Piercing in Santa Monica

Every piercing at our Santa Monica studio is done with a single-use sterile needle — never a piercing gun, which cannot be sterilized between clients and crushes cartilage instead of passing through it cleanly. We install only implant-grade titanium (ASTM F-136), solid 14k or 18k gold, or niobium. Your fresh jewelry is sized long to allow for swelling, and a downsize follow-up is built into every piercing so it settles correctly.

If you have sensitive skin or a nickel allergy, flag it when you arrive — titanium and solid nickel-free gold are exactly why we stock those materials for fresh piercings. More detail on our sensitive-skin jewelry guide, and an honest look at what drives cost on our piercing prices guide.

Santa Monica has no shortage of places that will put a hole in you. What is actually scarce is a studio where the person holding the needle has years behind the same counter and formal anatomy training to back the judgement calls. Both of ours do, and you can ask for either by name.

Blue Mason founded the studio in 2004 and is our Master Piercer. Blue holds Fakir Intensives certification — the deepest formal training in the trade — and handles the harder anatomy conversations: advanced and genital placements, dermal anchors, and the cases where the honest answer is “your anatomy will not hold that, here is what it will hold.” Two decades of needle control is the difference between a piercing that heals and one you retire in a year.

Bunny Vogt has been a Senior Piercer here since 2019 and is the person most Santa Monica clients end up booking for ear work. Her scope is ear styling and curation, nostril and septum, navel, facial placements, and dermals. Bunny also runs the kids’ calendar — a separate booking path with a parent present, gentler pacing, and sensory-sensitive considerations built into the protocol.

Either chair covers most of the menu; the two differ at the edges. If you are not sure which to book, call and describe the placement — we will point you at the right one rather than whoever is free first. You can read both bios on our studio team page.

Piercing pricing splits into two parts: the piercing service and the jewelry. The service covers the consultation, the anatomy check, marking, the sterile setup, the piercing itself, and your aftercare walkthrough. Jewelry is priced separately because the material and the maker vary enormously — implant-grade titanium is the default install metal, with solid 14k and 18k gold and niobium available for those who want them or need them.

Two things are included that studios often charge for or skip entirely. The first is the downsize follow-up: fresh jewelry is fitted deliberately long to leave room for swelling, and it has to be shortened once that swelling subsides or the piercing will migrate and heal crooked. That return visit is part of the price here, not an upsell. The second is the anatomy conversation before anything is marked — if a placement will not work on your ear, we say so before you have paid for it.

We do not publish a single flat number because the honest answer depends on placement and jewelry choice, and a quoted “from” price that collapses on contact helps nobody. Our piercing prices guide breaks down what actually drives cost and why the cheapest option so rarely heals best.

We are on Main Street in the Ocean Park neighborhood, between Ocean Park Blvd and Hollister Ave — a short walk from the beach and the Main Street shops and cafés. Metered street parking runs along Main St and is usually findable outside weekend afternoons; Big Blue Bus routes serve Main St if you would rather not park at all.

We take walk-ins throughout the day and also hold booked appointments — calling ahead at (310) 331-0605 is the surest way to lock in a same-day slot, especially on weekends. We are at 2625 Main Street, Santa Monica, open Monday through Sunday, 8am to 8pm.

Bringing a minor? California law requires a custodial parent or legal guardian present with government photo ID for any piercing on someone under 18. Our age floors are five and up for lobes, with higher minimums for cartilage and other placements — the full policy is on each placement guide.