Laura Bond Boutique and Piercing Parlour: we start our ear stack at this Edinburgh destination

It opened in September 2023

Laura Bond's A Midsummer Night's Dream collection

If you get your ears pierced, you’re usually stuck with plain studs through the healing process.

That makes for an awfully long wait before you can shop for the earrings you actually want to wear.

Things are different at Edinburgh-based independent brand, Laura Bond, who opened their first boutique and piercing parlour last year.

Laura Bond shop interior

Their collections are made from sustainable 9k or 14k solid gold and most of it is piercing-ready. They specialise in helping customers create curated ‘ear stacks’, with pieces for standard lobes, to the daith, conch, and helix, as well as septums.

When I visit, they’ve just launched their A Midsummer Night’s Dream collection, which consists of pretty pieces, like a twisted vine in white or yellow gold, the Helena hoop, or tiny fairy wing studs. However, my favourite is the Titania’s Crown stud, with interspersed oval opals and crystal. I’m not usually a sparkle fan, but I’ll make an exception. It has an Art Deco-ish vibe, and I know exactly where I want it - my flat helix, which is the flattest plane on the lug.

I’m taken into the pink-painted piercing area, where head piercer Sarah Crowe, who worked at Edinburgh’s Tribal Body Art for over two decades before coming to this boutique, will be doing the deed. She uses a proper piercing needle, rather than the gun that was used on my lobes when I was a nervous 13-year-old.

My hands are slightly sweaty as I clamber onto the big pink chair and rest my head back, but Crowe is very reassuring, and talks you through each step. I take a deep breath, and there’s a pushing sensation and a sting. The whole process takes just a few seconds.

I’m given piercing aftercare advice, which includes to use a saline spray twice a day - no smelly TCP, like the old days - and I obediently follow it to the letter. The area is a bit tender for about a week, but there’s no blood, and it seems to be healing quickly and easily.

I’m already looking at Laura Bond’s other designs. This could prove to be an addiction.

Well, the course of true love never did run smooth.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream jewellery ranges from £55-£150. One piercing is £30 at Laura Bond, 52 Thistle Street, Edinburgh (www.laurabond.co.uk)