Introducing Maria Tash The celebrity piercer is in Hong Kong exclusively at Lane Crawford
Lane Crawford welcomes Maria Tash with its first ever pop-up space in Asia. Hailing from New York City, Tash has made the piercing of ears, nose and pretty much any other geography of body wanting adornment the latest fashion trend. Waiting lists of A-listers and industry insiders fill up fast when Tash comes to town as her clean, precise and tasteful eye for the right kind of piercing is highly sought after.
For over the past 20 years, the celebrity piercer has been welcoming her loyal followers to the brand’s piercing spa in the East Village, but now Hong Kong can meet the designer and her team for a personal consultation exclusively at Lane Crawford.
- Maria, where does your passion for body art and more specifically jewellery come from?
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I’ve been passionate about jewellery design since I was a child. I used to raid my mother’s jewellery box and drape her pieces over me. As an adult, design inspiration comes from a variety of sources. Sometimes it is old pieces I collected in my youth that I remake and improve with new metals. I love intricate granulation found in vintage Indian pieces.
My passion for piercing comes from seeing cartilage piercing as a teenager visiting London and the West Village of NYC. I was impressed by seeing jewellery in unusual parts of the ear and nose. I also loved old photos of elaborate ear and nostril piercing in Indian and Pakistani weddings. My piercing location design inspiration comes from trying to figure out how to suspend stones in areas of the ear in a way that has not been seen before. The effect should be beautiful and have others asking how it is possible to have jewellery in that location.
- One of the most exciting features of Maria Tash’s jewellery is its pieces’ versatility, where an earring can be worn in one’s earlobe, ear cartilage or nostril. How did you come up with an idea for versatile jewellery?
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Versatility in my pieces comes directly from my knowledge of piercing, and knowing how thick lobe/cartilage tissue is based on defined piercing angles. My piercing angle aesthetic is called “forward facing”, where we make sure that the jewellery is straight on when a client looks in a mirror. I have designed the wearable post length of my small earrings, the part that goes through the piercing, to have the right curvature and length, so that the jewellery fits most locations. This post length through the ear/nostril needs to be proportional with the rest of the ring in order to be attractive, not just functional.
With the case of studs, I have developed a thin, internally threaded post where we custom fit the post length to the area of the ear or nostril. We have post lengths in 1mm increments, so we can custom fit each person perfectly with no post sticking out the back. This custom fitting of rings or studs is part of styling and we make sure all jewellery fits the body as perfectly as possible.
- What is the most popular piece within your collection that you recommend people consider before it sells out?
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Our most popular pieces are classics – diamond eternity rings and invisible set diamond eternity earrings. Just like the classic finger ring band, we have many small diameter earrings with suspended lines of diamonds to fit each wearer.
- Tell us how you first got the idea to offer piercing services in store. Were your customers initially shy at first or did they demand it?
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My stores have always offered piercing service. Our clients were not shy - most have a vision of where they want to get pierced. But often, a piece of jewellery inspires a piercing location. We have clients say, “I did not know that I wanted the piercing but the jewellery was so beautiful”, that they had to find a place for it [on their body].