Aug. 11, 2023

A new boutique specializing in luxury body piercing and jewelry has opened in south Sioux Falls.

Brothers Lance and Brandon Dunlap opened Kind Find Jewelry & Piercing in a retail center at 3032 W. 57th St.

“With the way the world was going and all the hate, Kind Find seemed to fit the name I was going for,” Lance Dunlap said. “I personally have been through a lot of trauma that I had to recover and heal from. … I felt like people just needed to be a little bit nicer.” 

Lance Dunlap founded the first Kind Find Jewelry & Piercing in Colorado Springs and runs that location. Brandon Dunlap will run the new Sioux Falls location, which has been open for a couple of weeks.

Kind Find Jewelry & Piercing began as a piercing studio but now provides in-house crafted jewelry made from precious metals and gems in addition to jewelry repairs and online jewelry sales.

“Trends and styles seemed to heavily move toward precious stones, gold and diamonds,” Lance Dunlap said. 

“The brand came from a ring that I crafted that basically makes a nose piercing heal. This was almost an impossible task as a piercer.”

The piercing studio branded the healing piercing ring Finding Kindness, and the studio name came with it. 

At Kind Find Jewelry & Piercing, employees train extensively to understand the anatomy of piercing, Lance Dunlap said, resulting in expertise in understanding body shapes and what piercings are best for people.

“We guide customers further into styling themselves,” he said.

The service is a differentiator, Brandon Dunlap said.

“Many piercers are not super educated on anatomy and problem piercing,” he said. “We’ve really mastered this and will turn down piercings. We want to make sure people get the right piercing the first time. We do consultation and troubleshooting to determine if it’s right for someone and accommodating to different body shapes.”

The brothers are pursuing a trademark for the distinction of being “the first luxury piercing boutique” and said the business is in the process of becoming South Dakota’s first member of the Association of Professional Piercers.

“Often, piercing studios are treated as ‘low-class establishments’ that I wouldn’t want to bring my kid in,” Lance Dunlap said. “How are we going to be treated as professionals if we don’t have a professional environment?”

Kind Find has extensive environmental standards to minimize cross-contamination, he added. Lance Dunlap created a unique process of a set of swinging doors that separate the piercers’ sterilization process to the point of the actual piercing process. He also created a professional piercing education program that informs both piercers and those who plan to get a piercing of body piercing standards and safety guides.

The Sioux Falls location is by appointment only, and Brandon Dunlap currently does all piercings. Three training employees will come in as needed.

“It’s hard to put a timeline on our training period. Our piercers come to a point where they work on piercing but that training continues; we are all forever learning,” Lance Dunlap said. “The goal is to have a nice healthy team of people that are happy.” 

Paying competitively — “a living wage” — also is a focus, Brandon Dunlap said.

“That’s something that’s been a big problem in the industry — not even making enough to provide a safe service or run a legitimate business or provide for their staff.”