Everything to know before your first professional piercing in NZ

A first piercing is a small thing that stays with you for a long time. Most heal without any fuss when the basics are right: the spot you choose, who pierces it, and a few simple habits while it heals. This guide walks you through all of it, from what to eat beforehand to the checkup a few weeks later.

Choosing your placement

The spot matters most. Not because it can never change, but because you will live with it every day while it heals, which takes months. Choose with that in mind, not only the healed look.

Some practical things to think about:

• Lobes are the easiest place to start. They heal faster than cartilage (usually 3 to 6 months) and forgive the odd slip in aftercare. If you are unsure, start here.
• Cartilage piercings (helix, conch, tragus, daith, rook, forward helix) ask more of you. They heal more slowly, about 9 to 12 months for most, and don't like being knocked or slept on. Be honest about what a year of care looks like in your actual life. Our placements page goes through each one.
• Your daily life. A helix on the side you sleep on, a tragus for someone who lives in earbuds, an industrial under a bike helmet: each of these rubs against daily life and slows healing. The spot that looks best is not always the easiest one to heal right now.

If you are already picturing several piercings rather than one, start with a plan. The Designed Ear is an hour with Tom planning the whole ear in BVLA gold ($150, and the $150 comes off your first piercing). If you mostly want to see the gold on before deciding, the Gold Viewing is free: 30 minutes at the tray, no needle.

Choosing where to get pierced

Where you go shapes everything that follows. A few concrete things to check:

• A needle, never a gun. A gun pushes a blunt stud through the ear. A needle is sharp, single-use, and makes a clean path for the jewellery.
• Sterilisation. Ask whether needles are single-use and opened in front of you, and whether reusable tools go through an autoclave that is tested regularly. A clear, confident answer is a good sign; a vague one is not. Ours is tested weekly, and Tom brings his background as a Clinical Trials Aseptic Pharmacy Technician in hospital settings to how the room is run.
• Jewellery materials. A new piercing should get implant-grade titanium (ASTM F136) or solid gold. Not surgical steel, acrylic or unknown metals. Ask if it is not clearly stated.
• Marking with you. Your piercer should look at your ear first, mark the spot, and show you in a mirror before anything happens. If they skip that, the placement is not being treated as yours.

We are a gay-owned practice and everyone is welcome. Platinum Point is at 389 Parnell Road, Parnell, open seven days by appointment, one client in the room at a time.

If your first piercing is in the ear, our ear piercing in Auckland page covers placements, healing times and what the appointment involves.

Before your appointment

A few simple things make the day go better:

• Eat beforehand. People are much more likely to feel faint on an empty stomach. A proper meal a couple of hours before is better than a snack in the car park. Please don't come in hungry.
• Drink some water. Being well hydrated helps for the same reason.
• Skip the drinks. Don't have alcohol before you come in. Arrive clear-headed and comfortable.
• Wear something easy. For an ear piercing, a top with a wide neck or a zip means you won't drag clothing over a fresh piercing on the way home.
• Children and under 18s. We pierce earlobes from age five, with a parent in the room. Most other piercings are from 16. Everyone brings photo ID, and for a child that is the parent's. Intimate piercings, including nipples, are 18 and over.
• Bringing someone. It is one client in the room at a time, so it is quiet and unhurried. If you would like a support person with you, mention it when you book.

What happens in the room

A piercing appointment at Platinum Point is 45 minutes with one piercer, Tom or Kat. That time is used like this:

• A look at your ear. Your piercer looks at the shape of the spot, your existing piercings and any old scarring. That decides where the mark can go.
• Marking in the mirror. The spot is marked and you see it in the mirror. We move it until you are happy. Nothing happens until you say yes.
• The piercing. A single-use sterile needle, opened in front of you. The needle part is over in moments.
• Your jewellery. Your piece goes straight in: implant-grade titanium, or solid 14k BVLA gold if you chose gold. With gold, you choose the piece first, then we find the spot and pierce straight into gold.
• Aftercare. We talk you through it before you leave, and it is all on our aftercare page. If a question comes up while it heals, call 09 949 0940.

Nothing is rushed. If the first mark doesn't sit right, we move it. That time is what the rest of the healing is built on.

Will it hurt?

Yes, briefly. Nobody can honestly promise you won't feel it. As Tom puts it:

Honestly, a quick sharp pinch. The marking takes longer than the needle does.

• Lobes: a quick pinch, over fast. Most people are surprised how easy it is.
• Cartilage (helix, conch, tragus): more pressure than a lobe and a little longer, but still over in seconds.
• Industrial, daith, rook: more involved spots, so more noticeable. Still brief.

The needle is rarely the hard part. The bumps along the way are: rolling onto it in your sleep, hairspray drifting over it, a snag on a jumper. Looking after it for the months that follow is the real work.

What it costs

Every price includes the jewellery, and you pay at the end. No deposit.

• A piercing with implant-grade titanium: $150.
• A piercing with solid 14k BVLA gold: from $350. You choose the piece, and the price is the piece plus $40, never under $350.
• Both lobes: $200 in titanium, $600 in gold.
• The checkup at about four weeks: free if we pierced you.

The full list is on our prices page.

Aftercare

Keep it simple. More products and more cleaning don't heal it faster. They usually do the opposite.

• Once a day in the shower, let warm (not hot) running water run over it for 30 to 60 seconds.
• If there is crust, use a damp cotton bud while it is still wet, and take only what comes away easily.
• Pat dry with a clean paper towel.
• Nothing else. No saline, sprays, soaks, soap, creams, Savlon, Betadine, tea tree oil, Dettol, hydrogen peroxide, iodine or alcohol wipes.
• Wash your hands before you touch it, and don't turn or move the jewellery.
• Don't sleep on it. For cartilage, use a travel pillow or sleep on the other side.
• No pools, hot tubs, rivers or the sea until it is fully healed. A shower is fine.
• Keep makeup, skincare, hairspray, perfume and sunscreen around it, not on it.
• Nothing in-ear against a healing tragus or conch, and no headphone cups on a healing helix.
• Keep the same jewellery in. A new style waits until it is fully healed.

Some things are normal while it heals: clear, straw or white-yellow crust, tenderness for the first week or two, a little redness right around it early on, itching, and good weeks followed by grumpy ones. The full guide is on our aftercare page.

The checkup

Your first jewellery goes in with a slightly longer post to allow for swelling. Once the swelling settles, a long post catches and moves more than it should. At the checkup, about four weeks after your piercing, we swap it for a shorter post that sits flush. That is for every spot (a daith or septum ring usually doesn't need one), and later than four weeks is fine.

The checkup is free for everyone pierced here. Book your checkup.

What to do if something doesn't feel right

Come back to us. Not forums, not group chats, not a friend with piercings. Someone who can actually see your piercing is far more useful than guesses about one they can't.

Most things that worry people while healing are not emergencies, and often the fix is simple, like a shorter post or a change to how you are sleeping on it. Let us know if you see thick green or yellow pus (not crust), heat and swelling getting worse after the first week, pain that is growing rather than easing, or redness spreading away from the piercing.

A fever, or redness spreading away from the piercing, means seeing a GP or after-hours clinic that day. Tell them it is a healing piercing, then let us know.

If we pierced it, a look at any problem is free, healed or not, any time. If you were pierced elsewhere, it is $30, and that comes off if you then book a piercing. See something not right with a piercing, book a look, or call 09 949 0940.

If this is the start of a whole ear

If this first piercing is the beginning of a planned ear rather than a one-off, start with the lobe. It heals fastest, sets the base for everything else, and gives you time to plan the next spots while it heals.

Building an ear takes time, and there is nothing to gain by rushing the start. One piercing properly healed before the next goes in does better than two healing at once. When you have a sense of where you are heading, The Designed Ear is the next step, or come to a free Gold Viewing to see pieces on first.

Most people don't know what suits them until they see it on. That's what the tray is for.