The founder of Studs got her start in Boston.
Founder Anna Harman
If you’ve been strolling the streets of Boston or scrolling Instagram, chances are you’ve come across Studs (studs.com), the joyful earring brand that’s taken piercings from the back rooms of tattoo parlors to the front windows of retail. The brightly lit studios feature a dizzying array of jewelry and “earscapes” for every part of your ear. The atmosphere is cheeky and approachable with lots of neon, but just sterile enough to feel trustworthy with needles. The space appeals to someone at an age that’s too old for Claire’s at the mall and too discerning for the selection of jewelry at a tattoo parlor. The approximate age that founder and Boston University Law School grad Anna Harman was when she wanted to get a new piercing.
“I went to get another piercing when I was in my thirties at a premium place in New York City that was very fancy, but didn’t take appointments. There was a two hour wait, so I ended up going to a nearby tattoo parlor. The piercing experience was great, but the jewelry was terrible and it was expensive. My co-founder Lisa Bubbers and I saw an opportunity for something else and the idea of Studs was born,” says Harman.
The Newbury Street studio’s interior and exterior.
A native of Westchester, New York and a graduate of Princeton, Harman landed at Boston University partly because of its practical academic approach and partly because of her fondness for Boston—as a kid she visited her uncle frequently who lived here. During her three-year tenure in Boston she ended up falling in love with her now husband, as well as the pizza at Coppa and the sweets at Tatte. She and her family continue to return here often, visiting her in-laws and spending summers on Nantucket.
Harman practiced law for a time after graduation, but she always knew she wanted to start her own business. Once the idea for a brave new world of ear piercing was developed, Studs didn’t take long to cement its place in the zeitgeist.
The Newbury Street studio’s interior and exterior.
“We opened our first store in November of 2019 and our second store at the end of February 2020. I would say we meaningfully started to expand around April of 2021,” says Harman.
Studs currently has 21 studios nationwide. In Boston alone, there are three locations, on Newbury Street, at The Street in Chestnut Hill and the newest studio opened in the Seaport this past November. Harman has no plans of slowing down and hopes to open about ten new studios this year. The brand also has a mobile studio called Studs on Wheels that was launched in the summer of 2021. “We would love to bring Studs on Wheels to the east coast markets, in particular the summer destinations,” says Harman. So don’t be surprised if you’re soon able to enjoy a new earring with your lobster roll when the warm weather hits.
Photography by: COURTESY OF THE BRAND
