Ears to the future – start a stack at Laura Bond
If you get your ears pierced, you’re usually stuck with plain studs throughout the healing process. That makes for an awfully long wait before you can shop for the earrings you actually want to wear.
Things are different at Edinburgh-based independent brand Laura Bond, which opened its first boutique and piercing parlour last year. Collections are made from sustainable 9k or 14k solid gold, most of it piercing-ready. They specialise in curated “ear stacks”, with pieces for standard lobes, to the daith, conch and helix, as well as septums.
The A Midsummer Night’s Dream collection consists of pretty pieces, like a twisted vine in white or yellow gold, Helena hoop or tiny fairy wing studs. My favourite is the Titania’s Crown stud, with interspersed oval opals and crystal. It has an Art Deco vibe, and I know where I want it – my helix, the flattest plane on the lug.
I’m taken into the pink piercing area, where head piercer Sarah Crowe is doing the deed. She uses a proper piercing needle, rather than the gun used on my lobes
Well, the course of true love never did run smooth
when I was a nervous 13-yearold. My hands are slightly sweaty as I rest my head back, but Crowe is reassuring. I take a deep breath, and there’s a pushing sensation and a sting. The whole process takes just a few seconds. I’m given piercing aftercare advice, which includes to use a saline spray twice a day – no smelly TCP, like the old days. The area is a bit tender for about a week, but there’s no blood, and it seems to be healing quickly. I’m already looking at other designs. This could prove to be an addiction. Well, the course of true love never did run smooth.