Tattoo style
Body Piercing in Hoi An
We pierce with a single-use hollow needle, never a gun, and every piece of starter jewellery is implant-grade titanium or 316L surgical steel. A piercing takes five minutes and heals for months, so most of this page is about the months — particularly the part where you are on a coast, in the heat, and would quite like to get in the water.
Recent Piercing work in Hoi An
2 pieces
How much does a piercing cost in Hoi An?
We quote piercings at the studio rather than from a list, because the price is mostly the jewellery. The same lobe piercing costs one thing with a plain titanium stud and another with a threadless end, and quoting you the cheap version online and the real version in the chair is not how we would like to meet you. Message us on WhatsApp at +84 777 594 908 with what you want pierced and we will send a figure the same day.
What the price always includes: the consultation, the marking and your approval of the placement before anything happens, a new sterile needle opened in front of you, the starter jewellery itself, saline and written aftercare in English. Our tattoo price guide covers the tattoo side of the studio; piercing is not on that chart.
Do you use a needle or a piercing gun?
A needle, always. This is the one thing worth being unreasonable about, and it is the question to ask anywhere in the world before you let someone near your ear.
- A needle cuts, a gun tears. A hollow needle removes a small core of tissue and leaves a clean channel for the jewellery to sit in. A gun forces a blunt stud through by pressure, crushing the tissue around it. The channel heals either way; one heals faster and straighter.
- Guns cannot be sterilised. Most are plastic and cannot go in an autoclave, so they get wiped between customers rather than sterilised. Ours is a single-use needle from a sealed pouch, opened in front of you and dropped in a sharps bin at the end.
- Cartilage is the serious case. A gun on a helix, a conch or a rook can crack the cartilage rather than pass through it, and cartilage repairs slowly and badly. Any ear piercing above the lobe should be done with a needle or not at all.
How long does a piercing take to heal?
Longer than almost everyone expects, and a piercing that has stopped hurting is not a piercing that has healed. These are the usual ranges. Yours depends on your body, the placement and how much you leave it alone.
| Piercing | Typical healing time | Out of the water for |
|---|---|---|
| Earlobe | 6 – 8 weeks | 4 – 6 weeks |
| Helix, conch, tragus, rook, daith | 6 – 12 months | At least 3 months |
| Nostril | 4 – 6 months | At least 2 months |
| Septum | 2 – 3 months | At least 6 weeks |
| Navel | 6 – 12 months | At least 3 months |
Can I swim in Hoi An with a new piercing?
Not for the first few weeks, and this is the reason to think about a piercing at the end of your trip rather than on the first afternoon. An open piercing channel is a wound, and An Bang beach, the Thu Bon river, a hotel pool and a waterfall are all water with things living in it. Chlorine is no safer — it is an irritant in an open channel even when it is clean.
Lobes are the forgiving ones: four to six weeks and you are swimming. Cartilage is not, and a helix done on day one of a two-week holiday means either two weeks out of the sea or a piercing that gets angry. If your trip is built around the water, get the lobe now and come back for the helix — or get it at home, where nobody is asking you to stay dry in thirty-four degrees.
The rest of the tropical-climate rules are the same ones we give tattoo clients, and they are in our aftercare guide for Hoi An’s heat and humidity: keep it clean, keep it dry, stop touching it.
What jewellery do you start with?
Implant-grade titanium (ASTM F-136) or 316L surgical steel, and nothing else for a fresh piercing. Titanium is the one we reach for by default: it is nickel-free, so it suits people who react to cheap jewellery, and it is light enough that a helix stud is not pulling on a healing channel all week.
Starter jewellery is fitted a little longer than the final piece to leave room for swelling, which is normal and temporary. Come back once it has settled and we will downsize it — that visit is the difference between a piercing that sits flat and one that snags on everything for a year. If you have already left Vietnam by then, any competent studio can do it; ask for titanium and ask them to check the fit rather than sell you a length.
What we pierce
- Ear: lobe, second and third lobe, helix, forward helix, tragus, conch, daith, rook and industrial.
- Face: nostril, septum, eyebrow, labret and philtrum.
- Body: navel and nipple.
Some anatomy does not take some piercings — a daith needs a fold that not every ear has, and forcing one that does not fit gives you a piercing that migrates out over a year. We check the ear before we quote, and we will say no if the answer is no. That conversation is free and takes two minutes.
Plenty of people get a piercing and a small tattoo in the same visit; fine line and mini tattoos are the usual pairing, and the ear is a common place for both.
Book, or just walk in
We are at 15 Nguyen Hoang, An Hoi, a few minutes over the bridge from the Old Town, open daily 9:00 to 22:00. Piercings are quick, so walk-ins are usually fine — see the walk-in guide for how busy the studio gets in high season. Bring photo ID if you look under eighteen, and eat something first.
Not sure where to get pierced in a town you arrived in yesterday? How to choose a studio in Hoi An lists what to look for, including the questions we would want you asking us.
Rated 5.0 on Google across 122 reviews. Book a slot, or message WhatsApp +84 777 594 908 for a price.
