or anything like that?
Maria Tash: It can get red and it can look tight. Most of the times I would say, we just give people a longer piece of jewelry, that would account for expansion.
Tatyana: I gained 50 pounds of my son in my first pregnancy and I had to have one switch that of five months pregnancy.
Maria Tash: But you kept it there, right?
Tatyana: I did, yeah.
Maria Tash: And you kept it, why did you keep it?
Tatyana: Well, it's part of who I am.
Maria Tash: Part of your genital, it took a long time heal it, right?
Tatyana: Yeah.
Maria Tash: And I really encourage people to be able to work with their jewelry. I think that's important for navel, genital, nipple, anything that we're talking about. People need to know how to work with their jewelry, don't be afraid.
Tatyana: For more information, visit hautemamaonline.com.
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