review: STUDS PIERCING

Review by Emily Hingle

The hip stretch of Magazine Street between Jefferson and Henry Clay Avenues is home to several boutiques catering to the aging Millennial, quick-service eateries specializing in healthy foods (Playa Bowls) or tasty foods (District Donuts), and a brand-new piercing boutique called Studs. 
This cool, clean, studio is a perfect fit for the neighborhood, all eye-popping neon accents, uptempo pop tunes and translucent neon green stands showcasing the goods.

Studs is all about the ear. Staff are happy to consult about earscaping: the art of strategic ear piercings in order to stack jewelry for a dramatic look. You fill out some forms, provide ID, and you are shown a selection of jewelry. Using a chart, you select exactly where you want that new piece of jewelry to go. My piercer, Raynbow, met me in the lobby to discuss piercing location, the heal time, and what jewelry would be best for that particular area. I decided to get the Snakebite Midi, which is two piercings close together.

Raynbow invited me back to the freshly-sterilized room. It looked almost like a doctor’s office with a sink, a cushy patient table, and sterilized instruments, but the bright yellow accents and hair clips in jars brings it all back to ear piercing. After confirming things, she explained in detail how she would do the piercings, and how the flat-back jewelry works. She really put me at ease, and I imagine that she is amazing at helping nervous clients get through the process well. 

Raynbow spoke to me throughout, making sure I was handling the process. Some people can experience light-headedness or actually faint while being pierced, and it was clear that she was ready for that possibility. Afterwards, Raynbow again went over the after-care regimen and handed me a guide. As I left, the staff gave me a goody bag with holographic stickers, a scratch-off game to possibly win a discount, and a stick-on diamond tattoo (which I have not seen in 20 years!).
 
As a young girl, I was taken to the mall to get my ears pierced. It was a rite-of-passage for girls in the 1990s and 2000s to sit in the store’s window with everyone watching, and get pierced via piercing gun by a possibly inexperienced (and nervous) clerk. It wasn’t unheard of at these mall stores for the piercer to set off the gun when you weren’t expecting it. She might say, “I’m going to do it on the count of three. One…CLICK!” After the event, you were told to wash the piercing and turn it regularly to get it healed up. As an adult, I’ve also had piercings and tattoos from various tattoo parlors. They can be noisy and intimidating places. 

Studs is a spot for kids to go to have a fun, safe, and private piercing experience, and it’s a tranquil environment for adults as well. It felt good to be in a room by myself instead of out in the open. It’s certainly safer to be pierced with a needle rather than a gun that shoots an actual earring through your lobe, but I never knew about not twirling your earring until the knowledgeable staff here explained why that’s a terrible idea. 

I would certainly go back for single piercings, but the boutique’s emphasis on earscaping and the jewelry sets that they create for that are making me think about doing more. 
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Studs is open at 5705 Magazine Street, 11am-7pm daily.