Inside: It’s a piercing price reference sheet. How much is it to get pierced?
Piercings and tattoos feel like investments because we’re not only altering our body but we’re putting up quite a bit of cash to do so. Piercings don’t run quite as high price points as tattoos do, but depending on what you’re getting done, you can still be paying a pretty penny just for another hole in your head as my mother says.
If you’re really investing in a specialty piece, a great piercer, and a good pair of jewelry, it really can add up to the same price of a small tattoo. But these are all worthy investments to make if it’s something that we feel like makes us feel more like ourselves.
I know these procedures tend to make me feel more alive and personality driven, so I find it worth the investment. But what are the factors that go into different piercing prices?
How Much Do Piercings Cost In The United States
Your geographical location plays a huge role in how much piercing is going to cost.
While different states obviously have different price points for just about everything, piercings generally run the same ranges, it just might be harder to find the cheaper piercers in some states than others.
New York and California you’re going to find higher priced artists to get the job done, whereas in smaller states where people don’t travel as much for these kinds of procedures, you might find some lower end price ranges.
Even within your city, you’re going to find some pretty wide ranges. Something I like to think about as I grew up in the suburbs of Dallas, is that suburban neighborhood piercing shops have cheaper piercers in general than in the city. While the city has the more fun shops, and the more experienced piercers,( usually not always for sure), they do tend to have higher prices just for the crowds that come through.
I know people that are pretty serious about their tattoos and piercings and plan trips in the bigger cities like Dallas, Austin, Chicago, etc. go to a piercer that they love. So these are going to drive higher prices, because the demand is higher, and the piercer is worth more when people are willing to travel for them.
So if you live near a suburb near the city, as long as you know the piercer has a great reputation, the suburbs might give you a better price point. But if you’re in the big city and want to stay in the city, I would say find the average priced piercer.
You don’t want to skimp on your piercers experience and abilities, you want the best you can get honestly. So that’s where geographical locations play a role in the pricing of your piercing.
Piercer Experiences
Every shop you go to is going to have a shot minimum, meaning that no matter how much the piercer charges, it will at least be X amount. This goes for any kind of procedure like this. Aside from the shop minimum, and how much each piercer has to charge at the minimum, they can all charge different prices based on their own experience.
Some are more experienced, and some are less experienced, it’s not necessarily getting what you pay for because they’re all usually pretty great, but it’s more so paying for the knowledge that they already have versus them still learning. It’s like getting your hair done, you rarely get your hair messed up by a junior stylist, but you do have to pay a little less than you would for a senior stylist because she knows exactly what she’s doing and she’s usually pretty quick with it. I
t’s the same with piercers, junior piercers know what they’re doing as well, but take a little bit more of your time to do so.
These piercer experiences are going to change your different price points, but it is worth it when getting a super specialty piece to go ahead and find a more experienced piercer that charges more, just so you know if you’re confident in the process as a whole. If piercings are investments, this is the best place to invest especially when getting something like a mouth or body piercing.
Jewelry Costs
Jewelry costs are another one of the price points you’re gonna have to look out for. While the piercing prices usually are listed for just the piercing process, jewelry excluded, it’s easy to forget how much you’re going to pay on top of that piercing price for the jewelry. Usually you can go the pretty cheap route and get the standard starter earring for whatever you’re getting pierced, and it’s not the worst jewelry in the market either.
But if you really know you have sensitive ears and you can’t go with a cheap standard piece of jewelry, and you need something stainless steel, titanium, sterling silver, or pure gold, that’s where your price points are going to rack up. Most of us have a nickel allergy, as it’s a pretty irritating metal, so you’ll need to watch out for it, and how your ears react to other piercings.
Starter earrings in sterling silver can usually cost another $50 to $70 depending on what you’re getting pierced and where, but it’s a pretty small price difference when you keep in mind that anything cheaper could irritate your ears to no end and would make the healing process miserable. These do have to stay in for about six to eight weeks, so make it bearable!
Gold, titanium, and stainless steel are only going to go up in price from the sterling silver, and may be harder to come by in shops as starter earrings, but if you can snag one, I would!
Because you will likely be investing in one of these pieces down the line anyway, might as well do it now.
Ear Piercings Price Guide
Ear piercings are the simplest and most straightforward on the piercing circuit, and even people that aren’t all that into piercings have their ears pierced. It’s a pretty simple and pretty cheap process, so if you’re looking to get something new and fresh but don’t feel like investing too much at the moment, an ear piercing is a good one for you. You will always have fun adding something else to your ear, especially at a pretty low cost.
Average price: The national average for an ear piercing is anywhere from $25 to $80 per ear. Some shops and some different piercing types bundle both ears as one piercing, but once you get into specialty piercings like daiths, rooks, cartilages, et cetera, it’s a one ear kind of thing.
- Lobe – The lobes are the simplest ear piercing that we all already likely have, unless you’re adding a double or triple. (I just got my triple and I LOVE it!) This is usually around $30 to $70.
- Cartilage – Up around the top of your ear, getting your cartilage pierced is pretty simple and pretty standard, and going to cost you around $35 to $50.
- Misc (rook, daith, tragus) – These are super specialty piercings that you don’t see too often, but still being on the ear, they’re sticking to the same $30 to $80 average across the board.
How Much Is It To Get Your Face Pierced
Face piercings are tough because each one is placed so differently that it changes the process entirely. But mouth piercings are mouth piercings and nose piercings are nose piercings, so let’s check out how much is it to get your mouth pierced.
Need a full face piercing chart and rundown? Find one here!
- Mouth – Mouth piercings vary from single labret styles to cheeks to anything else that you can imagine. While these are a little harder to maintain, they are easy to get pierced. You can expect the $40 to $60 range for a single mouth piercing.
- Eyes – Naturally you’re not getting your eyes pierced. But if you’re looking at an eyebrow or an anti eyebrow, these are going to be anywhere from $20 to $70.
- Nose – There are all kinds of nose piercings that you can get that vary in price and difficulty in procedure. For more standard styles like a nostril or septum, plan to spend around $30 to $90. Speciality piercings only go up a little bit bringing the average minimum to $50 and max to $100.
How Much Do Body Piercings Cost?
Body piercings are harder to tell, because they’re so rare there isn’t usually a shop average, it’s just the piercer’s discretion and price sheet. But I’ve found the most accurate estimates to give you a good idea on the price average based on the kind of piercing.
Make sure you know what kind your body piercing is, and use that to gauge the price.
- Dermals – This is a surface kind of piercing that relies on an anchor being placed below the skin. This is pretty invasive so it is a pricier process, cashing in around $70 to $100 per piercing.
- Surface – Surface piercings have an entrance and exit point on the same plane. So the barbell ring is going under the surface of your skin instead of through to the other side. This also tends to be in the higher range, but some can dip down to around $50, so your range would be $50 to $100.
Obviously, every kind of piercing has its own price point in range. If you’ve read any of our posts here on CutePiercing, we’ve discussed the range and what usually plays a factor when you’re looking into shops in your area.
But here we’re going to look at piercing price ranges as a whole, and how they vary, and price points for each style of piercing across the map. How much is it to get pierced? Hopefully this helped you out and let you kind of start planning your next piercings to get.
If you’re new to the piercing world, I hope this let you in on some of the industry secrets and standards as to how things go and what plays into the different prices you pay when you start putting up the cash to get something pierced.
Remember that this is all before jewelry costs.