One maker, solid gold, nothing plated

Every piece of gold in our case is made by one company, BVLA, in Los Angeles, and every piece is solid. That was a choice, and it shapes how a gold piercing works here: what you can hold before you decide, how the piece fits its post, and what goes into a piercing that is still healing. Here is why I made it, and how to see the gold for yourself.

Who BVLA are

BVLA stands for Body Vision Los Angeles. Nick Martin started the company in 1996 to make precious body jewellery, and thirty years later they still make nothing else: gold and platinum ends, rings and bars for pierced bodies. You'll often see it written as BVLA jewelry on American sites. It's the same company and the same gold.

Every piece is drawn, made, set and polished by people, in workshops BVLA owns across Los Angeles County. BVLA is certified by the Responsible Jewellery Council for how it makes its jewellery. Each piece also carries BVLA's guarantee against a fault in the making, for as long as you own it.

The gold we stock is solid 14k, in yellow and white. Every BVLA design can be made to order in another stone or another gold, and that takes about six weeks. More on that below.

Why depth matters more than a photo

A photo shows a piece many times bigger than it really is, on someone else's ear, under someone else's light. Four millimetres is smaller than it sounds. A stone reads differently against your skin than it does on a screen, and a shape that looks right on a phone can sit differently on the curve of your own ear.

So we hold BVLA in depth. We're New Zealand's largest BVLA stockist, and the point of all that stock is simple: the same design is in the room in several stones, sizes and golds, so you can hold the versions side by side against your ear and choose the one that is yours, rather than guessing from a picture.

Two examples from the case as I write this. The Round Afghan is there in yellow and white gold, in two sizes, set with stones from a green tourmaline to a tanzanite to a champagne diamond. The Duet is there in yellow gold at $550 pierced and white gold at $560 pierced, with a Cabochon Duet beside them carrying a white opal. You can hold the yellow next to the white and see which one your skin wants.

The case changes. A piece stays in it until someone pays for it, and anything that has sold can be made again. Every price on the case is what it costs in your ear, piercing included.

Why one maker

We chose to know one maker's work all the way through. That means I know how every end in the case is made: which are threaded and which are threadless, how each one sits on its post, and what length of post it needs once the swelling has gone down. When you pick something off the tray, nothing about the fit is guessed at the chair.

It carries on after the piercing too. The post goes in a little long to allow for swelling, and at the four-week checkup, included for everyone we pierce, it's shortened if it's ready. If you started in titanium and found your gold later, a gold end can go on at that checkup, priced on the piece alone with no fitting charge.

Why solid, and nothing plated

Plenty of jewellery is gold coloured without being gold all the way through.

• Solid 14k gold is gold alloy right through the piece. Scratch it and it's still gold.
• Plated is a thin layer of gold over another metal. The layer wears, and then what's underneath is sitting in your piercing.
• Filled is a thicker layer of gold bonded over a base metal. 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 goes into a fresh piercing here. My rule is plain: if you can't say what a metal is all the way through, it doesn't belong in a piercing that is still healing. The case holds two things, BVLA gold and implant-grade titanium made to ASTM F136, and those are the two metals a new piercing gets.

Titanium is $150 with the piercing and the jewellery, and it's always on the tray. It isn't the lesser choice. It suits a budget, skin that has reacted to metal before, or someone who hasn't found their piece yet. Gold is from $350, with the piece chosen at the table and pierced in the price.

When it's gold, we pierce it fresh. You choose the piece, then I find the spot for it, marked with you in the mirror before anything happens, and the gold goes in at the piercing rather than months later.

When the piece you want isn't in the case

Often the shape is right and the stone is wrong, or the gold is the wrong colour for your skin. Any BVLA design can be made for you in another stone or another gold, made in Los Angeles, about six weeks. That's BVLA Bespoke, our name for BVLA's made to order work. The price is set with you when the gold and the stone are chosen, before anything is ordered.

We don't offer 18k white gold. If you want a white metal past 14k, platinum is the one we order.

How to see it

• Browse the case. Every BVLA piece in the room today, with the price pierced, from $350 to $1,730.
• Book a Gold Viewing. Thirty minutes at the table with Tom or Kat and the tray of BVLA gold. No needle, nothing to buy, no charge. We start by asking what you'd like to spend, and that's what comes out on the tray, titanium included.
• Read BVLA Bespoke. If the design you love isn't in the case in the stone or gold you want, this is how it's made for you.

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, one client in the room at a time. A piercing is booked for 45 minutes, you know the price before anything happens, and you pay at the end, with nothing to pay when you book. That's how we work: the right spot, a piece you love, and all the time it takes.

Book the piercing if you're ready, or book a Gold Viewing to hold the gold before you decide. Every price is on the prices page. Questions? Call 09 949 0940.