Piercing Brand Rowan Hits Expansion Goals, Now Targets Upscale Malls

By Karen Dybis | November 04, 2026

Rowan is bringing its upscale piercing experience into new retail settings, allowing the brand known for its clinical piercing standards to expand and build the kind of experiences founder Louisa Schneider says her clients want in a piercing studio.

In early 2027, Rowan will open its first locations with the Forbes real estate portfolio, adding stores in metro Detroit’s tony Somerset Collection and South Florida’s The Gardens Mall. These stores are bespoke concepts tailored to their luxury settings, Schneider says.

“When we began having conversations with them, they have many of the ear-piercing companies already in their centers. But they really wanted something like Rowan that was unique in that we prioritize ear-piercing and the jewelry to accommodate that service in the best way—better than anyone else.”

The Forbes sites are especially gratifying not only because the malls initially passed on Rowan before saying “yes” to these locations, she adds. They also show how a brand committed to transparency in service, materials, and safety has changed how customers want to experience piercings.

Rowan interior — *Rowan grew based on piercing being an in-store experience but also sees sales growth through selling earrings online. It also has added more gold and diamonds to its selections.*

“Rowan has built its brand around being the safest piercing experience,” Schneider says. “And we do that by very intentionally only hiring licensed nurses. And, then, over the past decade, we have built a bespoke training program at our piercing institute.”

Rowan has grown rapidly, expanding to 100 studios in the past five years. Schneider calls her company a “category disruptor,” one that wants to change…well, everything about piercing. It’s a big move for Rowan, which started as an at-home service in 2018, grew into brick-and-mortar locations, and now is shifting to a luxury offering in select cities.

Schneider founded Rowan with both with an eye on business—she is a longtime entrepreneur, brand builder, and equities trader—and for safety. She saw mall-based piercing as an opportunity to change people’s experiences. Rather than be on display in what might not be a sterile environment, she moved the piercings inside and set up rigorous standards.

The Rowan Clinical Piercing Standard—yes, it is a trademarked phrase—uses only licensed nurses and only hypoallergenic, biocompatible earrings, which it says are safe for even the most sensitive ears. The brand had a medical advisory board. As a result, Rowan has an adverse outcome rate of less than 1% compared with the industry average of 30%, it says.

“Our nurses come to us already with baseline knowledge of blood-borne pathogen experience, safety, hygiene. They understand how to create a sterile station and utilize needles safely and effectively,” Schneider says. “They understand how to identify if a family member might be having a vasovagal reaction to a piercing and faint in the middle of the room. These are things that we experience daily as part of what we do as a medical procedure.”

Rowan piercing — *Rowan emphasizes safe, sterile, and private piercing areas.*

And, yes, she takes it all that seriously. Because it is. She has heard every piercing horror story that we collectively all have. Rowan wants to be the trusted piercing salon for everyone from infancy through their more mature moments, so that means taking care of people in a way that Schneider sees as the best.

“Historically, piercing wasn’t done as the most important or the most intentional part of a store,” she says. “For most companies, it was tacked on to a traditional tattoo parlor. It might be a service your pediatrician might perform because you didn’t know where else to go. But that’s not what they do. It was a place that your local jeweler or a chain of jewelry and knickknack stores might perform to drive foot traffic. But it was not their reason to exist.”

A piercing is a life moment, Schneider says. And she wants people to have good memories. Plus, that trust will translate into future purchases both in-store and online, like 14k gold earrings with natural or lab-grown diamonds and much more to come.

“The reason that I started the company is because I realized that it was only one of the few days I remembered as a child,” she says. “And it merited having its own brand around it because—guess what?—I was going to have a narrative around my ear-piercing and my ear jewelry for the rest of my life.”

Top: Rowan is upping its retail game as it starts to install more luxury piercing experiences in high-end malls. (Photos courtesy of Rowan)