Run a finger up the outer edge of your ear. It thins where the fold turns over at the top and thickens on the outer bend lower down, and a helix piercing behaves differently depending which of those you land on. That is the first thing we check, before any conversation about jewelry, because the post length has to match the rim you actually have.
The second thing is what already lives on that ear. Glasses arms cross the rim at a fixed height. Over-ear headphones clamp across the top of it. And you will be sleeping beside this piercing for the better part of a year, because nine to twelve months is the honest range for a rim to settle. Wear your glasses to the appointment and we will place around them. Bunny Vogt has been curating ears here since 2019; we are at 2625 Main St in Santa Monica, open 8am to 8pm seven days a week.
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Six things we look at on the rim before anyone picks up a needle
Run a finger up your outer ear. It thins where the fold turns over at the top and thickens on the outer bend below. Same rim, two very different jobs, and the post length has to change between them.
Put your glasses on and we'll look. The arm crosses the rim at a specific height on your ear, and a piercing placed just above or just below that line will save you months of low-grade irritation.
Over-ear headphones clamp across the upper rim, which is precisely where most people want a helix. Worth mentioning if you wear them for hours a day.
A second and third helix have to be spaced for the ear you have, not evenly by ruler. Doing that maths before the first piercing is why stacks look deliberate instead of accidental.
A hoop on a fresh rim gets levered every time hair, a pillow or a jumper catches it. We'll fit the ring you want once the channel is finished.
A gun crushes cartilage instead of cutting it. On a rim this exposed, that's the difference between a clean channel and one that fights you for a year.
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Handmade in Los Angeles since 1996. Lifetime guarantee. Implant-grade gold, platinum, and titanium. Over 3,000 original designs in our case — ask your piercer for a tour.
See the BVLA story →Spacing is decided by your ear, not by a ruler. If you are weighing the rim against other cartilage, the conch page and the tragus page cover those.
The classic helix piercing sits on the upper outer cartilage of your ear—the most popular cartilage placement for its versatility and visibility.
Placed on the cartilage closest to your face, creating a striking look that frames your ear beautifully with studs or tiny rings.
Two piercings stacked vertically along the helix for a coordinated look. Can be done in a single session for perfect alignment.
Three helix piercings for maximum impact with balanced aesthetics. A statement look that works beautifully with matching or graduated jewelry.
Positioned in the middle section of the ear's outer rim, offering a unique placement that bridges upper and lower ear piercings.
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Schedule your professional piercing appointment
Recommended first step
Book lobes, cartilage, or a styled ear appointment with Apollo.
Every piercing heals differently — here's what to expect
| Piercing Type | Location | Initial Healing | Full Healing | Pain Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Helix | Upper outer rim cartilage | 3-4 months | 6-12 months | 4-5/10 |
| Forward Helix | Front upper cartilage near temple | 3-4 months | 6-12 months | 5-6/10 |
| Hidden Helix | Tucked under rim | 3-4 months | 6-12 months | 5/10 |
| Flat | Flat cartilage area (between rook & rim) | 3-4 months | 6-12 months | 6-7/10 |
5000+ clientsThe five things that happen before the needle, in order
If you wear them daily, keep them on while we mark you. Seeing exactly where the arm crosses your rim changes the placement more often than any other single factor.
Pierce the other one where you can. Nine months is a long time to press a healing rim into a pillow every night, and this is the easiest variable on the list to control.
A dot that looks right when you face a mirror can sit visibly high or low from the side, which is how most people actually see your ear. We check both before committing.
Single-use needle, seal broken where you can see it. Tools have already been through a hospital-grade autoclave and surfaces get an EPA-registered disinfectant between clients.
Before you leave we tell you what week three and month three feel like, because knowing that the flat stretch is normal is what stops people abandoning the routine halfway.
A hoop on a fresh rim is a lever. Here is what goes in instead, and when the ring becomes sensible.
The single biggest factor in how this heals, and nobody asks about it beforehand
Eight hours a night, every night, for the better part of a year. Nothing else you do to a healing helix comes close to that for sheer accumulated hours of pressure, which is why we ask which side you sleep on before we ask almost anything else.
If you have no strong preference about which ear, pierce the one you do not sleep on and the problem mostly disappears. If you are set on a particular side, or you turn over in the night regardless, the standard fix is a travel pillow — the horseshoe kind, laid flat, with your ear in the hole. It looks ridiculous. It works, and it is the thing people most often tell us they wish they had known at week one rather than week eight.
Two smaller things that add up. Change your pillowcase more often than you normally would, because a healing rim is pressed into it all night. And if you have long hair, tie it back before bed; hair wrapping around a stud and then being rolled on is a surprisingly common cause of the bump people blame on their cleaning routine.
A stack makes this harder rather than easier. Two or three piercings along one rim removes your ability to find an angle that avoids all of them, which is a genuine argument for spacing a stack out over separate visits instead of doing them all in one sitting.
Service fees only. Jewelry is priced by the piece, so a plain titanium end and a BVLA one cost the same to pierce.
Jewelry sold separately
Jewelry sold separately
Jewelry sold separately
Jewelry sold separately
Jewelry Upgrades: Premium jewelry upgrades available. BVLA, Industrial Strength, and gold pieces priced separately based on selection. Additional piercings in same session receive a discounted rate.
Senior Piercer Senior Piercer
Bunny Vogt, a dedicated Senior Piercer at our studio since 2019, is known for her artistic eye and expertise in ear styling and curation. She excels at creating beautifully balanced ear arrangements, including helix configurations that complement each client's unique ear anatomy.
Founder Master Piercer
Blue Mason, our Master Piercer and studio founder since 2004, brings over two decades of cartilage piercing expertise including advanced genital work. His precision placement ensures every helix piercing sits perfectly on your ear's unique anatomy.
Most of the appointment is spent deciding where the dot goes. The piercing itself takes about a second. Here is what gets weighed in that time.
Saline twice a day. That is the entire cleaning routine and there is nothing to add to it. What actually decides how a rim heals is not the cleaning at all, it is the knocking: pillows, glasses, hairbrushes, jumpers coming off over your head.
Week three is where it goes wrong for most people. The soreness fades, the piercing starts feeling finished, and the routine quietly stops. Then somewhere around week six a firm little bump appears and everyone assumes they have caught something. They usually have not. That is irritation tissue responding to repeated small knocks, and the fix is finding what is hitting it rather than scrubbing harder. Nine to twelve months is the real number for a helix, and the ones that run longest are almost always the ones that got leaned on, not the ones that got cleaned badly.
Book AppointmentSaline twice a day, hands off in between. Some swelling and pink around a fresh rim is expected. Don't twist it to check. Start sleeping on the other side now rather than trying to break the habit later.
Swelling drops, soreness fades, and the routine quietly stops. Keep going. No pools, no lakes, no changing the jewelry, and get the travel pillow if you haven't. This is the window that decides whether month six is uneventful.
Nine to twelve months for most rims, and some run to eighteen. That is normal, not a problem. Come in for the first change so we can measure a hoop properly — a diameter guessed online is the commonest reason a healed helix gets angry again.
A single helix is a walk-in job most days. We are open 8am to 8pm, seven days. The distinction worth knowing is between buying one piercing and planning several.
Verbatim reviews from Apollo's Google Business Profile
"Had the best experience at The Apollo! Starting with Hanna for choosing the pieces and Blue piercing my ears, it was just perfect. Got 2 lobe piercings plus my second industrial and I'm super happy with all of it. Thank you 🙏"
"Amazing service! I got my second ear piercing with them and they were so sweet and efficient, I even came back to put them back in because I took them out and they were put back in without charge! Definitely coming back :)"
Reviews from Google · Read all 623 on Google
5000+ clients
Santa Monica, CA
Apollo was founded by Blue Mason in 2007. With 20+ years of body art experience, Blue brings master-level expertise to every piece. Read Blue's story →
Roughly in the order they come up at the counter.
Most clients describe helix piercing pain as a quick pinch lasting 1-2 seconds. Cartilage piercings feel slightly sharper than lobe piercings but remain very manageable. The anticipation is usually worse than the actual piercing.
Yes, we can perform double or triple helix piercings in a single session at our Los Angeles studio. However, we generally recommend limiting fresh piercings to 3-4 per session to avoid overwhelming your body's healing capacity.
There's no right or wrong ear. Consider which side you sleep on (avoid that side), your hair part, and any existing piercings. Our piercers can help you decide during consultation.
Avoid sleeping directly on a fresh helix piercing. Pressure delays healing and can cause irritation bumps or migration. Use a travel pillow or donut pillow to create space around your ear.
Piercing guns force blunt jewelry through tissue, causing unnecessary trauma—especially problematic for cartilage. Guns can't be fully sterilized and offer imprecise placement. Professional needle piercings heal faster with fewer complications.
Irritation bumps are common and usually result from pressure, touching, or improper aftercare. Don't mistake them for keloids (which are rare). Continue proper aftercare, eliminate the irritation source, and contact our Los Angeles studio if it persists.
Avoid earbuds during initial healing (first 2-3 months). After that, use them cautiously. Over-ear headphones are safer during healing.
A healed helix piercing shows no discharge, redness, or tenderness. The jewelry moves freely without discomfort. However, external appearance doesn't always reflect internal healing—wait the full healing period before changing jewelry.
Helix piercings typically take 9-12 months to fully heal, with initial healing occurring around 3-6 months. Some piercings may take up to 18 months depending on individual healing factors.
At Apollo Studio, helix piercing starts at $75 for the piercing service. Jewelry is sold separately — choose from implant-grade titanium, 14k gold, and premium brands like BVLA and Industrial Strength.
A standard helix piercing sits on the outer upper rim of the cartilage — the curved edge that wraps from the top of the ear down toward where it meets the head. A forward helix is on the inner front cartilage, the small ridge that sits just above the tragus near the temple. Same cartilage, different placement. Forward helix is often done as a double or triple (vertically stacked) and pairs beautifully with helix or tragus piercings for a curated ear.
A double helix is two helix piercings placed close together on the same upper outer cartilage, usually with matching or coordinated jewelry. Most clients prefer a small gap between the two so each piercing has space to breathe during healing. A triple helix adds a third in line. We can do both piercings in the same session, or stagger them so one heals before the next is added — we'll recommend the right approach during consultation based on your anatomy and the jewelry style you want.
Apollo sits at 2625 Main St in Santa Monica, a block from the beach and easy to reach from anywhere on the Westside. Here's roughly how long it takes to get to us for tattoos and piercings:
There's metered street parking on Main Street and Ocean Park Blvd, plus a public lot on 2nd Street a short walk away. We recommend giving yourself an extra 10 minutes to park on weekends — Main Street gets busy with the farmers market and beach traffic. If you're running late, text us at the studio and we'll hold your appointment.
Walk-ins welcome or book your appointment today.
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