"Is There a Female Piercer Available?" What people are really asking for when they ask for a woman, a femme, or a queer piercer.

At least once a week, someone walks into Cherry Bomb, hangs out by the counter for a second, and shyly asks if there's a woman who can do their piercing. Or if any of our piercers are queer. The answer is always the same: yes, you're in the right place, and no, you don't have to explain yourself.

While I’m not a piercer, I own the studio, I still hear this question over and over, and it's a big part of why I built the team the way I did. Because underneath that question is something we all want, which is to actually be seen.

If you think about it, piercing is intimate. Like…really intimate. A piercer is going to be inches from your face and their hands will be on your body. Depending on what you're getting, you might be partially undressed in a small room with someone you met fifteen minutes ago. That's a LOT of trust to hand a stranger!

So when someone asks for a woman or a queer piercer, what they're really asking is: will I be safe enough here to relax? For a lot of people (women, queer folks, trans and nonbinary clients, trauma survivors) the answer has often depended on who was holding the needle. To be clear, plenty of male piercers are wonderful at this job, but everyone makes their own calculations about vulnerability based on what they've lived through, and I never blame anyone for theirs.

Most femme and queer piercers have personally been the nervous person in the chair, too. They know what it's like to brace yourself walking into a shop, wondering if you'll get weird looks or invasive questions about your body. Even me, I’ve been the client taking a deep breath in chair, nervous and excited for my new piercing.

So in our studio, when a trans client asks how a piercing might sit on their changing body, or a nonbinary client wants jewelry that doesn't feel gendered, that's a normal Tuesday conversation here. Lived experience changes the whole vibe of a consult.

Awhile back, I volunteered to be the demonstration body at a piercing education event. The piercing being taught was a labia piercing. Mine! It was me, on a table, in a room full of femme and queer piercers, getting a genital piercing while a group of piercers watched (up close!) and learned. Two participants even held my hands, it was pretty special.

You would think that is up there with the most exposed I've ever felt, but's actually one of my favorite memories. Everyone in that room knew exactly what it took to be on that table, because most of them had been the nervous one at some point too. The educator talked me through every step and checked in with me the whole way. Nobody made it weird. My body wasn't a something to gawk at. It was just a body, being cared for by people who were there to learn how to care for bodies like mine.

I think about that room every time a nervous client comes in. Being completely seen and completely safe at the same time is a rare feeling, and recreating it is the standard I hold the whole team to.

If you've been getting pierced for awhile, you remember the old school shops. Loud, macho, intimidating kind of on purpose. Plenty of people have stories of being talked down to or made to feel like their nerves were an annoyance, and queer and trans folks tend to have the worst ones.

The shift away from that didn't happen by accident. As more women, femmes, and queer folks came up in this industry, they brought different habits with them. Asking before they touch. Explaining each step before it happens. Checking in partway through. Treating anxiety like a normal human thing instead of an inconvenience. I'm proud to run a studio where that's just the standard, because honestly it should've been all along.

And you can see the result in who walks through our door. A huge part of our clientele is femme and queer, and that's not by chance. People go where they feel seen! When clients find a studio where they don't have to explain their body, their pronouns, or their nerves, they come back. And they bring their friends, their partners, and eventually their entire polycule.

This is exactly why Cherry Bomb is the way it is. We're queer and femme owned, and everyone on the team understands that helping you feel safe IS the job. Whether it's your first lobe piercing or something a little more personal, you'll get patience and zero judgment (plus whatever's on our playlist that day).

So if you've been putting off a piercing because you weren't sure you'd be comfortable, consider this your sign. Book a consult or just come hang out and ask us anything. We're at 231 Eldridge in the Lower East Side, and the chair's waiting for you :)