Syndesi (He/They), Lead Piercer, GIA AJP

Syndesi Best joined the Evolution team in 2018, but has been piercing since 2013. Together with Noah Babcock, Syndesi helps fabricate Interstellar Jewelry Productions. He is passionate about facilitating positive change through body piercing, and he is particularly skilled at doing so by creating beautiful curations.

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I was born in Everett, WA in 1991, moving to Taos, NM when I was 10 years old. I was raised in a very conservative religious household, where self-expression through the means of altering your physical appearance from body modification to dying your hair was considered a taboo, making it all the more enticing to me from as early as I can remember. In 1997, I was out with my father, walking down the sidewalk in the city. From the opposite direction, there was a man heading towards us that was covered in piercings and other modifications. I stopped dead in my tracks in amazement when I saw him; I didn’t know what piercings were, but I loved how they looked. At that moment, all I knew was that I wanted to look like him. This experience left a lasting impression on me that would set the course for the rest of my life.

Over the next ten years, my interest in piercing did not fade, and I eventually realized that not only did I love piercings, but that I also wanted to do them for other people who felt just like I did. Later on, when I was 16 years old and living in Taos, I walked into my first professional tattoo and piercing studio. When I walked through the doors, I felt an instant sense of “arrival.” I looked through their portfolios and saw clients come and go as they were getting pierced and tattooed. I then asked for a job at the counter, which I was promptly denied. This did not deter me, and I continued to hang around the studio over the next few years, eventually securing a job there when I was 19. 

While I had been pierced earlier on at retail stores that used inappropriate equipment such as piercing guns, my first experience with being pierced in a professional body modification studio was when I got my septum pierced at 18. For me, this experience was nothing short of a total “rebirth” for me. I felt like through this experience, my true self was finally allowed to emerge after many years of suppression. From that point, I was pierced several times until I became the front counter/receptionist for the studio.

After a couple of moves and false starts, I finally found the opportunity to become a body-piercing apprentice when I returned to Taos in 2012. Once I finished my apprenticeship, I finally realized my dream and became a professional body piercer. Over the years, I have worked at studios in Taos, Santa Fe, and now Albuquerque, as part of the team here at Evolution Body Piercing. My love of body modification has only grown over the years, driving me to want to learn as much as I can while developing my skills as a body piercer. 

Outside of being a piercer, I am happily married to my wife Amber, and I’m a very proud father to our amazing daughter Ivy Willow Cisneros-Best, as well as our 4 dogs. We love to paint, do arts and crafts and cook together. We both practice a vegan lifestyle and consider ourselves advocates for animals. I enjoy reality television, sitcoms, and basically any other good television or movies, as well as playing video games such as The Legend of Zelda and Pokémon. Working at Evolution has provided me with the team and environment that I have always dreamed of since I set my heart on being a piercer many years ago. My role here is exciting, and I look forward to working with the clients who walk through the doors at Evolution and hope to facilitate positive change through body piercing.