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7 Ear Piercing Ideas That'll Give You The Chicest Curated Lobe
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There is no such thing as too many earrings — but there is a practical problem of not having enough piercings to showcase your curation all at once. The solution? Get a curated and chic stack of holes to stick studs and hoops and all other jewels into. The issue? Expanding the landscape of your ear piercings is not foolproof or intuitive, especially if you don't want it to look too cluttered or chaotic. So Bustle spoke to experts for the lowdown on different ear piercings to help you strategize before booking an appointment.
First things first: There are two basic categories of ear piercings — non-cartilage and cartilage. The former is on places like the lobe, aka areas with thin skin that are associated with a less painful piercing. Cartilage piercings, on the other hand, are where the skin is thicker and harder, which means these tend to be higher on the pain scale — think of tragus and helix piercings as prime examples.
Whether you sit down with a professional piercer and plot out the final vision of your ear or curate your lobes piecemeal, there are certain things experts say you need to know about rocking multiple piercings. Read on for guide along with some chic ear piercing ideas for inspo.
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What To Know Before Getting Multiple Piercings On One EarAlthough it can be tempting to deck your lobes with all of your dream piercings at once, your safest bet is to only get two done at a time, says Studs piercer Ash Abrego. "The more piercings you get at once, the more trauma you are putting your body through," she explains. This means there will be a higher chance of irritation, she says, which can hinder the healing process.
It can be wise to work on one ear at a time, says Tim Bovasso, piercing experience manager at Banter By Piercing Pagoda. "Have [your piercings] performed on the same side so you can use the other ear to sleep on and talk on the phone," he tells Bustle. Once the first ear is healed enough, you can move to the other side.
In your journey for an adorned ear, Abrego recommends starting simple with lobe piercings. "They have the shortest healing time and will give you a chance to test out ear piercings," she says. This means the two "default" or traditional piercings on the lower part of the lobe.
Then you can go for the more complex ones, like the helix, flat, and tragus, says Bovasso. He suggests grouping your piercings by healing time and complexity. For example, two side-by-side lobe piercings will heal at a similar rate while cartilage piercings will be a longer process (more on that below).
Different Ear PiercingsNow for the fun part: what you can pick from. Below are some of the most popular ear piercings you can get for showing off all your jewelry.
The HelixThe helix is a cartilage piercing (i.E. More painful) on the upper, curved part of the ear. "I recommend a helix because it's a highly visible piercing that is very versatile and can support a plethora of styles," Bovasso says. According to the Association of Professional Piercers (APP), these take between two and four months to heal.
The FlatThe flat piercing is another cartilage piercing and gets its name from being in the, well, flat part of the ear. These also take two to four months to heal, says Abrego.
The TragusThe tragus is on the innermost part of the ear where the appendage connects to the face. The experts say this is another one of the most common non-lobe piercings — but it's on the cartilage, so it's higher on the pain scale and will take roughly two to four months to heal after piercing.
The DaithYet another inner ear spot: "If you were asked to pinch the inside of your ear you would more than likely be grabbing the daith," Jim Kelly, piercing program training manager at Banter, tells Bustle. The piercing sits deep in your ear a little bit above the ear canal and is typically done with a hoop or circular barbell. As with the other cartilage piercings, it takes two to four months to heal.
The ConchThe conch is one of the less common ear piercings because its anatomy "varies vastly" from person to person, according to Kelly. The piercing sits on the innermost part of the ear toward the center and is done on a large cartilage surface area. Kelly advises that the initial piercing should always be a flat back stud although this can be changed to a hoop once it's healed (which takes two to four months).
The RookThe rook is another tricky piercing. It is done on the cartilage below a flat piercing but above the daith. "This piercing should be started with a curved barbell," Kelly says. "Once the piercing is healed [after two to four months or longer] it can be switched to a tight diameter hoop or a curved barbell with more adornments on it."
The LobeOf course, there's also the lobe, aka the lower part of your ear that's non-cartilage and is a common spot for first piercings. You can opt for a standard (the first spot on the bottom) or try a high lobe (or both) to stack your earring collection. These have a relatively smaller healing period and take around six to eight weeks, after which you can start switching the jewels you're wearing.
The JewelryThe initial jewelry you're pierced with will be taken care of by the professional at the studio. Still, there are things you should know to be sure you have a safe and sterile piercing experience. Note that all the aforementioned piercings are initially done with flat-backed studs, says Abrego. "We never pierce with hoops or butterfly-back earrings as these are not as safe for the piercing or healing process," she explains.
The jewelry you're pierced with should also be longer in length than typical jewelry. "This will accommodate swelling and allow ease of cleaning," Bovasso says. When it comes to the actual hardware, you need to be picky and not skimp out on materials. "It is critical to use hypoallergenic, non-oxidative metals with your initial piercing jewelry," Bovasso says. This means titanium or 14k through 18k gold.
Then, once your piercings are fully healed, there are no rules or limits to how you deck out your lobes. "It is all about balancing the placement of piercings on each ear to suit your personal style," Abrego explains. Have fun with the curation process.
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This article was originally published on Aug. 18, 2021
Belly Button Piercing: Is It Safe?
A belly button piercing is a piercing through the skin around your belly button or navel, usually enhanced by a ring or other ornament. If you want to get a belly button piercing, keep in mind that it only takes a few minutes to get it done, but it can take up to a year to heal. During that time--as well as after--you'll need to take extra care of this area.
A belly button piercing healing can take up to a year. (Photo credit: iStock/Getty Images)
How old do you have to be to get a belly button piercing?
It depends on where you live and where you're going to have the procedure done. For instance, Florida law says that if you're under 16, you must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. If you're between 16 and 18, you need a notarized consent form from your parent or guardian if they're not going with you.
Even if you live in a state or country with no particular restrictions, the body piercing studio might have rules about ages and body piercings. Some places won't do body piercings (apart from ears) for people under 18. Others will do them for people aged 14 and up with parental consent. One thing to think about is that body piercings require a lot of aftercare to avoid infection and teens often don't have the maturity or commitment to follow though with the aftercare instructions.
Belly button piercing price
The going rate is between $40 and $100. Some places include the price of the jewelry in their quoted fee; others charge that separately. Of course, higher-quality jewelry will cost more.
When you first get your navel pierced, you're likely to use a curved barbell, which is a banana-shaped stick with a ball on either end. It's usually made of titanium, which lessens the chance that you'll have an allergic reaction to the metal. It should be thick enough (around 14G [gauge]) to lessen the chance that your body rejects it. If the jewelry is too thin, your body may treat it like a splinter and make it come to the surface.
Once your navel has healed, you can try other styles like:
You can find these rings in a variety of metals ranging from stainless steel to titanium to 14-karat gold. Even if you do opt for something that dangles or sparkles, you'll likely wear a basic ring or barbell for everyday comfort.
If you want to have a belly button piercing, take steps to prevent problems:
Here's what to expect:
Don't get your belly button pierced with a piercing gun since it can damage your tissue and raise the chances of infection.
Belly button piercing pain
Piercing your belly button is considered to be one of the less painful piercings. People who've done it liken it to getting your ears pierced or a flu shot. This is because there's quite a bit of flesh around the navel area, unlike some other body parts, which lessens the pain. But a lot depends on the skill of the piercer and your pain tolerance. If you're very sensitive to pain, you can ask your piercer to rub a topical analgesic on your stomach before they get started.
That said, your navel area will be sore and throb and ache for a few days after the piercing.
Unlike pierced ears which take 4-6 weeks to heal, your belly button may not fully heal for up to 1 year. This is because your piercing is in a body part that moves all day. Think of all the bending and twisting you do around your middle. This slows down the healing process.
Your piercer should send you home with tips on how to keep your new piercing clean and infection-free.
General tips:
Belly button piercing cleaning
Although many people don't have any problems after they get a body piercing, you could have:
If you run into problems or decide you don't want it, simply take out your ring or stud. Fresh belly piercings tend to close quickly. If you've had one for years, it can close in a few weeks, but for some people it can take longer.
Make sure you clean the area regularly until it's fully healed. If you want to keep your piercing for the long term, put jewelry in it at all times.
Belly button piercing scar
Scarring is not uncommon. One study of 58 Brazilian medical students with piercings found that 24% of those with navel piercings had scars. Keloid scars (thick raised scars) are more common among people:
An unclean piercing needle or improper aftercare of your piercing can also lead to keloids. So can an allergic reaction to nickel if it's in the jewelry.
Keloids usually appear 3-12 months after your piercing. They're caused by an excess production of collagen in the skin, which makes it hard and rubbery. It's possible that melanin plays a role in the scarring, since keloids are more likely to appear in areas of the skin where there are a lot of cells that make pigment. Keloids tend to grow slowly. They may start out red or pink and end up one shade darker than your natural skin color.
You can get rid of the scars by applying silicone dressings, getting steroid injections, or undergoing keloid removal surgery.
Here are some signs your navel piercing is infected:
A infected belly button piercing may be the result of an unsterile needle. (Photo credit: Dr P. Marazzi/Science Source)
If you suspect your belly button is infected, you should:
If you continue to have a fever or the redness and swelling don't go away, see a doctor.
Navel piercings are one of the areas most likely to experience body rejection. That's because the piercing lies flat on the skin's surface.
Here's what's going on: First, the jewelry moves closer to the surface of the skin (called migration). Then it starts to eject out of the skin (called rejection). It's the same procedure your body would use if a splinter of glass or wood was lodged in your skin.
The most likely reasons for belly button piercing rejection are:
You can tell if your jewelry is migrating if:
Some health issues can make it harder for your body to heal or cause you to have a reaction after you get a piercing. Talk to your doctor first if you have:
If you are pregnant or overweight, a belly button ring could move around under your skin, which can lead to scarring.
If you have a navel piercing that was already healed before you got pregnant, there's no medical reason to take out your belly ring. But, as your stomach grows, you may decide to remove it because of discomfort or skin irritation. You may find your jewelry starts to migrate as well. The Association of Professional Piercers advises that you avoid "pregnancy jewelry" as they're not made of safe materials. But the piercing hole may close up without something in there, so talk to your piercer about options.
Don't get a belly button piercing while you're pregnant. You may get an infection if the aftercare of the piercing is not pristine. You could also get Hepatitis B or C, or HIV, if a non-sterile needle is used, though this is rare. Also, the changes your body's immune system undergoes during pregnancy might affect the healing of the navel area.
If you did a piercing before you realized you were pregnant, let your doctor know and seek their advice. Most likely they'll tell you to remove the jewelry and have your piercer reinsert it after your delivery.
Belly button piercing after pregnancy
Wait at least 3 months after you deliver your baby before getting a navel piercing to allow your body's immune system time to become normal again. You might want to wait even longer than that if you think about your little one resting on your stomach or near it, which could irritate your healing belly button.
If you had a piercing from before you were pregnant, you might find the hole has sagged with the rise and fall of your belly and you may wish to surgically close the hole up (umbilicoplasty), change the type of jewelry you use, or re-pierce it in a different spot.
If you have a true outie navel, you probably can't pierce it. This is because an outie is scar tissue from where the umbilical cord was cut and scar tissue shouldn't be pierced. With an innie navel, only surface skin is pierced. Also, due to the presence of blood vessels in an outie navel, there's a greater risk of infection spreading to the body's organs.
However, some people have a navel that's between an innie and an outie (i.E., they have lips of surface skin above and below their belly button), which may make it possible for piercing.
Belly button piercings take longer to heal than many other types of body modifications. Be sure to do the aftercare properly to avoid infections. And choose the right size and metal for your jewelry to avoid problems.
When can I change my belly ring?
You'll want to wait until your piercing has healed to do this, at least 6 months. Since it can take up to 12 months to be properly healed, check with your piercer before doing any jewelry changes. Sometimes it can be hard to tell whether your belly button is completely healed before the year is up, so let your piercer advise you.
Do you need a flat stomach for a belly button piercing?
Nope, you can have a belly and get a piercing. However, having loose skin around your ring could cause friction and irritation. You may have to talk to a few different piercers to find one with experience working with curvy people so you can get a good result. But don't let anyone shame you for wanting a navel piercing.
These 15 Facial Piercing Ideas Will Inspire Your Next Piercing Appointment
Body Art
These 15 Facial Piercing Ideas Will Inspire Your Next Piercing Appointment
A little extra metal never hurt nobody.
Updated: Feb. 20, 2024
Originally Published: April 22, 2022
Amy Sussman/WireImage/Getty Images
Move the bling party off your ears and onto the rest of your face by getting a facial piercing. You may not have thought about piercings beyond your eyebrows, nose, and your lips, but there's a whole world of piercing opportunity for you to add some metal and gems.
When getting a facial piercing, there are a few things you should do before showing up to your appointment. "Eat a healthy meal at least 4 hours before you receive your piercing. Drink plenty of water before and after," Brandon Simon, a senior piercer at Banter by Piercing Pagoda, tells Elite Daily. He also suggests that you "be open to your piercer's suggestions about jewelry selection and placement of your piercing." Sometimes your dream piercing doesn't quite work, can be at risk of moving as it heals, or just needs a little editing, so be willing to listen and adjust your plan.
Before deciding exactly what you want and where you'll put it, let's review the more obvious piercing spots. Having multiple ear piercings on your lobe to create the perfect stack is so commonplace now that you can buy pre-selected packs of earrings. (You can even buy them as cuffs.) Then there are conch, rook, and cartilage piercings, which have all become more trendy with the rise of constellation piercings. All of those piercing locations are lovely, but if you've already got a stud in each ear, facial piercings will feel like a new, exciting frontier.
Because there are so many different facial piercings you can get, this comprehensive guide to all the face piercings out there waiting for you will help narrow down where you decide to put your next one.
01
Facial Piercings: Vertical Eyebrow Piercing Shutterstock
"Eyebrows [are] a good, simple piercing to start with," Simon says. "They are relatively low on the discomfort scale and are easy to maintain as they are very visible." The most common eyebrow piercing is either with a hoop or barbell pierced vertically anywhere through the ridge. This piercing is most often placed above the outside corner of the eye at an angle that follows the arch of your brow.
02
Facial Piercings: Horizontal Eyebrow Piercing
Unsurprisingly, this next style of eyebrow piercing is pretty similar but, like its name suggests, it follows your eyebrow horizontally, running parallel to it. Since this piercing covers more space, rather than a rounded piece of jewelry, a bar is used. This lessens its likeness of it moving as the piercing heals and keeps its sharp angle.
03
Facial Piercings: Bridge Piercing Shutterstock
Going through the fleshy part of the upper part of your nose (not the bone) between your eyes, you can get a straight barbell piercing known as a bridge piercing. However, a bridge piercing doesn't work for everyone. If the skin on your nose is too thin or tight, your body is more likely to reject the piercing, which can cause it to migrate into a new position as it heals, so you definitely want to talk to your piercer ahead of time.
04
Facial Piercing: Anti-Eyebrow Piercing Shutterstock
Pretend your eyebrows are flipped. An anti-eyebrow piercing, sometimes known as a teardrop piercing, is a surface bar that mimics where the downturn of your eyebrow is and is pierced under your eye. This creates an almost mirror effect, and is usually always pierced with a straight barbell. Since it's located so close to your eye, you'll need to be very attentive to your piercer's aftercare instructions, which will include cleaning it at least twice a day with a saline solution.
05
Facial Piercing: Nose Piercing
Placed on either side of your nose, a standard nose piercing can be pierced with either a stud or a hoop that goes through your nose cartilage into your nostril. There are so many different jewelry styles made for this piercing so you can really play with it. But when you go for your piercing, be prepared for some pain. "Out of most of the facial piercings, the most popular, nostril, can be quite surprising for some," Simon says. It's "by no means excruciatingly painful," Simon adds, but it can "be a bit 'spicy' initially. However, this is a short-lived sensation."
06
Facial Piercing: Septum Samir Hussein/WireImage/Getty Images
You've probably heard of, and likely seen, septum piercings before. These feature a hoop or curved barbell in the soft tissue right in front of the cartilage between your two nostrils (known as the columella). But, despite being in a sensitive area, they're not too bad. "The proper healing time on a septum is 6-8 weeks for healing time and is relatively uneventful," Simon says.
07
Facial Piercing: Dimple Shutterstock
Just because you weren't born with dimples doesn't mean you can't make your own. This cheek piercing goes exactly where you think the dimples on your face would, and, yes, it does go all the way through your cheek. These take the longest to heal and it could be a full year until you feel like they're finally healed. Immediately after getting a dimple piercing, you should expect some blood in your month and swelling.
08
Facial Piercing: The Monroe Shutterstock
Named after a certain blonde bombshell, the Monroe piercing mimics Marilyn Monroe's iconic beauty mark, but with a little more sparkle. This piercing just requires a simple, flat-back stud. If you've ever (against better judgment) popped a zit on your upper lip, you know this skin is super sensitive. As scary as putting a needle through that may be, you only have to get through the one-two punch of first the needle followed by the jewelry going through your new piercing before it's over.
09
Facial Piercing: The Madonna Piercing Shutterstock
Marilyn Monroe isn't the only celebrity with a piercing named after her; Madonna also gets a shout out. The only difference between these two piercings is the Monroe is on the left side and Madonna is on the right. It's on the same pain level as the Monroe, and uses the same type of jewelry: labret studs. Unlike the studs you're used to using on your ears, labret studs are longer and have a flat back that you screw the jewelry into.
10
Facial Piercing: The Medusa Piercing Onnie A Koski/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images
To split the difference between those two lip piercings, the Medusa piercing was born. It's placed into your Cupid's bow between your upper lip and nose, and as far as lip piercings are concerned, this is as painful as it can get. "Medusa is more painful since the Cupid's bow area of your lips are more sensitive," Jenna Havoc, a piercer at Live by the Sword Tattoo, tells Elite Daily. This is because "there's more nerve endings in the Cupid's bow," she says.
11
Facial Piercing: Smiley Piercing Shutterstock
Do you know what your frenulum is? It's the thin wall of gum connecting your top lip to your gums. If you don't know what I'm talking about, run your tongue up past your front teeth and you'll find it. The skin here varies person by person, but the frenulum can be super thin so you'll definitely want to consult your piercer before deciding.
12
Facial Piercing: Labret Lip Piercing Shutterstock
Labret piercings are lip piercings you can get anywhere on your bottom lip or around it, it doesn't have to fall in the center of your face (but if you wanted it to, it could). You'll need to leave ample time for this piercing to heal, but a labret lip piercing functions as a super cute way to decorate your lip or lip line.
13
Facial Piercing: Snake Bites PYMCA/Universal Images Group/Getty Images
"Snake bites are two symmetrical piercings on the bottom lip," Havoc says. Even though this includes having two needles go through your face in one sitting, you shouldn't be too worried about pain. "Lip piercings are generally pretty easy since it's soft tissue," Havoc says. She says to expect only about a two to five out of 10 on the pain scale.
14
Facial Piercing: Shark Bites Shutterstock
Jaws only wishes it could have had this kind of glam. Shark bites are for when snake bites just aren't enough for you. Rather than just one set of two symmetrical piercings, shark bites include two piercings on both sides, so four in total. You can get a hoop or labret stud for these, but be warned that receiving four piercings in one sitting is a lot. "There's always that risk of a longer healing time," Havoc says. "Your body generally has its limits of what it can heal at once. So, if you have 2-3 or more piercings healing at once, your body doesn't know where to focus, leading to some pretty pissed off and irritated piercings."
15
Facial Piercing: Tongue Piercing Shutterstock
Welcome to the '80s. If you're feeling your punk aesthetic, there's one piece of jewelry you have to get: a tongue piercing. Generally done towards the tip of your tongue, you can get one or two tongue piercings to add some bling to your mouth.
Armed with these ideas, the only thing left to do is to stock up on saline solutions and book your next piercing appointment.
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This article was originally published on 04.22.22
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