Inside Studs, New York’s Kaia Gerber-Approved Piercing Studio

Inside Studs, New York’s Kaia Gerber-Approved Piercing Studio - Vogue

Posted: 19 Nov 2019 12:00 AM PST

Whether you are 16 or 36, getting your ears pierced is no treat. In most cases, the experience is a momentary pain tolerance test administered by a piercing gun–wielding mall employee or a needle-holding tattoo artist who is categorically unimpressed with you. The latter scenario is what happened to Anna Harman early last year. "The piercing was great," she said. "It felt totally safe and clean, but I was personally out of place at the tattoo parlor I went to—and the jewelry was terrible and expensive." This led her down a piercing-research rabbit hole, where she found a lack of health-driven, approachable, affordable, and stylish options. There seemed to be nothing in between the Claire's of our youth and the too-cool-for-anyone tattoo parlors of New York and Los Angeles. Harman, who was working for Jetblack at the time as chief customer officer, decided to team up with her close friend Lisa Bubbers, former vice president of marketing for Homepolish, on a new concept called Studs.

Opening today on Prince Street in Soho, it's a piercing studio meant to appeal to a conscious millennial and Gen-Z customer. Think, the Glossier of piercing joints: neon-tinged, Instagrammable decor meets a wildly friendly and knowledgeable staff, along with an array of stylish piercing jewelry at an affordable price point. The flat fee for a piercing is $35 for one and $50 for two, applicable to any part of the ear (Studs doesn't do piercings anywhere else on the body). The piercing jewelry includes straightforward studs, as well as shapes and symbols like stars, hearts, letters, and astrological signs, and ranges from $30 to $180 per earring. Studs also offers fashion jewelry for sale, available for between $14 and $175, including collaborations with Bing Bang by Anna Sheffield, Susan Alexandra, and Man Repeller. "We want our customers to use this jewelry as a mechanism to self-express," Harman explains. "We're very focused on earscapes and selling single earrings but also helping people create an editorialized look for themselves." The piercing jewelry available at Studs is all implant-grade, using surgical steel titanium and 14-karat gold. Everything has a flat back, which Harman and Bubbers note is easier to sleep in and helps reduce swelling and irritation during the healing process.

The variety of jewelry is impressive, and so are the price points, but the real draw of Studs is the environment that Harman and Bubbers have created. As someone who already has four holes in her ears (plus a sad, closed up cartilage piercing that got infected in college), I was immediately drawn in. Wide smiles and cheery hellos from the men and women behind the main counter were punctuated by the cheeky sayings on the wall like "Hey Stud" and "Hole New You." "Water? Sparkling or Still? Or a CBD Recess?" said one heavily pierced employee upon arrival. I noticed little jars of Jolly Ranchers and Dum Dums lollipops, the kind of candy they give out in pediatrician offices to comfort kids.

The array of piercing jewelry on offer was hard to decide between, but luckily the saleswoman was helpful in assessing the piercings I already had and advising me on what would look best. I was handed a look book of different earscapes and piercing placements, which also helped guide me in the right direction. But really, I already knew what I wanted before I walked in. I'd seen Kaia Gerber's Studs piercing on the studio's Instagram account a few days before and I wanted something similar to the double stud "snake bite" piercing she'd chosen, something almost to the cartilage but still in the upper lobe. I debated over a few options that were in the glass display case at the front desk, then was met by one of the piercing artists who held a tray of earrings. She was sweet and soft spoken, and incredibly helpful in choosing my teeny, tiny CZ stud as we sat on banquets dotted with metallic silver pillows. She handed me a mirror and held up the stud to the placement on my lobe to be sure that was the one I wanted.

The piercing artist took my chosen earring and sterilized it for about 10 minutes in a medical-grade sterilization machine while I filled out my Studs profile and waiver on an iPad. Then I was called back to the piercing room which, like the rest of the Studs space, was clinically sterile, minimal, but well-appointed enough to distract from the needles and the buzz of the serious-looking cleaning contraption. There was a little tray of brightly colored hair clips in case you forgot your own hair tie for the piercing. There were little yellow stress balls available too, as well as a bottle of Studs-branded saline spray, on a shelf just above the perfectly packaged containers of swabs and Q-tips. The piercing artist cleaned my ear lobe thoroughly and then, it was time. As I enjoyed my lollipop, the piercer held the intimidating needle up to my ear and told me to breathe in deeply. I did, and upon my exhale I felt a second of sharpness pulse through my skin. It hurt, but it wasn't as bad as my past piercings. I stared into the ombre rainbow pattern on the cabinet in front of me and felt more zen than I could have ever expected with a scarily thick needle sticking through my ear.

She placed the stud in quickly and we were done. I bled a little bit, but the piercer made me feel better when she laughed and told me that Gerber too was "a bleeder." She spoke to me about how to care for my piercing and handed me a card with very simple instructions about rinsing twice a day with water and saline (plus a tip for keeping saline in the fridge so that it feels more soothing on the skin), not sleeping on the piercing, and not twisting or rotating the piercing until it's fully healed. Studs sends an email follow-up with those exact instructions post-piercing. Once it was all said and done, it was tough to leave, as everyone in the store wanted to check out my new piercing and chat about the experience. It was a calming hangout space even after the sterilizing and needles and lollipops. I walked away happy with my new ear bling and excited by the fact that, in a post-Claire's world, a very big hole in the piercing market had finally been filled.