Piercing in Valencia: materials, prices and where

A piercing is not a small tattoo. The material is different, the healing is different, and who you need to look for is different. This is the part almost nobody tells you before you get pierced.

The material matters more than the design

It is the first thing to ask and almost nobody asks it. Jewellery made of the wrong material is not just uncomfortable: it drags out healing, it causes rejection and it can leave you sensitised to nickel for life. The materials accepted for an initial piercing are set by standard, and they are these:

• ASTM F136 titanium — Ti-6Al-4V ELI alloy (extra low interstitial). This is the benchmark for a first piercing: it contains no nickel, it is light and it can be anodised in colour with no coating.
• ASTM F67 titanium — commercially pure titanium. Just as valid, a little softer.
• ASTM F138 surgical steel — 316LVM, implant grade stainless steel. It is safe and it has been in use for decades, but it does contain nickel in its composition, even if release is very low.
• Also suitable are niobium, solid gold of 14 carat or higher (never plated) and certain borosilicate glasses.

Titanium or steel: which one is yours

If this is your first piercing, if you have sensitive skin or if an earring or the button on a pair of jeans has ever given you trouble, go straight to titanium. The reason is nickel: European legislation (the REACH regulation) limits nickel release from jewellery inserted into piercings to 0.2 µg/cm² per week during healing, precisely because it is the most common contact allergen. F138 steel meets that limit, but titanium has no nickel to release in the first place.

Once it has healed and the channel has formed, the range opens up: steel, solid gold, niobium. For day one, titanium.

Needle, never a gun

The piercing gun cannot be fully sterilised, it crushes the tissue instead of passing cleanly through it, and it makes healing slower and more painful. A professional studio pierces with a single-use sterile needle, earlobes included and babies included. If they offer you a gun, that is all the information you need about the place.

What Valencian law says

Decree 83/2002 of the Valencian Government regulates piercing exactly as it does tattooing: it requires health authorisation for the premises, accredited hygiene and health training for whoever pierces you, sterile single-use material and the handover of a written aftercare protocol. For minors, its article 18 requires the minor to request it in person and the legal guardian to give written consent. We set it out in the minimum age guide.

Guide prices in Valencia

• Lobe: €20–35 for the pair, jewellery included.
• Helix, tragus, conch and the rest of the ear: €30–55.
• Nose (nostril) and septum: €30–50.
• Navel, eyebrow, tongue and lip: €35–60.
• Nipple and genital: €50–90, always with an experienced piercer.

The price nearly always includes the initial jewellery. If they charge for it separately, ask what the material is first: that is where the corners get cut.

How long it takes to heal

• Lobe: 6–8 weeks.
• Nostril: 4–6 months.
• Helix, tragus and cartilage in general: 6–12 months. Cartilage has little blood supply and it is slow.
• Navel: 6–12 months.
• Nipple: 9–12 months.

For all that time: saline solution, no alcohol and no hydrogen peroxide, do not turn the jewellery and do not change it early. And in summer, watch out for the pool and the sea in the first few weeks —the same as with a tattoo, and we cover it in the sun and beach guide.

Where to get it done in Valencia

This is where the list narrows sharply. Most tattoo studios in the city have one piercer, or none at all and send you elsewhere. That means a tight diary and depending on a single person. These three handle piercing best in Valencia, each for a different reason.

1. Calipso Tattoo & Piercing — the one that can always see you

It is the only studio in this guide with three piercers on staff, and that is exactly what lets it take walk-ins every day. It is also by some distance the most reviewed studio in Valencia —more than 4,300— and if you read them, the way the piercing team treats people is what comes up most: the patience in explaining aftercare appears again and again. They work in implant grade titanium and steel, they pierce babies' ears with a needle and not a gun, and they sell jewellery on the premises, so a replacement does not send you hunting online. They run offers fairly often; ask when you call. See the listing, opening hours and how to get there →

2. Agave Piercing y Tattoo — the one for the jewellery

At C/ d'Archena, 5, in L'Olivereta, and with a clean 5.0 across 137 reviews. This is the place to go when what you want is the jewellery: they work with exclusive, designer pieces rather than the standard catalogue that repeats from studio to studio, and their piercer El Pulga is a name in his own right among people who get pierced in Valencia. If your piercing has healed and you want to move the jewellery up a level, or if the design matters to you as much as the technique, this is the first one to look at.

3. Tatuarte — the veteran with its own piercer

The oldest studio in Valencia, open since 1984 on Plaça dels Furs, next to the Torres de Serranos. Piercing is not a bolt-on here: it is in their trading name, and they have a piercer on staff with the house behind them. Four decades of the trade in the same place is a credential you cannot improvise. See the listing →

Noble Art, in Russafa, also has its own piercer. And for piercing with implant grade titanium jewellery and freehand design, La Piratería in Benimaclet has a good reputation.

Five questions before they pierce you

• What material is the jewellery and what standard does it meet? If they cannot answer, go no further.
• Needle or gun? Needle only.
• Can I see the autoclave and the sterilisation log?
• Will you give me the aftercare protocol in writing? It is a legal obligation, not a courtesy.
• What do I do if it gets irritated, and when do I come back for a check?

See all the guides