"Is Anyone Ok Right Now?" An Inside Look at Piercing in Feb, 2026

“I don’t know how to sell you earrings at the end of the world” I posted this a few days ago on my professional page, part of a longer piece about how difficult it feels to market myself right now as a piercer with everything happening, as well as a reconnection with some of the more connective, ritual, deeper elements of piercing. Of creating and then holding space for ritual pain, pain that people have used to process the horrors for hundreds of years. But what I didn’t put in that piece is here.

Your piercer isn’t ok right now.

Is anyone ok right now?

I don’t really think so. But I want to give clients a glimpse into what piercers are currently dealing with, what likely most service professionals are currently dealing with, so folks can perhaps understand a bit more what is going on behind the scenes.

I published a book last year, one on trauma-informed care in the industry. Part of that was discussing the link between mental health and body modification, one that’s shown time and time again, through various studies about the positive impact body modification has on survivors of trauma and those struggling with various mental illnesses. As part of the research for that, I spoke with members of the community. 88% said they had at least one mental illness. 90% described themselves as survivors of trauma. This aligned with my lived experience- many of us found piercings and tattoos as teens and young adults. It was an outlet to cope with our trauma, our minds, to help us process the emotional and sometimes physical pain we often experience. We fell in love with the power piercing had to help us cope, help us process, and heal. And we wanted to offer that to others.

This also means we are a community of traumatized, compassionate, deep-feeling humans. And existing like that in the current world is. Challenging. Trauma affects every person differently, but I don’t know one survivor who isn’t struggling right now with the state of the world. Watching genocide and kidnappings through our phones every day, reading about how the rich get away with the most heinous crimes, while we have to give an armed security guard our receipt to leave the grocery store with some Pop-Tarts. It’s unfathomable. My brain literally can not reconcile the differences.

In private forums and on personal pages, virtually everyone I know in this industry is struggling. People aren’t posting, or when they do it’s a meme about mental illness, it's a quiet cry for help. Everyone is stressed. Everyone is scared. What gives me hope is my community's ability to fight back. Everywhere I see studios fundraising, donating, and offering accessibility programs. Trying to make a difference in their communities. I see piercers who are exhausted and overwhelmed still carving out space to try to fight back in their own way. That resilience inspires me.

Which is extra important these days, as folks are being resilient in the face of increasingly mounting challenges in the industry. We’ve all seen and heard (and felt the effects of) the tariffs in the last year. Some areas hit particularly hard have been body jewelry, both overseas companies, and the import of raw materials like metals and gemstones. Medical supplies, such as gloves, drapes, gauze, etc. And default shipping costs, from the price we pay to ship a package to the cost of packing supplies and materials. All have gotten much more expensive in recent years, more tariffed, and more taxed. Studios report anywhere from a 10-24% increase in overhead costs going into 2026 from 2025. It’s become much more expensive to do a piercing, and we are struggling not to pass this cost to clients too much.

The cost of gold, however, is something we can’t help but pass along. In early 2023 it was 1,900$ for an ounce of gold. That same ounce now costs 5,500$ at the time of writing this. Every major vendor has had to raise their prices, both internationally and at home, to account for the new cost of materials. Gold jewelry, a staple for many studios, and the sales of which often are directly what keep our lights on and pay our bills, has tripled in only 3 years. Every single day, I see piercers stressed about the cost of gold, stressed for their clients, and wondering what it means for an industry that is so centered on the material.

But it’s not just rising costs- it’s also failing customer service. Behind the scenes, many jewelry companies have closed, gone out of business, or been bought out by larger corporations. Some best-selling designs are simply no longer a thing; the company making them has closed its doors. One of the largest names in piercing was bought out a few years ago- and the repercussions are being felt today. Has your special order piece taken an unusually long time to come in? Is your piercer low on certain styles they usually always have in stock? One of our largest manufacturers was bought out, and with that came a sharp decline in quality. Late orders, incorrect pieces, multiple mistakes. In private forums, piercers are constantly stressed about taking the heat- letting clients be mad at them for their late or incorrect jewelry and covering for the failings of a multi-million dollar corporation. Better to let a client scream at us than potentially lose an account….even if the jewelry is wrong nearly every single order. We are waiting sometimes 4 months to receive incorrect or defective pieces.

We also live in a world of instant gratification- everyone expects to get a response right away, a piece shipped the same day, etc. But piercing has never worked that way, at least not well. It’s something that takes time. Takes time to heal, time to fabricate a piece, and time to be done correctly. Piercing is a slow industry, faced increasingly with clients and customers who demand immediacy. Studios often get 1-star reviews for requiring appointments, not accommodating walk-ins, or not having something in stock. Even as piercers, behind the scenes, struggle with inconstant vendors, high costs, and constant shipping delays. And we are the face of all these issues. Fedex isn’t getting a 1-star review for our package being late. We are.

Not only that, but there is an emotional toll to being a piercer that we often don’t talk about. It’s a hard thing to discuss- how do we balance creating space for clients and allowing these powerful, affirming services to occur, while balancing our own needs? We might see 10-40 humans in a day. And while not all of those will be heavy, emotional services, many will be. Increasingly, most are. The number of times I have quietly cried after a client left is not small. I have smiled with them and put on a brave face as they shared their trauma or their fears or their dreams. But I have sobbed when they left. Cried for the injustice of it all, cried that I could not fix the pain and the struggling and the hurt. And cried at the honor of being a part, even in some small way, of the healing and hope I want to believe they found during our time together. Clients are seeking regulation through piercings; they want to feel something, anything, different from the constant overwhelm of bad news, hateful policies, and the crush of capitalism, of white supremacy, of colonization. And we want to hold space! We want to create that!

We are just balancing creating this space while staying on top of all the cleaning and administrative tasks needed to keep our studios running, while dealing with constantly increasing costs on our supplies and jewelry, as our vendors close or become bought out or become wildly inconsistent, while watching the horrors unfold. All of us- most of us traumatized ourselves, most of us dealing with mental illness of some kind. All just. Trying our best. Trying to run a business, show up for clients, and take care of ourselves and our communities in a world increasingly hostile to anyone who isn’t cis, straight, white, a man, and wealthy. We are worried about paying our rent, worried about when our orders come in, worried about the client who might be mad at us if something is delayed, and worried about the client in our chair right now. And worried about the world.

It’s a lot! It’s overwhelming!

Your piercer, front of house, tattoo artist, hair stylist, nail tech, chef, etc. Everyone in service-based industries is feeling this right now. We are trying so hard to show up with a smile on our faces, to give you a small break from the horrors, to create safe spaces. We are doing it in the face of new and different challenges in the industry, during a recession, as a group of statistically traumatized and mentally ill individuals.

And so are you. And so is nearly everyone else.

Let’s try to remember that. Try to be understanding and offer some grace if your piercer is slow to answer a message, doesn’t have a piece in stock, or your jewelry is taking longer. In return, we will try to show up for you as best we can, create these safer spaces where you can have these powerful moments with us, and explore those magical things that happen at the end of a needle. But truly, your piercer isn’t ok right now. And we appreciate your compassion in these very difficult times.