Body Piercing Serving the College Area & SDSU
Walk-ins welcome · Open 12pm–10pm · Piercing San Diego since 2002
If you are at San Diego State or living anywhere around the College Area (92115), you are about 20 minutes from a piercing studio that has been doing this properly since 2002. San Diego Piercing Company is on Garnet Avenue in Pacific Beach, open late, walk-ins welcome, and used to student schedules.
Call or text (858) 222-0071 · 1028 Garnet Ave, San Diego, CA 92109
Why College Area and SDSU students choose us
There is no shortage of places near campus that will put a hole in you quickly. That is exactly the problem. A cheap, rushed piercing is the one you end up removing, re-doing or living with at the wrong angle for years.
We pierce with single-use needles only, we mark placement and let you check it in a mirror before anything happens, and we fit jewelry sized for the swelling of a fresh piercing rather than for how it will look on day one. None of that takes long, and it is the difference between a piercing that heals in the background and one that is a project.
- Open until 10pm — it fits around classes and shifts.
- Walk-ins, so you do not have to plan around a booking system.
- Honest advice, including when we think a piercing is a bad idea for your anatomy.
- Aftercare you can actually follow in a dorm or a shared apartment.
- We are here afterwards — call, text or walk in if something looks wrong.
Piercings we offer to College Area clients
All done with single-use needles and quality body jewelry. The College Area crowd comes to us most often for helixes, conches, septums, nostrils and navels, but everything below is available.
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 the College Area
You are about 12 miles from the studio, essentially one freeway the whole way:
- From El Cajon Boulevard, Montezuma Road or the SDSU campus, get onto I-8 West.
- Follow I-8 West through Mission Valley — roughly 8 miles.
- Take I-5 North briefly, then exit at Grand Avenue / Garnet Avenue. Alternatively stay on I-8 West and come up Ingraham Street.
- We are at 1028 Garnet Ave.
Normally 20 to 25 minutes. Mission Valley on I-8 slows in the late afternoon, and on game or event days at Snapdragon Stadium give yourself extra. Evenings are quick.
Parking: street parking on Garnet Avenue and the side streets. If you are coming without a car, the 30 bus runs up to Pacific Beach, and Garnet Avenue is walkable once you are here.
Serving SDSU, the College Area and 92115
The College Area is SDSU and everything around it — the apartments off Montezuma, the houses in Rolando and Talmadge, the El Cajon Boulevard food strip, and the Trolley line that now connects campus straight into Mission Valley. It is a young, transient, budget-conscious part of the city, and that shapes the advice we give.
We will tell you honestly which piercing is realistic for your situation. If you share a bathroom with five people, if you are about to spend a semester swimming or traveling, or if you have a job with a visible-jewelry policy, those things matter more than which piercing looks best on a phone screen. We would rather talk you into the right piercing than the expensive one.
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.
College Area 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 · City Heights · 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