Piercing from South Shore, the questions we are actually asked

About 25 kilometers from us in a straight line, measured from our door. That is a genuine journey and we are not going to dress it up. We do not publish driving times or routes, because we have not measured them.

For a first set of lobes, honestly not. A lobe heals in about three months and is forgiving, so use a studio near you that pierces with a needle. For cartilage it can be, because that is where technique, placement and jewelry decide the outcome, and a cartilage piercing that goes wrong takes six to twelve months to settle.

No, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. From South Shore, downtown is closer than we are. Distance is not our argument. What is: every piercing by hand with a single-use sterile needle and never a gun, your anatomy assessed before anything is agreed, and both languages properly.

Two, normally. One to have it done, and one some weeks later to shorten the jewelry once the swelling has gone. That second visit takes about five minutes and it is free. A third only if something needs looking at, which most people never need.

We would advise against it, and the people who live furthest away are the ones who skip it most. The first bar is deliberately longer to allow for swelling. Once that goes, the extra length starts levering the piercing off its angle and catching on clothing. It is five minutes that protects the six to twelve months you have already invested.

Walk-ins are welcome during mall hours. If you are making the trip specifically, call (450) 682 1777 first, because a studio with one person piercing can be with somebody else when you arrive.

Not with a yes. We can tell you which of three categories it falls into: a placement that usually works, one that leans heavily on anatomy, or one only a minority can carry. Seventeen of our thirty placements depend on how you are built, and that has to be looked at in decent light.

One piece of valid government photo identification. A driver's license, a passport, or a health insurance card carrying your photo. From sixteen you sign for yourself. Under sixteen, a parent or legal guardian comes with you and you both bring photo ID. A student card is not accepted, because it is not issued by a government.

Yes, and French, and you do not have to choose before you arrive. You can switch halfway through. The conversation that decides the outcome is the one about your anatomy and your aftercare, and neither should happen in the language you can merely get by in.

For lobes, usually fine. For cartilage it is a poor trade. Three cartilage piercings started the same day are three separate six-to-twelve-month healing projects on one ear sharing a pillow every night, and if one becomes irritated there is no way to tell which started it.

Call before you do anything, and above all do not take the jewelry out. Removing it while there is still swelling can close the channel and shut the problem inside. A lot of what worries people turns out to be ordinary healing and some of it we can settle on the phone.

Yes, whoever did it and however long ago, and we do not charge to look. Most of what comes back turns out to be the jewelry being the wrong length, or a habit such as sleeping on it. Both are quick and neither needs you to buy anything.