Body Piercing Serving City Heights, San Diego
Walk-ins welcome · Open 12pm–10pm · Piercing San Diego since 2002
City Heights is one of the closest of our inland service areas — about nine miles and twenty minutes from the studio. San Diego Piercing Company has been piercing from 1028 Garnet Ave in Pacific Beach since 2002, with walk-ins welcome until 10pm every night.
Call or text (858) 222-0071 · 1028 Garnet Ave, San Diego, CA 92109
Why City Heights clients come to us
City Heights has plenty of shops along University Avenue and Fairmount that will sell you jewelry, and a few that will put it in with a gun. We would steer you away from that. A gun cannot be sterilized properly between clients and it pushes blunt jewelry through tissue under pressure, which is why gun-pierced cartilage so often refuses to settle.
Needle piercing is not more painful and it is not slower. It is simply cleaner, more precise, and much easier to heal. That is all we do.
- Since 2002 in the same Pacific Beach studio.
- Single-use needles, opened in front of you, for every piercing.
- Walk-ins until 10pm.
- Placement marked and mirror-checked before anything happens.
- Follow-up checks if something does not look right.
Piercings we offer to City Heights clients
Every piercing is done with single-use needles and quality body jewelry. City Heights clients come in for the full range, with ear work, nostrils and navels the most common.
Ear piercings
Lobe, helix, forward helix, flat, conch, rook, daith, tragus, snug, anti-tragus, industrial and orbital. Ear work is the bulk of what we do. If you are building a curated ear, we map the whole design first and then build it across several visits, so every piercing lands where it will still look right once the rest are in.
Facial piercings
Nostril, septum, bridge, eyebrow, labret, medusa, monroe, vertical labret, snake bites and dahlia. Septum and nostril piercings can both be worn discreetly if your job or school has a policy — a septum retainer flips up out of sight entirely.
Body and surface piercings
Navel, nipple, sternum, collarbone, hip and back, plus surface bar, nape and chest placements. Surface piercings are the most anatomy-dependent work we do, so we assess in person and tell you honestly whether the placement you want will hold long term.
Oral piercings
Tongue, venom, smiley, frowny and frenulum.
Getting here from City Heights
About nine miles, and the drive is short:
- From University Avenue, El Cajon Boulevard or Fairmount Avenue, head to I-805 North or I-15 South.
- Take I-8 West through Mission Valley.
- Exit at Ingraham Street into Pacific Beach, or take I-5 North to the Grand/Garnet exit.
- We are at 1028 Garnet Ave.
Usually 20 minutes, a little more in the late afternoon. Bus and trolley connections through Mission Valley also make this trip workable without a car, though driving is considerably quicker.
Parking: street parking along Garnet Avenue and the residential streets just off it.
Serving City Heights and 92105
City Heights is one of the most diverse neighborhoods in San Diego — Cherokee Point, Corridor, Azalea Park, Fairmount Park and Teralta all sit inside 92105, with the City Heights Retail Village, the library and Colina del Sol Park at its center. It is a neighborhood where word of mouth matters, and most of our City Heights clients arrive because someone they know was happy with their piercing.
We take that seriously. We explain what we are doing and why, in plain language, before we do it. If you are bringing a family member who wants to understand the process first, that is normal here and we are happy to take the time.
How a visit works
We talk first. What you want, where it sits, how long it takes to heal and whether your anatomy suits it. If it does not, we say so rather than take your money and let it reject.
Marking. We mark the spot and hand you a mirror. Nothing happens until you look at that mark and say yes, and you can ask us to move it as many times as you like. This is the step that decides whether you love the piercing or quietly regret it.
Sterile setup. Single-use needles opened in front of you, sterilized tools, a fresh work surface. Everything that touches you is either new or has been through the autoclave.
The piercing. Quick. Most people describe a sharp pinch followed by a warm ache that fades within a minute or two.
Jewelry. Fitted at a length that allows for the swelling of a fresh piercing rather than at the size it will end up. You come back later to downsize once it settles, and we keep a large selection of styles, sizes and materials.
Aftercare. You leave knowing exactly how to look after it and what a problem looks like, and you can call or text us any time afterwards with a question.
Aftercare for your new piercing
Healing is decided by the weeks after your visit, not the few minutes in the chair. Keep it simple:
- Sterile saline twice a day, morning and night. Nothing else — no alcohol, no peroxide, no ointments.
- Do not touch, twist or rotate the jewelry, and never with unwashed hands.
- Do not change the jewelry early. Leave the original piece in until we tell you it is safe to swap. This is where most problems begin.
- Stay out of pools, hot tubs and the ocean until it has healed.
- Keep pressure off it while you sleep — a travel pillow works well for ear piercings.
- Be patient. Lobes heal in a couple of months; cartilage frequently takes six months to a year and looks healed long before it is.
Read our full aftercare guide. If something does not look right, call (858) 222-0071 or walk in — a check takes a minute.
City Heights piercing FAQs
Other areas we serve
Clients travel to our Pacific Beach studio from across San Diego County: Carmel Valley · Rancho Bernardo & 4S Ranch · Scripps Ranch · Poway · College Area & SDSU · Santee · El Cajon · Spring Valley
Recent work from our studio
Visit our Pacific Beach studio
San Diego Piercing Company
1028 Garnet Ave, San Diego, CA 92109
Phone: (858) 222-0071
Email: Piercings@SanDiegotattoo.com
Open 12pm–10pm (Fri & Sat until 12am) · Walk-ins welcome · Piercing San Diego since 2002