All standard piercing services are $50 for the service fee. This fee includes up to three piercings on the same individual during the same visit. Standard piercings are anything that do not fall into the categories of genital or surface piercings. So all navel, nipple, ear cartilage, ear lobe, eyebrow, lip and tongue piercings have a $50 fee per 3 on the same person per visit. Mix and match how you like. This price does not include jewelry because every client has a different idea of what they would like to wear for jewelry. Jewelry prices differ depending on amount of labor involved in manufacturing, type of material involved and design considerations. We will discuss jewelry prices later in this post.
Advanced piercings, which include male and female genitalia as well as all surface piercings, have a service fee of $100 for up to 3 piercings on the same client in the same visit. Jewelry is not included in the service fee. If a client chooses to get one advanced piercing and two standard piercings, the fee would still be $100 for the service but all three services would be covered by that price. So a genital piercing and two nipple piercings would be $100 plus jewelry, whereas a cartilage piercing and two nipple piercings would be $50 plus jewelry.
Jewelry ranges greatly in cost. One of the biggest considerations to take into account when pricing jewelry, is whether the item is actually body safe or not. When determining if something is safe for the body, we require that material meet some sort of standard. Our basic standard for jewelry used in most initial piercings are the ASTM F136 and F67 standards for titanium meant to be implanted into the human body. This is the same standard used for medical implant devices, reconstructed structural body parts, etc. Implant grade titanium is nickel free and therefore fewer people have sensitivities to it than some other metals. The most common metal used by cheaper studios is "surgical steel" which is more of a misnomer as the term "surgical" doesn't really apply to anything. These grades of steel come in a wide variety with a lot of variation in allowable impurities in the alloy. They also have a relatively high nickel content, usually between 15 to 17%. Since nickel is a pretty well known sensitizer, there is no question that these cheaper and often imported steel products are more likely to have consumers that develop sensitivities and allergies to the jewelry itself. Often this is marked by discoloration of the piercing area, swelling and tightness, a mild burning, weeping and other signs that can often be confused for infection. WE WILL NOT PIERCE YOU WITH THIS JEWELRY. PERIOD. As stated previously, MOST studios around the world use this junkier quality jewelry. Many people do not notice the irritations they have developed are caused by the jewelry quality, but instead convince themselves they have an infection or have somehow messed up their piercing. In many cases a change to good quality jewelry can help with several of the symptoms they are facing.
Another consideration for jewelry is the quality of workmanship. Many piercers can't even tell the difference because they simply have not received adequate training. But once you know what to look for, the differences are clear. Internal threading leaves smooth edges without any exposed screws that might tear and rip healing tissue. The exposed threads on the cheaper externally threaded jewelry also leave deeper cracks and crevices for germs to hide in, which can cause infections. Internally threaded jewelry is a bit more labor intensive so it is not super common to see lower quality companies making it, although there are a couple out there. Externally threaded jewelry is so bad that it is practically unheard of to find a reputable good quality company making jewelry with that system. The finish of the jewelry should also be incredibly smooth under magnification and shiny almost like a mirror. Cheaper and lower quality jewelry is often gray in appearance and has gouges or scratches on the surface, sometimes these scratches can even be seen with the naked eye. In order to get the right type of threading and the right quality of finish to help guarantee a healthy and happy piercing, quality jewelry manufacturers have to invest a lot more time and money in specialized machinery, highly trained and skilled employees, and effective quality control. Most of these companies are based in the United States, carrying first world wages for their employees. Most of the cheaper jewelry companies, while they may have headquarters in the US, have manufacturing facilities in Asia where the regulations are a bit more lax and the average wage for employees is significantly lower.
The material and the labor are the two considerations that effect pricing of jewelry the most. Keep those considerations in mind every time you view a piece of body jewelry for sale. Eventually you will start to notice that the cheaper pieces actually look more poorly made. Gray in color, scratchy appearance, glued in gems with lead based foil lining, and sharp exposed external threads where bacteria can survive even some sterile loads. When you think about it, it's no wonder that cheap jewelry can be such a detrimental component in a new piercing. If you cannot afford good jewelry and good services, wait until you can. It is not uncommon for people who bargain shop to end up paying three or four times the cost of a good piercing studio by the time they are done battling all the complications they get from cheaper studios. Many of those times they don't even end up with the piercing, just scars. Even if the piercer or studio has internet cred, or television fame if they use poor quality jewelry run far away.
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| Quality jewelry on the left, cheap novelty pieces on the right. Courtesy of the Association of Professional Piercers (safepiercing.org). |
Now that we've discussed the considerations, let's talk about some average jewelry costs. At our studio, all implant grade internally threaded or threadless straight barbells in 18 gauge, 14 gauge and 12 gauge thicknesses are $35 each. $10 per titanium ball and $15 for the shaft in the middle. A single gem stone on one end is typically about $15 to $25 more per gem. That means a lip piercing with a gem on the front will usually run $50 for the service, plus $50 or $60 for the jewelry, plus 9% tax on the jewelry. The State of California only makes us charge tax on jewelry, not services. So let's look at some examples...
- Monique wants to get her Rook (an ear cartilage placement) and her Tragus (another cartilage placement) and her Tongue pierced. The $50 service fee would cover all three piercings as long as they are done in the same visit. In addition she will need a minimum of $119.90 in jewelry (curved barbells are $5 more than straight barbells. Rooks are done with curved barbells, as are navels and eyebrows.) so her total would be $169.90 with the standard implant grade titanium jewelry.
- Monique's friends Julia and Christine are coming along as well. Julia wants two standard Lobe Piercings with clear 4mm gems. Christine would like a Philtrum (cleft of the lip just below the nose) Piercing. Even though they are getting 3 piercings, the piercings are on two different people so the $50 service fee would need to be paid by each person getting pierced. If they chose to get another piercing while here, they would only need to pay for jewelry on that piercing since their service fees cover up to 3 piercings per person, per visit. Since Julia knows she wants 4mm prong set Swarovski Cubic Zirconia for her lobes, we know the jewelry will run $60 plus tax each, plus the $50 service fee. Julia's total will be $180.80 for her ear lobes, which is significantly more than her little sister paid at the mall kiosk with a gun piercing. But Julia has also seen first hand all of the healing complications her sister has faced and believes it is worth the price to get better quality in a hope to avoid those issues. Julia's sister can't even wear most of her earrings without her ears getting inflamed, and most of Julia's friends who got pierced with disposable needles and implant grade titanium have never had any issues like that.
- Now Christine isn't sure what jewelry she wants to start with. She knows her Philtrum would heal great with just a small standard ball on the end and the $35 jewelry price is not daunting. But she also knows it may be a while before she can change to other jewelry and she kind of wants something with a little more pizzazz and shine. She is considering either a 3mm Synthetic Black Opal Cabochon in a Bezel setting, or a 3mm Mint Green Swarovski Zirconia in a Prong Setting. The Cabochon and barbell will cost $55 plus tax whereas the Prong and barbell will cost $60 plus tax. She knows that Anomaly offers FREE NO OBLIGATION consultations, and will decide on the final piece once she sees them held up next to her skin tone. She also knows that a final total for what she wants will be given to her prior to obtaining the piercing, and if she decides it is too expensive she knows the staff at Anomaly will gladly give her all the acceptable and safe options that are within her budget.
- In our final example, Maria would like to get her Septum, Industrial and Tongue pierced. These are three piercings, so Maria is sure her service fee will only be $50. Unfortunately for Maria, the Industrial is actually two ear cartilage piercings connected by one single piece of jewelry. If she chooses to get all of these piercings at once, she will actually be getting 4 piercings and will have to pay an additional $50 service fee for the fourth piercing. If she chooses to wait to get the Septum or Tongue until another visit, the other piercings would all be covered in the initial $50 service fee. Jewelry for Septums can range from $25 for implant grade titanium retainers or hoops, all the way up to several hundred dollars for fancy hinged clickers or cluster segment rings. Maria also knows that while her tongue will only cost $35 for the jewelry, she will need to downsize to a shorter bar within a few weeks of getting pierced so she doesn't damage her teeth or mouth. Many piercings are often pierced with longer jewelry to accommodate swelling during the initial healing, if those long pieces of jewelry are left in weeks later when there is no more chance of swelling they can often cause severe healing problems. Maria is elated to learn that her barbell for her Tongue is three pieces and the shorter bar will only cost her $15 plus tax when it is time to downsize. The piercer also suggests waiting to get fancy ends until she downsizes, that way she can adjust to having the piercing for several weeks and then upgrade to shiny ends when she downsizes the bar. She likes this idea a lot, and it was the same thing she did when she got her nipples pierced at Anomaly which are now beautifully healed.
Quality body jewelry is in high demand these days with only a small handful of manufacturers trying to meet the need. Our inventory fluctuates and if for some reason we do not have the piece that fits your body in stock we will always give you the option to have it ordered or help you find another studio that stocks acceptable jewelry which may have it on hand. Please realize that we are often trying to estimate our needs approximately 12 weeks in advance, as that is the amount of time many of the great manufacturers need to fill orders these days. Sometimes we run out of certain jewelry before the next shipment comes in. That is no reflection of our feelings about you, or your importance to us as a customer. We apologize if this has happened to you in the past but we have a firm stance to only stock the best jewelry from the best brands, even if it means taking months to get it in stock. Thank you for understanding. If you have any questions about specific pricing please feel free to email us at anomalyart@gmail.com or schedule a free consultation to go over all your options in person. As always thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope it clears up any confusion past blog entries have created.
Wado (Thank You),
-Brett Perkins
