Founded in 1994, Apogee Body Piercing is San Diego's longest-established dedicated piercing studio — a women-owned shop on Newport Avenue stocking implant-grade titanium and 14k/18k solid gold jewelry from Anatometal, Industrial Strength, BVLA, Tawapa, and Kiwi Diamond. The piercing-only specialization distinguishes it from combined tattoo-and-piercing shops on the same Newport corridor including Ace Tattooing Co, where piercing runs as a secondary service rather than the core program. Walk-ins are accepted alongside the booked schedule, with in-person consultations available for nervous first-timers and for fitting threaded or threadless ends to healed piercings. The jewelry retail inventory — not the piercing itself — drives much of the repeat business, with collectors rebuying ends for healed pieces to swap in new gemstones or metals. High-end gold and gemstone work pairs with the fine-jewelry retail at Blondstone Jewelry Studio on the OB side of fine metalwork, since collectors building out healed piercings often cross-shop gold end styles between dedicated piercing studios and fine jewelers. The highest-complexity work is large-gauge stretching and the cluster-project sit-down — multiple piercings in a single appointment laid out around a healed map, using the full jewelry inventory for immediate end-fitting rather than the starter jewelry most beginner-focused shops install.