Secret Lives of Women Tuesdays at 10|9c

Heather, aka "Cookie"


Heather, aka "Cookie" lives in Phoenix, Arizona. She is a self-described "Betty Crocker" wife and mom and is also a Burlesque Fetish Performer and Suspension Artist. Her husband is Steve, creator of the first sub-dermal and trans-dermal implants. Modified with multiple tattoos, piercings, brandings and implants, Heather has worked for the past four years as a real estate investment manager in Phoenix, Arizona and has had great success in turning properties in financial disrepair into moneymakers. To her clients, she is your typical working mom. In her conservative dress and light makeup, she crunches numbers like nobody's business, talks lovingly about her husband, stepchildren and her 5 year-old daughter and she is always the one who brings in the fresh baked cookies. Heather grew up in semi-conservative family that stressed manners - a far cry from her on-stage persona Miss Cookie of the Pussy Posse, a burlesque fetish group that she performs with at fetish events across the country. As a younger person, Heather truly thought tattoos and piercings were "barbaric" and could not figure why anyone would do it in a developed society. She recalls summers spent at etiquette class and Sundays sitting in church. She still lives by many of the standards that she learned in her youth. Even so, Heather's views are determined by her own beliefs that vary greatly and can change. Her attitude towards body art was completely turned upside down after the death of a dear friend. Something possessed her to pierce her ears in memory of her friend and when she did, she found the experience to be more than just a brief moment of pain; she found it to be completely spiritual. After multiple modifications, she says each piercing, tattoo, brand and implant has a meaning behind it and not all are memorials. Some are tributes, some are promises and some are even punishments. As for her tattoos and implants, each represents a family member or loved one. The trilobite brand on her chest is her newest modification, in honor of her stepson who died this April in a car accident. Heather plans to have more modifications done in the near future, including several ball and star-shaped implants in her arms, which her husband, Steve Haworth, the body modification expert, is famous for designing. As for her professional life, Heather says, her bosses know about her modifications, but she keeps it hidden from clients to stay professional.