New Service! We are very excited to announce that we are expanding the piercing services that we can offer to clients who are aged 14 years and upwards! From 20^th May 2025, we will be trialling offering Helix, Tragus, Conch and Navel (bellybutton) piercings starting from 14 years old and upwards. Please note that this is currently coming into effect on a trial basis. We will revisit this decision in September 2025.

Piercing placements offered?

Helix (ear cartilage)
Conch (ear cartilage)
Tragus (ear cartilage)
Navel (belly button)

Ear lobe piercings (included second and third sets) are also already available to clients in this age group.

Age and ID requirements?

14 years old and upwards. This age limit is due to our insurance and therefore cannot be lowered.

The client will have to be a minimum of 14 years old and have a parent or legal guardian (with the documentation to prove it) to bring them to the appointment. We require photo ID for BOTH PARENT AND CHILD. We can accept passport, driving licence, provisional licence or citizen card. WITHOUT THE CORRECT ID, WE CANNOT GO AHEAD WITH THE APPOINTMENT.

Please note, as has previously been the case, clients who are 16 years old and upwards should simply book an adult’s appointment and only photo ID for the person being pierced is required.

What to book?

We have set up a series of new options on our booking site. These include ‘14+ ear piercing’ and ‘14+ navel piercing’. Please select these options rather than the 16+ ones as we will send you a different consent form for these services. If in doubt, click ‘details’ under the service title and it will give you more information. You can find the booking page here: https://inkhauspiercing.setmore.com

Why?

At Inkhaus, we are passionate about safe piercing, which is why we’re members of both the Association of Professional Piercers (APP) and the UK Association of Professional Piercers (UKAPP). We meet or exceed all their minimum standards for membership, which includes hygiene and safety standards, studio layout and jewellery quality. We have been aware for a while that in not offering any services (besides ear lobes) under 16, we are potentially causing younger clients to get pierced unsafely elsewhere. We will never be able to mitigate this entirely, but we hope that this change will make a big difference to a lot of younger clients’ safety and in turn put parents’ minds at rest when they allow their teenager to get pierced.

Why only these services?

Piercings take time to heal and some placements on the body will heal and settle more easily than others. Additionally, we are aware that many younger clients will have to hide piercings for school, making some facial piercing placements simply not possible.

Healing times?

Ear lobes – 3 months minimum

Helix/Tragus/Conch – 6 months to one year approx.

Navel – 9 months to one year approx.

It is important to note that if jewellery is removed from the piercing for any length of time during these healing periods, the piercing will most likely close, and the jewellery will not be able to be reinserted. It’s for this reason that we recommend parent and client discuss keeping the piercing hidden if school rules require it ahead of booking an appointment. This is because the piercing will close if it is removed during the school day.

Hiding the piercing:

Unfortunately, plastic retainers are simply not suitable for wear in a healing piercing. They are not suitable for long term wear in the body, and usually have a poor surface finish, meaning that they have the potential to irritate a piercing that has been otherwise healing well. It is with this in mind that we will not install plastic retainers for you to hide a piercing.

Glass retainers exist and are much higher quality than plastic. However, it is arguably far riskier to wear a glass piece of jewellery in the tiny sizes (16g / 1.2mm thickness) due to the risk of it breaking.

The best option is to hide the piercing with long hair or clothing. We can also install textured discs designed to look more like freckles and make the piercing less obvious. If school are super strict, however, waiting for a more suitable time (i.e. after leaving school) may be the only option.

Anatomy limitations:

Every individual’s body is different, and this means that not every client will have the anatomy required for every piercing placement. We will start an appointment by having a look at the client’s anatomy and advising what will work. Whilst most clients will be able to have a helix or conch piercing, very occasionally a tragus may be too small to safely pierce.

Navel (belly button) piercings are very anatomy dependent and there are many people’s navels that are not suitable to be pierced. A navel piercing appointment starts with going through to the piercing room where we check the anatomy standing, sitting and lying down. We are looking to see both whether there is a ‘ridge’ that can suitably be pierced and whether the client’s navel closes when they’re seated. Whilst a navel that folds or closes is not always a barrier to being pierced, it may mean that we have to go for more of a ‘floating navel’ jewellery style so that there isn’t a larger gem or ball on the bottom that will be under pressure from the client’s body. It’s important to note that these anatomy variances have nothing to do with a client’s body size or weight and we are simply looking at the anatomy of the navel itself.

All of this information about what we check for when looking at anatomy and why we’re looking at it will be explained at the start of the appointment, however, we feel it’s important for parents to understand this ahead of time and prepare the client for potential disappointment if their anatomy will not allow for a particular piercing placement.

We only want to offer piercings that have a good chance of healing and looking good, so we will never perform a piercing that we don’t think a client has the anatomy to support.

Prices?

As with all piercings that we offer, prices will depend on the jewellery that is chosen. You can view some starting prices with different jewellery styles here: https://www.inkhaus.co.uk/piercing-price-list/

Why does it cost this much?

The short answer is a play on an Old School tattoo quote: Safe piercings aren’t cheap and cheap piercings aren’t safe. To explain it in more detail, a lot of elements go into piercing safely, including:  

-Implant grade titanium jewellery (or 18 or 14 karat gold) from manufacturers that can prove that their jewellery is what they say it is, and meets the Association of Professional Piercers (APP) and the UK Association of Professional Piercers (UKAPP)’s minimum standards.
-Jewellery that doesn’t have a butterfly back due to the design not being suitable for healing piercings.
-Proper sterilisation of jewellery and tools in an autoclave (and regular testing and servicing of this equipment).
-Never using a piercing gun.
-Use of an aseptic set-up – this means using sterile gloves during the procedure and sterile packages for things like the set-up tray, gauze, alcohol wipes for cleaning, sterile marking implements for drawing dots on the ear/body etc.
-Piercer’s experience and knowledge. Becky regularly attends safe piercing conferences and events to continue her professional development and make sure that her knowledge and skills remain up to date. She also maintains an up to date First Aid and CPR qualification and renews her Blood Borne Pathogens certificate yearly.

Whilst many of the traditional high street stores may have cheaper options (though often they have more expensive ones too), none of their options are as safe due to butterfly back designs, lower quality body jewellery that can’t be verified as to its materials or origins, or a one size fits all approach to piercing placements and jewellery style.

Any other questions?

If you have any other questions about these services, ID requirements, pricing or aftercare, please do not hesitate to get in touch via email: info@inkhaus.co.uk or by phone: 01642 781266. Please note that we are a small studio so at times you will need to leave a message when all staff are busy with clients.