policies and faq

No. 

The Card on File to book your appointment will not be charged until your appointment is complete. You're also welcome to use a different card or cash to pay for your services and/or jewelry purchase at the time of.  However, in the event of a Cancellation within 24 Hours of your Appointment Time or a No-Show, an automatic fee will be applied that is 50% of your scheduled services.

No charges will incur should The Piercer need to cancel or reschedule your appointment.

Yes. 

I perform Earlobe Piercings for Children ages Six Years and older, provided they have enough lobe anatomy to do so. Payment will be taken at the time of the appointment, regardless if one or the pair are complete. Should we need to reschedule due to an incomplete appointment, another piercing fee won't be charged.

Yes. 

We all love a little moral support. However, due to limited working space, I'd kindly ask that you keep it to parties of two or fewer unless other arrangements have been made for a larger multi-appointment group.

DON'T PANIC. 

Irritation bumps can be common on piercings are often misdiagnosed as a keloid; but true keloids from body piercing are rare, and often have a more extreme appearance. The issue with this misdiagnosis is that there is a decent amount of misinformation available to the public via internet etc. Without proper knowledge, people turn to the millions of things online that claim a ‘cure’. Most often these suggestions are dangerous or potentially harmful to you and your piercing. This is because a puncture wound (such as a piercing) requires a different type of care and troubleshooting than a keloid requires. A true keloid needs a dermatologist or doctors help, and could even require surgery. A keloid will not improve with any over the counter assistance, and even surgery doesn’t always remove them- they have a high reoccurrence rate. Hypertrophic scars have been shown to improve somewhat with some etc treatment (like scar patches and massage) but typically require medical intervention to truly improve (scar injections and dermatological treatments).

So, if it’s not a keloid, and it’s not a hypertrophic scar, what is this little bump near your piercing? Well, it’s good news- what you have may instead be an irritation bump. These are small mounds of swelling next to a piercing, sometimes pink or fleshy, sometimes skin-tone, and sometimes dark and discolored, but easy to fix. We are here to help you troubleshoot and figure out the source of the irritation, and remove it. Once the piercing is no longer being irritated, the bump will go away with some time and care.

Surgical stainless steel is a blanket term that is commonly used to refer to any steel used in medical or bio medical procedures or processes. But there is no formal definition or standard for surgical steel, so manufactures, companies, and other studios can use the term to refer to -any- kind of corrosive resistant steel. Any quick internet search for “surgical steel” pulls up things like toasters, pots and pans, tire rims, doorknobs, silverware, and tables. All these different products being sold to us as “surgical steel”. The catch here is the word “surgical” makes us think it’s safe. If they use it in surgery- it must be safe right? But there’s no real, concrete definition for surgical steel. So what someone is selling you could be any one of hundreds of metal alloys, containing who-knows-what, which can cause negative reactions for your piercings health.

Here at High Plains, the jewelry we use is ASTM-F136 ELI Titanium. ASTM is an organization (American Society for Testing and Materials)  that sets forth standards for a wide range of materials, many with medical and biomedical purposes. The “F” spec designates metals for use in medical applications. The “ELI” with titanium stands for Extra Low Interstitial, a stronger grade of metal commonly used in long term medical implantation like spinal surgeries, hip repair, and other joint repairs. Implant grade jewelry MUST meet these standards set forth by the ASTM and our companies need to prove it with documents called Mill Certificates which show the information about the metal. Meaning unlike “Surgical Steel” we can’t just market any range of alloys or mixtures to you- we must work within those specific standards.