SoHo Piercing Studio: Nine Moons, Titanium From $100

Nine Moons Piercing prices its work as a bundle: a piercing with basic titanium jewelry starts at $100, service included, according to the studio's own FAQ. The boutique sits at 123 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10013, a short walk north of Canal Street on the stretch the studio itself calls SoHo, and it keeps hours from 12 pm to 7 pm, seven days a week. If you are searching for a piercing studio near me from downtown and want an appointment rather than a gamble, this is a quiet, booked-ahead room with a long jewelry case.

The person behind the counter has a long résumé. Starr, the studio's owner, has been piercing since 2004, and her staff biography says she moved to New York in September 2010 to work at Pure Body Arts/Sacred Tattoo, a shop she eventually bought and renamed Nine Moons Piercing. For more than ten years the studio worked out of a space on Broadway in Lower Manhattan. The homepage now announces the move to 123 Lafayette Street, so older directory listings that still show a Broadway address are out of date. Starr is a member of the Association of Professional Piercers, and the team leans toward what the site calls minimal ear decoration and affirming piercings, with an emphasis on client comfort.

That background shows in the tone of the place. Nothing about the room is meant to intimidate. The pitch is fine jewelry and careful placement, the kind of visit people book to add one gold flat-back to a helix or to plan a constellation across both ears with a stylist.

The contact page labels the hours as by appointment only. The FAQ is a little looser: it says the studio does accept walk-ins but recommends a booking to reserve the time and guarantee you will be pierced. Treat that as a polite warning. A walk-in on a Saturday afternoon may simply be told the piercers are full, while a reservation through the online calendar holds a chair.

Identification is the rule that sends the most people home. You must bring a government-issued photo ID, which means a passport, a driver's license or a state ID. The FAQ states plainly that the NYC Identification Card is not accepted and that copies or photos of an ID will not work either. Missing paperwork is also one of the triggers for the cancellation fee, which runs from $15 to $100 depending on the situation. The other triggers are cancelling with less than 12 hours of notice and arriving more than 10 minutes late.

Families should plan around two details. For anyone between 5 and 17, the studio pierces earlobes only, and a legal parent or guardian has to stay for the whole appointment. The FAQ also says minors cannot come along to keep a piercee company, so leave younger siblings with someone else for the hour.

The jewelry is the reason many clients book here rather than somewhere cheaper. The homepage lists biocompatible titanium and gold from BVLA, Anatometal and Neometal, and the FAQ adds Industrial Strength Body Jewelry to that roster. The services page also offers custom BVLA orders and curation consultations, which is useful if you want a specific stone, setting or chain that is not in the case on the day.

On cost, the studio publishes starting points rather than a full menu. With basic titanium jewelry and the service fee together, a piercing starts at $100. Gold moves the figure up, and how far depends on the end you pick, so ask the piercer to price two or three options side by side before you commit. Everything sold is final: the FAQ says there are no refunds, returns or exchanges, so take your time at the tray rather than changing your mind after the needle.

A good order of operations for a first visit is to start with a single titanium piece in a fresh placement, let it heal, and come back for gold once you know how your ear takes cartilage work. The studio's own advice points the same way, since a follow-up visit is part of the plan anyway.

Nine Moons keeps aftercare simple. The FAQ describes running water or a body-neutral saline wound wash, then leaving the piercing alone to heal. It also asks clients to schedule a follow-up appointment four to eight weeks after the initial piercing to avoid complications, which is when a piercer checks the fit and, if swelling has gone down, swaps in a shorter post. Put that second visit in your calendar on the day you leave, because the online slots go to whoever books first.

The contact page notes that the studio is wheelchair accessible, which is not a given in the walk-up buildings of lower Manhattan, and it is worth knowing if you are planning a visit with a friend who uses a chair.

Lafayette Street at this point is a border more than a neighborhood. South of the studio, Canal Street pulls you into the noise of Chinatown, and a few blocks further down, Columbus Park has its benches full of card players and its courts busy with pickup games. It is an easy, unhurried place to sit with a fresh piercing and let the adrenaline settle. Collect Pond Park, a little to the southwest near the courthouses, has a boardwalk over a shallow reflecting pool that marks the site of the old pond the neighborhood was built over.

Head north instead and Lafayette runs past the cast-iron facades of SoHo toward Spring Street and the shopping blocks around Broadway. Keep your hair tied back and avoid trying on hats or sweaters that rub across a fresh ear. A bowl of soup dumplings in Chinatown is a better post-appointment plan than an afternoon of pulling clothes over your head.

Nine Moons Piercing is at 123 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10013. Phone (646) 891-7907. Hours are 12 pm to 7 pm, seven days a week, by appointment, with walk-ins accepted only when a piercer is free. Piercings with basic titanium jewelry start at $100, service included, and gold costs more. Bring a government-issued photo ID; the NYC ID card and photos of IDs are not accepted. Minors aged 5 to 17 can get earlobes only, with a parent or guardian present throughout. Late arrivals of more than 10 minutes, short-notice cancellations and missing ID can bring a fee between $15 and $100. All sales are final. Book the four-to-eight-week follow-up before you leave.