Yeah, that is what the Lord Ruler was suspected to be: a Full Feruchemist and Lerasium Mistborn Compounder and a Hemalurgist, with Hemalurgic spikes alongside his metalminds:
As it turned out, he was an Ascended Mistborn not a Lerasium one (see WoB below) and his piercings were so that they could not be Pushed or Pulled by Allomancy.
(so he used the Well of Ascension to make himself a Mistborn)