Frequently Asked Questions

The piercers work on a first come first served basis. Currently, Tempest is working to bring you a new location, and we will keep everyone updated through Instagram, Facebook, and our mailing list about where we end up and when we can serve you next!

When Tempest Piercing opens again, the following will be relevant:

We do not take appointments at this time. We work on a first come, first served basis using a waitlist. There are a couple of ways to join the waitlist. You can:

• Join through the button at the top of the website labeled “Join the Waitlist”,

• Come into the shop to scan the QR code near the front desk

• If you come into the shop and a piercer is available, we can add you ourselves

Once you are on the list, you will receive a text showing you your place in line. You are free to leave the shop or hang at home until you are texted again letting you know that it is your turn. It’s a good idea to keep an eye on the list and head in when you are second or third in line, as it can move pretty quick sometimes!

It’s honestly easier to list out the piercings we DON’T do. We DO NOT do: surface anchors or surface bars, penile genital piercings, ashley, christina, dahlias, or cheeks. We also do not do any non-traditional tongue piercings (snake eyes, venom, whatever you wanna call em). We also don’t do any piercings that are straight up a bad idea, like eyelids, uvulas, and finger webs, etc. The rest is fair game to ask about.

It is important to know that while we do most piercings, not every body has the shapes and structures to get every piercing. We do a consultation before each piercing to ensure that your body has the correct anatomy to correctly hold and heal your new piercing, which means that sometimes we do decline to do certain piercings for individuals, even though they are piercings we offer. The most commonly requested, most anatomy dependent piercings include: navels, nipples, tongues, and industrials.

Piercings start at $60 for a single with threaded basic jewelry, and $110 for any 2 with threaded basic jewelry. Piercings started with threadless jewelry (nostril, lobes, most cartilage/ears) start at $65 for one, and $120 for two. Exceptions include the industrial, which start at $75, and vulva genital piercings, which start at $100.

Our basic jewelry selection is internally threaded or threadless implant grade titanium, without gems. We do have a selection of titanium set gems and decorative tops available. We also have a wide variety of gold tops for studs to begin with! Our gold is solid 14k and the price is variable based on selection.

Sure thing! All of our jewelry is custom fit, so you’ll get to sit down with the piercer and discuss what you are looking for and get your individual fit. We carry a selection of high quality jewelry through a range of price points. Because everything is so tailored, we are currently unable to sell jewelry in-hand. If you are looking for jewelry as a gift for someone else, we would be happy to set you up with a gift certificate for an amount that would cover your goals.

Our most cost effective internally threaded or threadless implant grade titanium starts at $30-$35 per piece, and 14k gold begins at $55 per piece.

Absolutely! We don’t care where you got your work done, we are here for whatever you need.

If it’s troubleshooting a piercing you got on vacation, you’re new to town, or you just want to change or upgrade your jewelry, we’ve got you covered.

For liability reasons however, if you are having troubles with a piercing that is under 1 month old that you got elsewhere, we may decline to remove or change the jewelry in your piercing. This is at the piercers discretion. We are more than happy to help adjust your aftercare routine, or discuss with you what may be happening to your piercing in these cases.

Honestly, that depends on how familiar you are with your body and how it handles healing piercings. If you are someone who heals super smoothly with little to no issues ever, our studio maximum is 4 piercings in one sitting. We personally prefer to cap new piercings to 3. We also consider how many piercings you are currently healing, and set a limit 5 piercings healing at any one time. As an example of this, if you are currently healing a tragus and conch, and want to add a pair of lobes and a cartilage, you’re effectively capped out until some of your piercings heal.

If you are new to the adventure of healing piercings, know that your body has difficulty healing, or if it’s your first time dealing with outer or inner cartilage, we recommend that you do one piercing at a time. A short period of healing, generally 3-4 months, is a good idea to allow most of the swelling to subside and get to know how your body heals before you add another piercing.

We can help you through your journey of stretching! While we do not have a wide selection of jewelry for larger gauge lobes or other stretched piercings, we are more than happy to help you get to your goal size. If you’ve got questions, need resources, or just want someone to check in on the health of your stretched piercings we’ve got you.

Your piercing will be an open wound for the first 2 months for first and second sets of lobes, and 3 months or so for everything else. To reduce the risk for infection please do not expose your piercing to any open body of water including the pool/lake/river/ocean/hot tub (chlorinated or not) for at least the full first three months.

Of all the things that genuinely concern us as far as true infection is concerned open bodies of water are #1. If you want a piercing to show off for the summer starting it in February or March is a great idea! If you missed that mark but still want to enjoy the water through the summer we highly recommend waiting until pools close for the summer to start your new piercing.

Your piercing will not be sore or hurt the entire time it is healing, so it “not hurting anymore” is not an indicator that your piercing has healed! When we say you have a healed piercing, we are referring to the piercing channel that holds your piercing jewelry in place being fully matured. Please be patient with your piercing! Some people take longer to heal, especially if the piercing was knocked/damaged, changed too soon or into low quality jewelry, not downsized appropriately, or cleaned incorrectly. As a general guideline for the most common piercings:

4 months: tongue, VCH
6 months: 1st and 2nd lobes, eyebrow, septum, most oral piercings
6-9 months: nostril, cartilage/helix, 3rd+ lobes, labia, tragus, forward helix, cartilage flat
9-12 months: conch, daith, rook, anti-tragus
12-16 months: nipples, navel, industrial, any 2 piercings in one area in one sitting

No! Please don’t! This is an old wives tale, generally with the idea of “keeping your jewelry from getting stuck”. If you consider what you are doing when you twist jewelry in a piercing channel, all you are doing is drawing in bacteria and drainage into delicate healing skin. This will irritate your piercing channel and can increase the likelihood of an infection and backsliding in healing.

If your piercing or jewelry feels “stuck” it likely needs a good cleaning. Take a warm shower, flush the area with warm water, and irrigate the area with sterile saline. If there are still residual crusties, you can gently use a qtip.

It’s also good to know that piercing channels go through phases of expansion and contraction while they are healing. This means that sometimes, your jewelry fill feel more tight in the channel than other times. This is not the same as the swelling that you will experience.

Piercing bumps, commonly misidentified as keloids, are the most common complication to come up during the healing process. Frequently, they are caused by damage, and take a while to go away. You can read more about them here, or you are more than welcome to come see us for an evaluation!

Any change outs during the first year should be done by a professional, with the exception of first and second lobes, where it is only for the first 6 months.

Before a ring or a hoop is worn, your nostril or conch piercing should be at least 6 months old, and your lip piercing should be at least 4 months old.

When you can change it depends on the piercing you got and how your healing is going, feel free to ask!

Well, that’s going to depend on a variety of factors. Generally:

• Everything below the neckline is pierced at a 14g or 12g.

• Side nostril piercings are 18g.

• Septum piercings are 16g.

• Lobes and outer cartilage/helix are generally 16g or 18g.

• Inner ear cartilage is generally 16g.

It’s all going to depend on your jewelry selection, the anatomy of the area, and what piercing we did.

The diameter or length of your jewelry, however, is extremely variable from person to person. It’s also something that will change as you go through healing and downsizing your jewelry.

If you are on the market for some clean, new, high quality jewelry and you aren’t sure exactly what your specs are, come on through! We are happy to give you your measurements so that you are a more informed shopper, because there is no such thing as “one size fits all”.

No, that is not something that we offer. Most retainers are made from acrylic, which is not a safe material to heal on as it is porous, holds on to bacteria, does not have a smooth finished surface, and cannot be sterilized (for more information, see the expanded section of “clean, new, high quality jewelry” further down).

We do have a selection of glass retainers that solve all of these problems, but we have not found that they are stable or secure enough to get through the many months of healing required from any body piercing.

It depends on for what. If you are asking if we can pierce you with jewelry you brought, the answer is no, we cannot. KS statute states that any new piercing must be done with sterile jewelry provided by the shop, and we agree. It maintains the quality of your initial jewelry, and ensures that things are sterile and safe.

Now, if you’re asking if we can help you change your healed piercing into jewelry you bring in, the answer is yes! While there are some limitations, we are always happy to help you change up your look. If the piece of jewelry you bring in seems like it may cause harm to you or your piercing we do reserve the right to refuse to install outside jewelry of questionable quality. If what you bring in is clean, new, high quality, and the wearable surface is correct for the placement you are looking for, we will be happy to help you.

The short answer:

Jewelry comes in all different types of qualities and styles. What you can pick up at the mall or online is going to be a far cry from the things available at high-end piercing studios. Some materials are more suitable for long-term wear in body jewelry than others.

Acceptable materials include:

• Implant grade steel (different than surgical steel!)

• Implant grade titanium

• Niobium

• Some glass

• 14k-18k solid gold

• Platinum

Materials to avoid include

• Sterling silver

• Painted or plated materials (even if it’s gold plated)

• Acrylic

• “Hypoallergenic” pieces. By the way, there is no regulation around what can be labeled hypoallergenic. Any material, even things known to be common allergens, are permitted to be sold under that label.

There is a quick way to tell where on the spectrum of quality a piece of jewelry is likely to be. Internally threaded and threadless jewelry tends to be higher quality than externally threaded jewelry. If you are stuck between two pieces of jewelry and one is internally threaded, go for that one!

Internally threaded jewelry has the threads (the bits that look like a screw) on the bead, and a hole in the barbell shaft for the bead to screw into. Externally threaded jewelry has the threading on the barbell itself, and the bead has a small hole that is tapped to screw onto the barbell. Externally threaded jewelry causes a bunch of excess damage to tissue as you drag the threads through your piercing channel. We call this “getting screwed”.

The Long, Detail Oriented, Doing Too Much Answer:

The good materials, what makes them good, and how to tell the difference:

When it comes to the designation “implant grade”, it’s not just the alloyed material that is taken into account, the jewelry finish is also considered. Materials that are implant grade are hand-polished to be extremely smooth. While to the naked untrained eye a piece of low-quality jewelry might look similar to implant grade, the difference comes when you look closely. Looking at an implant grade bit of jewelry under an eye loupe or microscope, you won’t find gouges, scratches, or other bacteria holding piercing channel irritating imperfections. Another consideration is if the material can be put through an autoclave, which is how professional piercing studios sterilize jewelry. If a material cannot be sterilized via an autoclave, it cannot be implant grade.

In other news, not all steel is the same! There is no regulation as to what can be called “surgical steel”, however implant grade stainless steel does have regulations to it’s material makeup, listed as ASTM F-138. Please look for either the ASTM listing, or implant grade steel. This is a great entry-level cost material for most people, and if it works well for you there are a bunch of options out there for what you can wear safely in your piercing.

Titanium is similar, and the ASTM listing for implant grade titanium is ASTM F-136. This is the most accessible, best material to begin piercings with, especially if there is any concern regarding skin sensitivities or metal allergies. This is the extremely inert, biocompatible material that artificial joints and dental implants are made of! To us, implant grade titanium finds the perfect balance between extremely high quality at a reasonable price to build quite a large jewelry collection.

Glass body jewelry, generally worn in stretched earlobes and as piercing retainers, is acceptable provided it is lead free borosilicate, lead free soda lime, or fused quartz. It offers a smooth surface, and is autoclavable We do not carry much glass for stretched lobes, but can refer you to studios in the area who can help. We do carry glass for retainers, and is our preference for medical procedures and performances.

Platinum is a very rare precious metal that is very inert and an excellent material for body piercings. However, it is extremely expensive due to it’s exceeding rarity and difficulty to work with. It is not a material that we carry. If you are looking for platinum body jewelry, let us know and we can direct you to a studio that either carries it, or makes special orders.

Now onto the things to avoid.

Sterling silver is an absolutely terrible material for body jewelry and should be avoided. I have no idea who came up with the idea that it’s the best material for earrings, but they’ve done a lot of damage to a lot of earlobes. The issue with silver, sterling or otherwise, is that it can tarnish/oxidize, and readily does so in the acidic environment of human skin. When it oxidizes, it turns black, and leaves those black deposits in the piercing channel. If left for long enough, this will permanently tattoo the piercing channel black. Please avoid sterling silver body jewelry. If you absolutely must wear it for a special occasion, do a visual check on the jewelry first, and clean/polish it well beforehand, and only wear it for a few hours at a time VERY rarely.

Painted and plated materials have some similar difficulties. The coating on painted and plated materials readily wears off in the acidic environment of human skin, and can leave behind particulate matter in the piercing channel. This is very irritating to the channel, and unhealthy for you. Painted and plated materials are also frequently extremely subpar metals under the coating which can irritate even totally healed piercings, cause failure of piercings still healing, and cause any metal sensitivities to act up.

Acrylic jewelry can be worn as an extremely short term solution for healed piercings in the case of a medical procedure, sports, and performances where you cannot wear metallic jewelry. It should be worn for the least amount of time possible, then changed back to your high quality jewelry of choice. Acrylic is extremely porous, with an extremely irregular surface that is an absolute safe haven for bacterial buildup. Because it cannot be autoclaved, there is no way to sterilize acrylic jewelry. It is not a safe material to heal any piercing with.

Any piercing we start will have some extra room in the jewelry to accommodate initial swelling, and to provide ease of access for cleaning. After the initial swelling has gone down, it is very important to come back in for a follow up visit to get a shorter post. If your jewelry is too long, it greatly increases the likelihood of migration of the piercing, as well as the chances that it’ll get snagged on hair/clothes/everything.

Typically, the swelling will reduce somewhere between 2-6 weeks, depending on the piercing. While I’d love to give you a more specific answer, your own bodies ability to heal, any trauma the piercing has encountered, and the type of piercing you have all greatly impact the time it takes for swelling to reduce. Some very general guidelines are:

Nostril: 2-4 months
Lip: 2-4 weeks, then again at 6 months
Helix and flat started with a post, eyebrow: 4 weeks, and again at 6-9 months
Other cartilage started with a post (conch, flat, tragus, forward helix, ect): 4-8 weeks, again at 9-12 months
Cartilage started with a ring or curved barbell (daith, rook): 3 months, again at 9-12 months
Tongue: 2-4 weeks, and again at 6 months

Another way to check to see if it’s time for a downsize starts the day you get your piercing. If you take a well-lit picture of the back of the jewelry within an hour or two of your initial piercing with the front of the jewelry flush to the skin, you’ll see how much extra space there is on the jewelry for swelling. It’s good practice to check in for a downsize when you have about half of that amount of bar visible under similar conditions again.