DO NOT go to Claire's for piercings. Don't get piercings by a gun or from shop workers who are not trained and experienced piercers. Go to a professional piercers. You should be able to find one in your town by Googling it.
I'd also advise against a forward helix or a helix. Different people have different experiences but I got both and they were a total disaster (I have other piercings which are fine) and I have friends who got helixes which went bad too (that didn't stop me at the time). You can't clean behind the forward helix because it's such a tight little space at the back of the piercing and the pain is intense when you try - in order to clean it you have to move it which is always best avoided. So it's really hard to get it clean and to settle and heal up. The pain of the piercing wasn't that bad (not pleasant - it felt like a hot poker being stabbed through) but the pain afterwards over the next few days/weeks/months was awful. My helix ended up getting a cartilage bump (my friend got one of these and had to have it removed surgically) so I took it out before it grew big (it's gone now) and the forward helix never healed and was infected (so gross) and I'd catch every time I washed/combed/dried my hair and it felt like the worst pain ever so I just took it out and let it heal.
My only ear piercings which healed nicely and don't bother me at all are my lobes and upper lobes. None of them go through cartilage. I've personally found cartilage piercings to be nothing but trouble but I'd recommend the upper lobe.
Edit: regarding pain - anything through the flesh is pretty easy, you'll feel a stabbing sensation which is over quite quickly. Anything through cartilage is very unpleasant and you feel and hear it pop through the cartilage. The numbing gel they use only numbs the surface of the skin so it does practically nothing to dull the pain. It might also take a few attempts to get it through the cartilage (as mine did) which is not nice to experience. I felt like my ear was on fire for about an hour after my cartilage piercings. I've also had a navel piercing and tattoo work and neither of those came close to the pain of cartilage piercing. In fact, if I had to do any of them again I'd easily pick tattoo work and I had that done on very boney area which is supposedly the most painful area.