About | Deanna Stover

My Portfolio

This is a selection of the curations I have had the pleasure of drawing. Piercing is an art, and many wonderful artists are represented here.

A close up of the top portion of a charcoal drawing of an ear with two coin slots along with other piercings depicted in gold and soft pastels.

Clinton Lake

A double coin slot as an orbital? That's what got me interested in this project initially, and it was one of my first experimenting with more significant body modifications, including that conch punch.

A close-up of the bottom portion of charcoal drawing of a a pierced and stretched lobe featuring gold and black accents.

Shay Britton

Shay's ears are already a masterpiece (one was even featured in British Vogue!); I just had the pleasure of drawing a moment in time of one of their ears. Shay has added more piercings, but that's part of the beauty of my art: just like a piercing can mark a milestone, a Piercing Portrait can act as one, too.

A close-up of a charcoal drawing of a heavily-pierced nose featuring gold and soft pastel accents.

Kate Antoon

This was my first nose-focused work and one of my first experiments doing a larger-sized piece as well. The paper size is 18 x 24 in!

A charcoal drawing of a right ear (left-facing) with two lobe piercings

Vivian Bradley

This Piercing Portrait was my first time showing two ears side-by-side. A piece to commemorate a special moment in Vivian's apprenticeship, it is also a testament to how ears with even a few piercings can also be art objects.

Jess Coston

Jess curated an entire look on a silicone ear, and I recreated it in my style. This is another service I offer piercers and studios: imagined curations, not just those you've been able to complete on an actual human. Those take time! But you can display the kind of work you'd *like* to do using a Piercing Portrait, too.

Close-up of a charcoal drawing of an ear featuring gold chains.

Meghan Rodriguez

This is the first Piercing Portrait to include soft pastels and one of the first to include a gold leafing pen for jewelry, both of which have become part of my signature look. I will forever love Meghan's turquoise jewelry.

A photograph of an ear along with two renditions of it in charcoal, one of which features gold accents

Self-Portraits

My ears are an evolving project--and I think they always will be. From adding new piercings or updating jewelry to marking my style shifting, my ears are my first canvas and these self portraits are my second.

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Origin Story

I don't know why I grabbed some old charcoal from a long-forgotten drawer on Valentine's Day 2025 and drew my left ear, but I did--and it immediately felt like I had come across something exciting, not just for me but for other "Piercing Freaks," too (to borrow a term from the piercing legend, Doug Malloy).

And so the concept of Piercing Portraits was born, and I began drawing ear after ear, some mouths--a nose, too. I made a ceramic ear sculpture and "pierced" it to add metal and stained glass earrings.

In many ways, my Piercing Portraits, both on paper (which you can commission!) and in sculpture (which are forthcoming), are an ode to Piercing Freaks and to the artistry and creativity behind piercing and body modifications more generally. It's also an ode to individual and communal healing and growth--including my own.

So, whether you are a body mod practitioner, an enthusiast, or just an admirer, I'm so glad you found me.

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Charcoal drawing of an ear with many piercings. This is the first piercing portrait Deanna Stover drew.

THE DAY PIERCING PORTRAITS WERE BORN!

Two charcoal drawings of the same ear, one on gray-toned paper and one on white paper with gold leaf and soft pastels.

6-MONTHS LATER I REDREW MY EAR (WITH NEW PIERCINGS AND STYLINGS).

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