Vaughn Body Arts — Local services in Monterey

Clear communication, friendly staff, emphasis on client safety, and beautiful jewelry with lifetime warranties. I've gotten about six piercings from Cody in the last nine years, as well as seven others from four different piercing salons (in Monterey, Portland, Santa Cruz, and London), and honestly...Cody is the GOAT. Regardless of where I may be living, I will always come back to Cody and his team for a piercing.

I made an appointment online, which has a very simple and easy-to-navigate UI as well as very clear information about safety procedures and cancellation policies. I also spoke with Theresa on the phone the day before my appointment to ask a quick question. She was so sweet and eager to please, and made me feel so excited to get back in there. She has a kind of contagious happiness about her.

Carter assisted me at the jewelry counter--he was proactive and cheerful about helping me brainstorm what type of piece would work best for each piercing location and was communicative about all pricing. Once I had chosen all my jewelry, he made sure to add up the entire cost of my visit to give me a quote before I made any final decisions. They know people come in with budgets and are fully aware that lots of high quality piercing jewelry is an investment, and they communicate pricing and warranty policies accordingly.

As shown in my photos: Carter helped me pick out the yellow gold pave ring (daith), 2 mm titanium CZ (cartilage), and 4 mm titanium CZ (conch), and Theresa pointed out the yellow gold "seed" stud (third lobe).

Cody is efficient and professional with a calm, healing presence. He always pierces with client safety in mind, and consistently provides clear instructions and information throughout the appointment. I've taken my bra off in front of him twice (nipple piercings and then subsequent repiercings years later), and I'm still happy and comfortable being alone in the piercing room with him and looking him in the eye.

The vast majority of the 1- and 2-star reviews of VBA from the last few years fall into two categories: 1) the reviewer is upset that there are consequences for not following directions, and 2) the reviewer is feeling reactionary to COVID safety measures.

Can you read and follow simple directions? Great, you'll love this place. Do you like feeling safe and helping ensure the safety of those around you? Great.

You'll...

Vaughn’s is the best! We are a family of 5 and we drove 3.5 hours to come to our piercing appointment on August 1st, 2021. We were doing a family piercing to make a memory together so it was a really special trip. Shay was our piercer and she was AWESOME!! She was very professional, did perfect placement (for reference we had 5 helix piercings and a set of nipple piercings), explained everything in detail many times, had good energy, and was very kind. The nipple piercing was a difficult one because my husband had a lot of scarring and slight deformation due to a botched piercing from years ago at a bad place. Shay was patient with him and explained exactly what the challenges were and what she would have to do to re-pierce them. Even though they couldn’t be pierced exactly the same and she had to use different sized jewelry on each side, they look awesome and you would never know that they don’t exactly match. He is really happy with his new nipple piercings and has had no pain during his healing time. She was really honest when we got there because we originally all wanted the same Tragus piercing but one of our kids had different ear anatomy so she said it wouldn’t work. So, we all got our Helix and we are super happy. Their jewelry is top notch. We bought a solid gold piece for our daughter’s previous nostril piercing and even though it was a few hundred dollars it looks super beautiful on her and makes her feel really fancy so it was worth it. Adriana was working at the jewelry counter and she was so kind, patient, and knowledgeable about the jewelry pieces. The two of them together made it a great experience and worth a 7 hour road trip (there and back) and we would definitely come back to get pierced by Shay again. They even wrote down our piercing info including sizes on a card to keep in our wallets to make jewelry shopping easier. I give this place a...

On a scale of 1 to 5 there aren't enough stars because Cody exceeds expectations. I've got a good many piercings (17 total now) and I've really seen the "good" and the "bad". This particular piercing I'd had done previously by another shop and the experience was less than subpar. I came to the shop because I was referred here by Vice and Virtue in Atlanta. Having had excellent experiences with them I considered but since it was 200+ miles to drive I decided to try a more local shop since I'm in San Diego. The piercing hurt horribly and was completely crooked at the "local shop" I'm talking about. After this horrible experience I decided to take the good advice and drive the 200+ miles to Vaughn Body Arts. I was nervous having to drive so far and had REALLY high expectations. Man, those expectations were completely met! The shop is super clean. He was there right on time in the morning. The jewelry is super high quality. There were many beautiful and unique pieces. Everything was sterilized properly in front of me and explained in great detail even though I have many other piercings. He was SO gentle and when he pierced my septum I honestly didn't even notice! He took the time to show me the most gentle way to clean it and assured me that if I needed anything at all to just get in touch with him. Overall would I suggest driving 200+ miles for a piercing from this shop? Absolutely. Don't make my mistake and try somewhere else first! The location is beautiful so if you want a piercing done by somebody who is kind, educated, clean and who will put the best quality jewelry on your body AND enjoy a beautiful area at the same time you should definitely go in (even if you have drive from southern oregon or in my case, San Diego)! I am sure I will be back for all of my piercing/body jewelry needs in the future! Thank you so much for the...