Goodbye Kim

Last week marked the end of the Infinite career of Kimberly Zapata. While not as prominent a face or public a personality as many of the rest of the staff, Kim has been incredibly influential in helping define the path the shop has taken over the last six years, both in the studio and online.

After leaving the corporate world, Kim sought out employment at the studio to pursue something closer to her interests. Her past work experience made her an immediate asset to the staff, and she started in the position that would ultimately become Infinite’s operations manager. In this role she helped set us up with our first computerized POS system—and then did it again a year later. She managed both sales and the staff, using her HR experience to help with not only employee management, but hiring too.

During this time, she also helped Infinite’s owner, James Weber, with writing the content for infinitebody.com and assisted him in his role as editor of The Point: The Journal of the Association of Professional Piercers. When James stepped aside as editor, Kim was the natural choice to take over, and she remained in the role for two-and-a-half years.

Kim left Infinite several years ago to start a family in New York, but continued to be a resource to those who filled her old position. As work was gearing up on the launch of the new-and-improved infinitebody.com, Kim rejoined the staff in a new role, working remotely as Infinite’s “Webmistress.” She had her hands in everything from drafting and editing copy, product description and build, and even basic HTML coding. She worked with the piercers on the best way to get their photos on the site, and drafted announcements and email newsletters. Whatever she didn’t know, she taught herself—and then taught the rest of us.

All this time, she has continued to write. She posts on her own blog, and has been published by sites as diverse as scarymommy.com, the Huffington Post, and the Washington Post. Recently, she was offered a position on Bustle‘s new parenting site, Romper, where she will start the next chapter in her career as a writer.

Though she has seldom been a face on the floor of the studio, everyone who works here knows how important Kim has been in Infinite’s history—and even more so for Infinite’s online presence. We all wish her the best, and she will be missed.

Goodbye Kim, and good luck.