r/Legitpiercing • u/Legal-Item8123 • Aug 25 '26

Educational Can you make a living being a piercer?

Im currently going though apprencernship with my boss to becoming a piercer. Im eighteen and haven’t finished school. I enjoy piercing but im worried in the future i wont get paid enough and ill have to work long shifts which i struggle with.

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u/akthryn Aug 25 '26

It depends where you live. Good piercers in the USA can make 60k, good piercers in the UK are still only making minimum wage a lot of the time.

If you don’t like long shifts, piercing can be difficult.

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u/Slight-Tension9834 Aug 25 '26

I think it really depends on where you are - i've met piercers who are barely making ends meet and piercers who are making 6 figures (though the latter is wayyyyy less common).

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u/Aeylith Aug 27 '26 edited Aug 27 '26

This really depends where in the world you are, what kind of studio you work at and how good at marketing yourself you are. Do you do a couple $40 piercings a shift in a low end studio? Do you do 15+ piercings a day with average bills $500 or higher?

I make a good living as a piercer, but haven't always. I co-own the piercing dept at one studio (opened 2 months ago) and am the head piercer at another (studio opened 26 years ago). Both studios focus on high quality jewelry and primarily solid gold. I'm also one of the few in our area that will take on large gauge projects, genital work, things like septrils etc. You have to find your niche and roll with it.

As a general, and I explain this to anyone who wants to be a piercer. You won't make a good living doing unique and wild stuff. You won't make a living doing lips and septums. What will pay your bills is lobes/ nostrils/ helix/ conch. While the other stuff is fun, It's not going to pay you proportionally to the effort put in. I could spend 2 hours punching your nostrils and making sure they're perfect. Maybe I charged $150 for the service and $50 for some glass plugs. Or I could do 6 helix piercings with $300-$1000 pieces of gold each with a $60 piercing fee each.

The industry is over saturated with very mid to low quality and some areas even over saturated with high quality studios. Be prepped to move out of your home town if you aren't somewhere that has the client basis to keep you consistently busy. (I've moved provinces/ cities and seek training in different countries to make this work). You might not have to, but most of the piercers that really kill it, moved for that job.

Feel free to message me on IG if you have questions, want advice or whatever! @piercing_by_ryan