A Love Letter Goodbye

Maybe This Is Goodbye,

Maybe This Is See You Later Down The Road…

It is with a heavy heart and a soul full of excitement, joy, and gratitude that I announce I am stepping back from Prestigious Piercing and closing my doors — to focus on being a mother.

After six years of trying to start a family, my prayers have been answered. I am expecting the greatest project of my life, one that will change everything.

I will be available until the end of July. To make an appointment: click book, pick a time/day or join my waitlist, and you’ll be notified when I have an opening. This will be the last time to get pierced by me for the foreseeable future unless I do a guest spot. If you have a paid order with me that you are expecting, please TEXT me so I can mail you your order. I will be using this month to pierce for what might be the last time, and to finish fulfilling all orders.

Alongside that announcement comes another one I have dreamed about since 2017: a scholarship. To give back to the community that built me and to make this legacy last far beyond a for-profit business, my long time dream is coming to life. The Prestigious Piercing by Sammi Marchese Buitron Scholarship — $10,000 — will be available for multiple Del Mar College students in select areas of study I am personally passionate about as they relate to piercing: Biology, Biotechnology, Surgical Technology, and Sterile Processing Technician, and soon after at Texas A&M Corpus Christi for students earning their degree in Biomedical Sciences. I’m excited to continue raising funds and having you all join me as a way to stay connected.

That vision board I made back in 2017 had three things on it — start a scholarship, open a studio, start a school. Two out of three isn’t bad.

So the business is changing, not gone completely. I’ll now focus on education and philanthropy — my two biggest passions that were always an element of what I do at Prestigious Piercing. Giving back. Pouring into others. Selflessness. Loving.

I will be adding a directory to my website so you have a reference of all the safe places I would trust to pierce me — so you know of places you can trust once I’m gone.

I have given almost two decades to this community. Now it’s time I give my family that same dedication.

Together, we built a market where there wasn’t one before.

I still hear it sometimes through the grapevine — “nothing good can be found in Corpus.” And while the first half of my career was spent fighting just to get people to take safe piercing seriously, somewhere along the way we turned that idea into an expectation. Into something people now drive hours to find, in Corpus of all places.

No, you can’t win them all. There are still people who don’t see the difference between what I do at Prestigious Piercing and a tattoo shop or a salon. But what makes me most proud is that people are still out there looking for something better. Better than what it used to be.

We did that.

If I can be vulnerable for a moment — I never felt very welcomed by the body piercing industry. By some, absolutely. Saville, for taking me under your wing whenever we were together. Matthew and Elizabeth at Bloom. April T, who offered me a place to stay without really knowing me outside of the mentor program and the forums. Brian S., for always being the kindest human in the room no matter how crowded it got. Ashley D., my fellow Texican. Christina, John J., Pineapple, Gil — you were always the friendliest and most willing to share what you knew.

Our industry can be ugly and pretentious. You all showed me the best sides of it, and I will always be grateful for your friendship and your willingness to show a young kid something that would actually help.

More recently, I started connecting with more piercers — people began interacting with me online, sharing my posts, reaching out. I wish I’d had the confidence to share my knowledge sooner. I always told myself it didn’t matter what other piercers thought, that what mattered was what you did for your clients and the community you built inside your own four walls. And I still believe that. But as a person? It does feel good to be seen.

There were times I felt completely lost. People can tell you that you’re so good at something and you can still feel like you’re drowning, like you’re just pretending. I spent years asking “what is my purpose?” — until I stopped asking and started just focusing on being joyful and grateful that I get to live what some people only dream of.

I got to pour into people. To show them kindness, to serve them, to educate them. To be someone’s safe space — the person they think of when a family member passes, when a divorce happens, when life is throwing everything it has at them. I can’t tell you how many times showing up for you and for this business saved me right back. How many times it brought me closer to my faith.

And still — so many times I felt like I was failing you. The pressure of delivering on time, of doing it all alone, kept me up at night. Made me sick. Consumed every part of my life. I felt like a failure more often than I ever let on. But hey — it all looked pretty. I was drowning on the inside.

And now, just as I’m finally climbing out of it — finding my groove, stepping into my own authority, trusting that I actually do know what I’m doing and what I’m talking about — it’s ending.

That’s the part that’s hardest to sit with. Not just that I’m leaving, but that I’m leaving right now, at the exact moment things started clicking. When I’m starting to fall in love with it again. The rhythm in the studio finally works. I’m not just surviving anymore — I’m actually building the dream. And I’m walking away from it.

The other thing that keeps me up is this: if not me, who?

Who will pierce you safely? Who will be as passionate about the education, the cleanliness, the troubleshooting, the unwavering standard? We know that the other options are either underqualified, carry plated and fake jewelry, don’t have autoclaves for the type of equipment we use, don’t have the best disinfectant, don’t have proper training, don’t have aseptic technique — and if one does, it doesn’t feel safe and comfortable. I feel like I owe it to this city — to this community we built together — to stay.

I know what you might be thinking: why not hire someone to work while I take time away? Maybe when and if I decide to return there will be more qualified piercers in the area that I could bring in, but right now there just isn’t anyone. It’s hard to get someone to move to — and stay in — Corpus. And I need someone I don’t have to train from scratch, who won’t mistreat clients, and who I can trust with your health. I need several other ME, or better than me. No ego, and not many mistakes.

But I owe it to myself and my family to go. This can’t be my fight anymore… at least, for now.

I need to chase this dream of being a mother. I need to see what that looks like for me. And honestly? Who knows. Or maybe I’ll be back sooner than I think. Maybe I’ll love this new chapter more than I’m expecting to. I have so many ideas, so many other things I want to build — and I still have a vision for this studio. I’ve been just a piercer since I was a kid. I want to see what else is out there for me.

I very much feel like I’m doing this in reverse in a way. I was so fortunate to start my career and build a successful business so young — it’s given me the opportunity to work toward being able to step aside and build a family. So many mothers have their babies and then chase their dreams. My dreams aren’t over, and this business might not be over yet either. But starting a family is a different dream of mine that I want to give full focus to.

My whole identity has been piercing, loving and pouring into others for so long that I don’t know who I am without this. It’s kinda scary. But I want to see.

I’m done “girl bossing’ for now. I’ve lived that life, I’ve seen what it’s like, and it’s not what fulfills my soul right now.

I’m leaving my career. My entire identity thus far. Everything I’ve ever known and worked for since I was a kid. I’m leaving my income. My dream. I’m not just leaving piercing — I’m leaving an entire industry. The one I’ve been apart of since I was two years old. 

I know how incredibly blessed I am to have a choice. We have worked so hard for so long and have prayed even harder to be able to do this, and our faith has made it possible.

In the meantime, please uphold the standard we built together. Don’t go back to just any tattoo shop or anyone offering piercings with a needle. Don’t let jewelry that looks gold be good enough. You know better now. That’s the whole point.

I’ll keep doing one of the things I love most — educating. I’ll share on my socials and my website blog, and I may even do one-on-one mini seminars and studio audits at select shops.

Please stay in touch. I don’t know exactly what’s next, but I’ll put it out there when I do — and I want you by my side when it happens.

I love you. I’m so thankful for you and the time we’ve had together. And I hope you know how hard this really is for me.

It’s hard to open a business… but it might be even harder to choose to walk away from one.

With so much love and so much gratitude,

Sammi Buitron