MOST Magazine Fashion MAY-JUNE'15 ISSUE NO.9 | Page 122
By: Sabina Bloom
US Marine Corps corporal
turned Chief Piercing officer,
Brian Keith Thompson, owner of
Body Electric Tattoo on Melrose
in Hollywood, is the face of the
company that is modernizing
the tattoo and piercing parlor
experience. Thompson seems to come to
his work with the same methodical fearlessness
that one would expect from a previous member of
the U.S. Military. At first glance, Thompson does
not look like a military man; with gauged earlobes
and a full body of ink, MOST inquired what his
USMC Commander would say to him now. “First
he’d probably call me an ‘idiot,’ but then he’d tell
me how proud he is of my successful business and
how I’ve been able to maintain it over the years
based on the leadership skills that the Marine
Corps taught me.” Though initially the business
seemed like an investment and his desire to be a
piercer was minimal, he now equates it to having a
child and watching it grow up and mature. “Good
or bad, it’s up to me. And no one gets to tell me
what to do [laughs].”
In reflection of the first piercing he ever gave,
he told MOST, “Body Electric’s previous owner
convinced me to pierce my own nose.” That was
the hook, he recalls, “I realized I was good at it and
kept going with it. The more I did it the more I loved
it; the more I loved it, the more I did it.” Though
Thompson has now lost count of his piercings
and tattoos, he doesn’t re-gret a single one. He
considers his ink to be one large connected
piece, his favorite part being the goddess Kali.
“Visually, I like it the best. And symbolically, she’s
a bad motherfucker who kicks ass and takes
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names, which is the way I run my business. No
prisoners.” He now sees himself as, “a craftsman
and a decorator.”
Thompson was named after the actor Brian
Keith, his mom’s crush (a fact that was dis-closed
to him much later in life). Growing up, he was
called BKT, standing for “Bratty Kid Thompson,”
a nickname given by his father. His theme song
is “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses. So
where can we find Thompson when he’s not in
the shop? Usually in the sky. “I am forty hours into
getting my helicopter license,” he says. “Flying is
my favorite thing to do besides Body Electric.”
Worried about getting judged for that heart
that you’ve always wanted on your hip to match
Rachel Green from Friends? Don’t be. Thompson
says, “If someone really wants some-thing, who
am I to judge what they want?” Just don’t complain
during the process. “When peo-ple ask if it’s going
to hurt, of course it’s going to hurt. Both tattoos and
piercings hurt. Life hurts – but you gotta l