If you wanted your ears pierced before, say, 2018, there weren’t many options. You could either go to the Claire’s at your local mall, surrounded by small children trying on headbands, or a tattoo shop, where you just might end up next to a dude filling in his sleeve with a naked woman while you’re adorned with a diminutive diamond stud. The pickings were slim, but we made do in the name of jewelry.
While not everyone is into high end vibes seeping into the piercing scene, Ro Bataille, owner and tattoo artist at Cherry Bomb, a tattoo and piercing studio in New York, believes there’s room for the old and the new guard. (It's also worth noting that most newer shops offer only ear piercing, whereas a tattoo shop likely does body piercing as well.)
“It’s changing the landscape, for sure, but it's nice that people have more places to go now that are safe,” says Bataille.