Piercing FAQ’s

Any change outs during the first year should be done by a professional, with the exception of first and second lobes, where it is only for the first six months.

Before a ring or hoop is worn your cartilage piercing should be at least 6 months old (this includes nose piercings!), and your lip piercing should be at least 4 months old.

When you can change it depends on the piercing you got and how your healing is going, feel free to ask!

Well, that’s going to depend on a variety of factors. Generally,

• Everything below the neckline is pierced at a 14g or 12g.

• Side nostril piercings are 18g.

• Septum piercings are 16g.

• Lobes and outer cartilage/helix are generally 16g, but sometimes 18g.

• Inner ear cartilage is generally 16g.

It’s all going to depend on what piercing we did, what your anatomy was best suited for, and the jewelry that was chosen to wear.

The diameter or length of your jewelry, however, is EXTREMELY variable from person to person. It’s also something that will change over time as you heal and downsize.

If you are on the market for some clean, new, high quality jewelry and you aren’t exactly sure what your specs are, come on through! We are happy to give measurements so that you are a more informed shopper, because there is no such thing as “one size fits all” with body jewelry.

No, that is not something that we offer. Most retainers are made from acrylic, which is not a safe material to heal on as it is porous, holds on to bacteria, does not have a smooth finished surface, and cannot be sterilized. For more information, see the prompt for clean, new, high quality jewelry below.

We do have a selection of glass retainers that solve all of these problems, but we have not found that they are stable or secure enough to get through the many months of healing required from any body piercing.

It depends on what you are bringing it in for. If you are asking if we can pierce you with jewelry that you bought, the answer is no, we cannot. KS statute states that any new piercing must be done with sterile jewelry provided by the shop, and we agree. It maintains the quality of your initial jewelry, and ensures that things are sterile and safe.

Now, if you’re asking if we can help you change your healed piercing into jewelry that you bring in, the answer is yes! While there are some limitations, we are always happy to help you change up your look. If the piece of jewelry you bring in seems like it may cause harm to you or to your piercing we do reserve the right to refuse to install outside jewelry of questionable quality. If what you bring in is clean, new, high quality jewelry with a wearable surface correct for the placement you are looking for, we will be happy to help you.

The short answer:

Jewelry comes in all different types of qualities and styles. What you can pick up at the mall or online is going to be a far cry from the things available at high-end piercing studios. Some materials are more suitable for long-term wear in body jewelry than others.

Acceptable materials include:

• Implant grade steel (different than surgical steel!)

• Implant grade titanium

• Niobium

• Some glass

• 14k-18k solid gold

• Platinum.

Materials to avoid include

• Sterling silver

• Painted or plated materials (even if it’s gold plated)

• Acrylic

• “Hypoallergenic” pieces. By the way, there is no regulation around what can be labeled hypoallergenic. Any material, even things known to be common allergens, are permitted to be sold under that label.

There is a quick way to tell where on the spectrum of quality a piece of jewelry is likely to be. Internally threaded and threadless jewelry tends to be higher quality than externally threaded jewelry. If you are stuck between two pieces of jewelry and one is internally threaded, go for that one!

Internally threaded jewelry has the threads (the bits that look like a screw) on the bead, and a hole in the barbell shaft for the bead to screw into. Externally threaded jewelry has the threading on the barbell itself, and the bead has a small hole that is tapped to screw onto the barbell. Externally threaded jewelry causes a bunch of excess damage to tissue as you drag the threads through your piercing channel. We call this “getting screwed”.

The Long, Detail Oriented, Doing Too Much Answer:

The good materials, what makes them good, and how to tell

When it comes to the designation “implant grade”, it’s not just the alloyed material that is taken into account, the jewelry finish is also considered. Materials that are implant grade are hand-polished to be extremely smooth. While to the naked untrained eye a piece of low-quality jewelry might look similar to implant grade, the difference comes when you look closely. Looking at an implant grade bit of jewelry under an eye loupe or microscope, you won’t find gouges, scratches, or other bacteria holding piercing channel irritating imperfections. Another consideration is if the material can be put through an autoclave, which is how professional piercing studios sterilize jewelry. If a material cannot be sterilized via an autoclave, it cannot be implant grade.

In other news, not all steel is the same! There is no regulation as to what can be called “surgical steel”, however implant grade stainless steel does have regulations to it’s material makeup, listed as ASTM F-138. Please look for either the ASTM listing, or implant grade steel. This is a great entry-level cost material for most people, and if it works well for you there are a bunch of options out there for what you can wear safely in your piercing.

Titanium is similar, and the ASTM listing for implant grade titanium is ASTM F-136. This is the most accessible, best material to begin piercings with, especially if there is any concern regarding skin sensitivities or metal allergies. This is the extremely inert, biocompatible material that artificial joints and dental implants are made of! To us, implant grade titanium finds the perfect balance between extremely high quality at a reasonable price to build quite a large jewelry collection.

Glass body jewelry, generally worn in stretched earlobes and as piercing retainers, is acceptable provided it is lead free borosilicate, lead free soda lime, or fused quartz. It offers a smooth surface, and is autoclavable We do not carry much glass for stretched lobes, but can refer you to studios in the area who can help. We do carry glass for retainers, and is our preference for medical procedures and performances.

When looking for gold jewelry, avoid anything plated. Instead opt for solid gold pieces in the 14k to 18k range. Solid gold rings, or solid gold tops that can be placed onto a titanium post are a great way to get variety. Solid gold that is to be worn long-term in body piercings is specially alloyed to be biocompatible, reducing the risk of complications.

Platinum is a very rare precious metal that is very inert and an excellent material for body piercings. However, it is extremely expensive due to it’s exceeding rarity and difficulty to work with. It is not a material that we carry. If you are looking for platinum body jewelry, let us know and we can direct you to a studio that either carries it, or makes special orders.

The things to avoid, and why they are harmful:

Sterling silver is an absolutely terrible material for body jewelry and should be avoided. I have no idea who came up with the idea that it’s the best material for earrings, but they’ve done a lot of damage to a lot of earlobes. The issue with silver, sterling or otherwise, is that it can tarnish/oxidize, and readily does so in the acidic environment of human skin. When it oxidizes, it turns black or blue, and leaves those deposits in the piercing channel. If left for long enough, this will permanently tattoo the piercing channel blackish blue, called localized argyria. Please avoid sterling silver body jewelry. If you absolutely must wear it for a special occasion, do a visual check on the jewelry first, and clean/polish it well beforehand, and only wear it for a few hours at a time VERY rarely.

Painted and plated materials have some similar difficulties. The coating on painted and plated materials readily wears off in the acidic environment of human skin, and can leave behind particulate matter in the piercing channel. This is very irritating to the channel, and unhealthy for you. Painted and plated materials are also frequently extremely subpar metals under the coating which can irritate even totally healed piercings, cause failure of piercings still healing, and cause any metal sensitivities to act up.

Acrylic jewelry can be worn as an extremely short term solution for healed piercings in the case of a medical procedure, sports, and performances where you cannot wear metallic jewelry. It should be worn for the least amount of time possible, then changed back to your high quality jewelry of choice. Acrylic is extremely porous, with an extremely irregular surface that is an absolute safe haven for bacterial buildup. Because it cannot be autoclaved, there is no way to sterilize acrylic jewelry. It is not a safe material to heal any piercing with.

Any piercing that we start will have some extra room to accommodate initial swelling, and to provide ease of access for cleaning. After the initial swelling has gone down, it is very important to come back in for a follow up visit to get a shorter post. If your jewelry is too long, it greatly increases the likelihood of migration of the piercing, as well as the chances it’ll get snagged on hair/clothes/everything.

Typically, the swelling will reduce somewhere between 2-6 weeks, depending on the piercing. While I’d love to give you a more specific answer, your own bodies ability to heal, any trauma the piercing has encountered, and the type of piercing you have will greatly impact the time it takes for swelling to reduce. Some very general guidelines are:

• Nostril: 2-4 months

• Lip: 2-4 weeks, and again after 6 months

• Helix, eyebrow: 4-6 weeks, again at 6-9 months

• Other cartilage started with a post (conch/flat/tragus/forward helix): 4-8 weeks, again at 9-12 months

• Cartilage started with a ring or curved barbell (daith/rook): 3 months, again at 9-12 months

• Tongue: 2-4 weeks, again at 6 months

Another way to check and see if it’s time for a downsize starts the day you get your piercing. If you take a well-lit picture of the back of the jewelry within an hour or two of your initial piercing with the front of the jewelry flush to the skin, you’ll see how much extra space there is on the jewelry for swelling. It’s good practice to check in for a downsize when you have about half that amount of bar visible under similar conditions again. OR, if the extra space on your post is about the width of a nickel and dime stacked on top of each other.