Melrose Place Piercing Studio With Six Rooms: Maria Tash

A lobe piercing at Maria Tash on Melrose Place costs $20 in service, and you can either book ahead or simply walk in. The Los Angeles flagship stands at 8441 Melrose Place, Los Angeles, CA 90069, on the short leafy block between North Alfred Street and North Croft Avenue. It opens 11 am to 8 pm Monday through Thursday, 10:30 am to 8 pm on Friday and Saturday, and 11 am to 6 pm on Sunday. The fee is only the start, because every piece of jewelry is billed separately, with titanium from $45.

Maria Tash opened her first studio in Manhattan's East Village in 1993, when her interest in unusual placements led her from navel jewelry to custom pieces for every part of the body. Three decades later the brand is built on the Curated Ear, her method of combining studs and rings across one ear so the whole arrangement reads as a single composition. In 2020 she patented two placements of her own, the TASH Helix and the TASH Hidden Rook.

The Melrose Place store was the brand's first on the West Coast. Uncover LA reported that it officially opened on Friday, August 12, 2022, and called it the largest flagship yet, with 6,000 square feet over two levels. The store listing describes six private piercing rooms, a separate area for VIP clients and a nine-and-a-half-foot marble sculpture of the brand's triple spike earring. The sculpture is the first thing you see through the glass, and it makes the shop easy to spot from the sidewalk.

The Waitwhile booking page for this store says you can book an appointment or simply stop by, with no appointment needed. In practice a booking buys you certainty about the time, while a walk-in means you join the queue and browse while you wait. Friday and Saturday mornings open half an hour earlier, at 10:30, which gives walk-ins the earliest start of the week.

Most visits start with styling. Stylists map placements with you, test metal tones against your skin and suggest how new holes fit around the jewelry you already wear. Expect this part to take longer than the piercing itself, especially if you are planning three or four pieces at once. Arrive knowing your budget, because the cases are designed to tempt, and the person helping you will happily build an ambitious ear if you let them.

The posted service fees are refreshingly low for a luxury brand. An earlobe is $20 and a TASH Lobe is $25. A helix is also $25, while the patented TASH Helix is $40 and the TASH Hidden Rook is $55. Cartilage, nostril, septum, navel and nipple piercings are $35 each. Eyebrow, lip and tongue are $30, an industrial is $50, dermal and surface piercings are $75, and genital piercings are $80. Installing jewelry in a healed piercing costs $15.

What the menu leaves out is the jewelry, and that is where the bill really grows. The store page says service fees do not include jewelry, which you choose and pay for separately. Titanium starts at $45. Solid gold costs more, and the diamond, opal and sapphire pieces in the cases can quickly turn a $20 lobe into a much larger purchase. Our honest advice: if you are piercing mainly to try a new placement, start in titanium and upgrade once it heals.

This store publishes an age table. With a parent or guardian present, lobes start at age 5. The TASH Lobe, helix, TASH Rook and nostril start at 13, a navel at 15, and cartilage, industrial, eyebrow, lip and tongue at 16. Surface, dermal, nipple and genital piercings are 18 and over regardless. Without a guardian, every piercing at this location requires the client to be 18.

Minors at the minimum age must come with a parent or guardian, and both bring valid ID. If the adult and the child have different surnames, the store asks for more proof of guardianship, such as a birth certificate. Put the paperwork in the bag the night before so the visit does not end at the counter.

Maria Tash's FAQ recommends coming back six weeks after a new piercing for a complimentary checkup. The piercer looks at how the piercing is healing and, if you were pierced with a stud, decides whether you are ready for a downsize to a shorter post. That swap matters, because the longer starter post leaves room for swelling and can catch on hair and pillows once the swelling is gone.

The same FAQ says appointments are always preferred for piercings, but fittings and installs do not need one. So a downsize, or putting a new gold piece into a healed hole for the $15 install fee, is the easiest kind of walk-in visit here. Clean the piercing until it is fully healed, which the FAQ notes can take several months depending on the placement.

Melrose Place is a quiet, tree-shaded side street of low-rise boutiques and design showrooms, a different mood from the busy stretch of Melrose Avenue a block away. It is a pleasant place to walk while a fresh piercing settles, with olive trees, courtyards and storefront windows rather than traffic.

Walk west along Melrose Avenue toward San Vicente Boulevard and you reach the Pacific Design Center, whose blue, green and red glass buildings have been a West Hollywood landmark since the 1970s. If the walk-in queue is long and you would rather book elsewhere, Ancient Adornments on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood is a short drive north, and its $30 flat fee covers up to four piercings in one appointment.

Maria Tash Los Angeles is at 8441 Melrose Place, Los Angeles, CA 90069, between North Alfred Street and North Croft Avenue. Hours are Monday to Thursday 11 am to 8 pm, Friday and Saturday 10:30 am to 8 pm, and Sunday 11 am to 6 pm. Walk-ins and bookings are both accepted. Service fees start at $20 for a lobe and $25 for a helix, jewelry is extra, and titanium starts at $45.

Clients under 18 need a guardian, both with ID, plus a birth certificate when surnames differ. Leave time for styling before the piercing. Ask the Karpo APP to pick a lunch spot on Melrose Avenue or a coffee within walking distance while your new piercing settles.