Piercings at Grace (and a Handy-Dandy Piercing Guide)
Grace Church students have a wide variety of piercings that are studded with meaning! Keep reading to see glammed-out Grace goers and a Handy-Dandy Piercing Guide.
“In Indian culture, piercings are the first cycle of life,” Anika V. ‘27 explained. “These are my mom’s!” Anika also mentioned that in India, men traditionally often wear piercings.
To Apollo K. ‘26, their piercings carry meaning. “I love wearing hoops because they remind me that everything is cyclical and repeats itself,” they said. “It’s the nature of life.”
To Luke N. ‘26, piercings mean self-discovery. “I wanted to experiment with my appearance to get to know myself better,” he said. “My parents didn’t want me to get them because of my gender, but I decided to anyway. It ended up changing my parents’ opinions on piercings and expression.”
Ahilya E. ‘26 got her belly button piercing from Bashira, a local piercing studio, right before sophomore year. “I had two weeks of volleyball preseason, and I kept diving on my stomach,” she reminisced. “It was definitely not something I was supposed to do.” When her parents found out a year later, she was grounded, but she said it was worth it.
To Miranda H. ‘26, piercings mean self-expression. “I got my first piercing from Maria Tash in the summer of 2017,” she said. Her seconds and thirds are from Studs, a piercing studio chain.
If you don’t know much about piercings, don’t worry! Below is a handy guide on the most popular piercings, pain scales, and go-to piercing studios.
HANDY-DANDY PIERCING GUIDE
Types of Piercings
The ear is one of the most popular places to get piercings. Most people start with their lobe and work their way up the ear. The lobe is also the least painful place to get pierced, followed by the helix. The conch and daith can be quite painful and often take the longest to heal because of their more internal location.
Other common piercing locations include the nostrils, septum, navel, and tongue piercings.
Piercing Safety
Piercing holes are either created with a needle or a piercing gun. Needles are often better for precision and sanitation, as they can be cleaned and discarded. As open wounds, piercings also often get infected, making it important to disinfect new piercings two times a day to assist the healing process. Many people are also sensitive to metals, so it is highly recommended to be pierced with titanium, gold, or silver. Alloys, like nickel, copper, brass, and sterling silver, can irritate the piercing and cause infection.
If you are getting pierced, here are some key things to look out for:
- Needles are brand new and sanitized
- Your piercer is wearing gloves
- Your piercings are brand new or sanitized
- Your surroundings are sanitized
Piercing Spots
Getting pierced can be scary, but not if you’re aware of the pros and cons of the different locations you’re going. If you want to ensure quality and professionalism, prices will get high (up to $50 per piercing and even in the thousands for luxury metals.) However, if you’re a seasoned piercer and you know what metals your body can tolerate and how to properly care for new piercings, there are also cheaper options.
Mentioned in this article
Maria Tash – 653 Broadway in Greenwich Village
- Pros: Professional piercers, high-quality piercings, take sanitation seriously
- Cons: Very pricey, especially if you want to buy their jewelry for a piercing
- Price Range: $20-and-up per piercing, $50 for deep-cleaning old piercings, $85-5000+ per piece of jewelry
Bashira – 13 3rd Ave
- Pros: Cheap, licensed, and near Grace
- Cons: Reported lack of professionalism of piercers, and varying quality of jewelry. If you’re not a seasoned piercer and you don’t have experience with infection or disinfection, try a higher-quality piercing studio first
- Price Range: $10-and-up per piercing, services sometimes including starter studs
Studs – Locations across NYC
- Pros: Professional, with prices higher than Bashira but lower than Maria Tash
- Cons: Difficult to schedule appointments
- Price Range: $40-and-up per piercing, $38-400 per piece of jewelry
Not mentioned in this article, but names to kn=ow
Claire’s – Locations across NYC
- Pros: Affordable and a classic
- Cons: Staff aren’t trained and use gun piercings, which are often less precise. Piercing quality also varies.
- Price Range: $30-50, including the starter-studs
108 BK – 156 Engert Ave, BK
- Pros: Professional, renowned celebrity piercer with high quality piercings
- Cons: Quite pricey
- Price Range: $60 for initial piercing, $30 per additional piercing, $100+ per piece of jewelry
Nine Moons Piercing – 123 Lafayette Street
- Pros: High-quality piercings and professional piercers
- Cons: Expensive and possibility of high-cancellation fees
- Price Range: $160 per piercing, jewelry included
Caitlin L. ‘27 is a staff writer for The Grace Gazette. Media provided by Antonia A. ‘27.