Gold or titanium for a new piercing?

It's one of the first things people ask when they sit down: should a new piercing be gold or titanium? My answer is that both are right, as long as each is the right kind. Implant-grade titanium or solid 14k gold. Nothing plated, nothing filled. After that it comes down to the piece you want, what you'd like to spend, and your skin. Here is how I'd help you decide on the day.

The short answer: both, if they're the right metal

A fresh piercing is an open channel that takes months to heal, so what sits in it matters more than what you wear in a healed one. We only put two metals in a new piercing:

• Implant-grade titanium, made to ASTM F136, the standard titanium written for implants. Light, plain, and $150 with the piercing.
• Solid 14k gold, made by BVLA in Los Angeles. From $350 with the piercing, depending on the piece.

The aftercare is the same for both. They're two good options for different people, not a good one and a better one. I don't think of gold as a step up from titanium, and you shouldn't feel you've settled if you leave with titanium.

What solid gold means, and what it doesn't

Plenty of jewellery is gold coloured without being solid gold, and the packet doesn't always make that obvious.

• Solid 14k gold is gold alloy all the way through. 14k means 14 parts in 24 are pure gold, about 58.5 percent, with other metals added for strength and colour. Scratch it and it's still gold.
• Gold plated is a thin layer of gold over another metal. The layer wears and scratches, and then whatever is underneath is sitting in your piercing.
• Gold filled is a thicker layer of gold bonded over a base metal core. It lasts longer than plating, but it's still a layer over something else.
• Vermeil is gold plating over silver.

None of the last three go in a fresh piercing here. My view is simple: if you can't say what the metal is all the way through, it doesn't belong in a wound that's healing. If you're looking at gold for a new piercing anywhere, ask whether it is solid, what karat, and who made it.

When titanium is the better pick

I'll tell you honestly when I think titanium is the one. Usually it's one of these:

• Budget. $150 covers the piercing and the jewellery, and the checkup at about four weeks is included. If spending more would make the day stressful, titanium is the right call.
• You know metals bother your skin. If you've reacted to jewellery before, or you're not sure, I'd choose titanium and tell us when you book.
• You haven't found the piece yet. If nothing on the tray feels like yours, don't pick gold for the sake of it. Titanium now, gold when you've found the one.
• The spot is titanium only. An industrial is titanium only ($180), and so are a snug and a bridge.

Starting in titanium doesn't close the door on gold. At the four-week checkup we shorten the post anyway, if it's ready, and a gold end can go on then. It's priced on the piece alone, with no charge for fitting it, because we pierced you.

When gold makes sense

Gold makes sense when you already know the piece you want, or you find it at the table. We pierce gold fresh: the piece goes in at the piercing, not months later.

The order matters. With gold you choose the piece first, then I find the spot for it. A small round setting, a cluster and a ring all sit differently on an ear, and the spot is marked for that piece, with you in the mirror, before anything happens. The piece and the spot are decided together, rather than a piece squeezed into a spot chosen for something else.

It also works out cheaper than doing it in two steps. A gold piercing is the piece plus $40, never under $350. If you start in titanium at $150 and add a gold end at the checkup, you've paid the $150 and the piece. So if you already know you want gold, putting it in on the day means you're not paying twice, and you're not waiting to wear what you came in for.

The case runs from $350 to $1,730 pierced. Every price on the case is what it costs in your ear, piercing included. If you'd like to hold the pieces before you book a needle, the Gold Viewing is half an hour at the tray with Tom or Kat, no needle, nothing to buy, no charge.

Which gold: what we stock and what we order

Everything in the case is solid 14k, in yellow and white. It's hard wearing, which is what you want in something you'll wear every day for years.

If you'd rather have something else, these are made to order by BVLA, about six weeks:

• Solid 18k gold is $40 more. 18k is 75 percent pure gold, so the yellow is warmer and deeper. It's also a little softer than 14k.
• Platinum is $100 more.

We don't offer 18k white gold. If you want a white metal past 14k, platinum is the one we order. And if the design you love comes in the wrong stone or the wrong gold, any BVLA design can be made for you in another. That's BVLA Bespoke, and the price is set before anything is ordered.

Deciding on the day

You don't need to arrive with your mind made up. When you sit down, the first thing we ask is what you'd like to spend, and that's what comes out on the tray. Titanium is on it too, so you see both side by side, against your own ear.

I'll ask whether jewellery has ever bothered your skin, and whether you'd rather spend on the piece now or add gold later. If the answers point to titanium, I'll say so. If you find the one, it goes in that day. Either way you know the price before the needle, and you pay at the end, with no deposit. The appointment is 45 minutes, one client in the room at a time. That's the whole idea: the right spot, a piece you love, and all the time it takes.

Every price is on the prices page, and the first piercing guide covers the rest. Aftercare is the same for either metal: warm running water once a day in the shower, pat dry with a paper towel, nothing else on it.

Booking in Parnell

We're at 389 Parnell Road, Parnell, Auckland, by appointment, seven days. Tom pierces Wednesday to Sunday and Kat Sunday to Tuesday. Book the piercing if you're ready, or book a Gold Viewing to see the gold first. Questions? Call 09 949 0940.