Ordering Piercing Supplies Online, the Complete Guide
If you have a passion for body jewelry and piercings, you may have considered becoming a professional piercer. It's a fun business to get into, allowing people to perfect their style and boosting their confidence in the process.
While opening your own piercing studio involves a lot of work, it's something anyone with the right attitude can do.
One of the first stumbling blocks people encounter, though, is knowing where to turn for supplies. Piercing is a skill and, like other skills, requires specialist tools and equipment. If you haven't got the right tools on hand, this can limit your profit and ability to grow as a business.
To make sure you're setting off on the right foot, follow our guide below. We explain how to figure out what you'll need and the process of ordering piercing supplies online.
What you’ll need
The world of piercing involves a lot of weird and wonderful tools and accessories. Boiled down to basics though, there are only a few supplies considered truly essential. To keep your business running smoothly, you're going to want to make sure you keep these well-stocked.
Essentials
Essential body piercing supplies any studio keeps stocked up on include:
- Hollow needles: studios will stock a wide range of sterile needles in various gauges.
- Receiving tubes: placed on the back of the skin to be pierced to help guide the needle.
- Skin forceps: pro-piercers will have a kit of metal forceps to help secure skin for piercing.
- Sterile marker pens: used to mark the entry point of a needle or punch.
- Dermal punch: allow accurate, consistent dermal piercing and larger ear piercings.
- Scalpels: disposable scalpels are another method for dermal insertions and can be used to increase gauge size.
Body jewelry
You're also going to want o keep in a variety of different body jewelry pieces. After all, a piercing without jewelry isn't much to look at.
Consider stocking the following body jewelry in various gauges:
- Straight barbells: multipurpose, used for various piercings.
- Curved barbells: a barbell variation with a slight bend, suitable for facial piercings or the belly button.
- Circular barbells: typically used for nasal septum piercings but is also suitable for lips, nipples, ears, and more.
- Ball closure rings: for facilitating the healing of piercings with an unbroken smooth surface.
- Dermal anchors and tops: inserted into the skin with tops coming in a wide range of styles.
- Surface bars: help prevent dermal rejection.
- Nose studs: specially shaped for use in nasal piercings.
Hygiene
As well as the above, you're going to need to keep things safe and clean for customers. This involves cleaning jewelry and equipment as well as keeping skin and surfaces clean.
Make sure you stock up on the following:
- Alcohol swabs
- Hand wash
- Latex gloves
- Sanitizing autoclave and pouches (for sterilizing needles and jewelry)
Take stock
The next step is to simply take stock of your current inventory and see what supplies you already have. This way you won't purchase supplies you don't need and also won't overlook supplies that you do!
Use pen and paper or a spreadsheet to list everything you’re going to need using the above. Next to each write your current stock level and estimate how much you believe you will need to purchase.
Find an online piercing supplier
Once you’ve pinpointed what you need, it’s time to find somewhere to buy piercing supplies online. For this, you’re going to want to use a wholesale body piercing store.
Wholesale stores offer bulk discounts and stock a wider range of items than retail stores.
For those in the USA, Shining Light is the go-to wholesaler for piercing supplies in San Diego. Shining Light has everything a professional piercing studio needs including body jewelry for upselling and increasing profit. Based in San Diego, Shining Light can get supplies to most states in 4 days or less.
Elsewhere in the world, you should look for a supplier with a similarly fast shipping policy, up-to-date stock numbers, and live shipping estimates. Look for the following:
- Good customer service
- Knowledgable descriptions
- Shipping directly or using trusted partners
Placing a bulk order
Next, grab your stock list and begin adding things to your online basket. Ordering wholesale body piercing supplies online will feel familiar to any other kind of online store. The only difference is you order multiple items of the same kind at once.
Reputable online piercing suppliers like Shining Light will show you if an item is currently in stock. If an item is not in stock, consider alternatives to prevent a shipment from being held up.
Simply browse the online store, double-check the details and add to your shopping cart as you would using any other online store.
For body jewelry, you will want to do a quick calculation to make sure the pieces are profitable:
Body Jewelry Profit = Retail Price - Cost of Goods
The retail price should be the price you expect customers will pay for the piece. Cost of Goods should include not just the wholesale price of each individual piece but factor in shipping costs and packaging too.
When you’re happy, continue to checkout.
Receiving your wholesale piercing supplies
Upon checkout, you will be asked for your location and the shipping method. If using a domestic wholesaler, this will be relatively inexpensive and fast. International shipping can cost considerably more and is something to factor in when choosing a supplier.
After ordering, you then need to wait for your shipment. In the meantime, get your stock room or space ready to receive the shipment. Organizing your stock neatly and orderly means you are always aware of what you have in, preventing over-ordering or assuming you have something you don’t.
Last steps
With your order received, it’s time to get to work! While piercing and selling body jewelry will take up most of your day, you should also make time for admin. This includes regular stock checks and inventory organization.