Ear piercings are an extremely popular type of body piercings. They are quick to do, heal easily, and rarely require anesthesia. There are about a dozen and a half ear piercing types. Which one to choose? How to select jewelry? How to care for an ear piercing? Keep scrolling to find the answers.
General Tips
- Get your ears pierced in a salon! A professional piercer follows all sanitary and hygienic requirements, will pierce your ears quickly and efficiently and tell you all about aftercare.
- If this is your first ear piercing, we recommend starting with your earlobes. After they heal, you can move on to more difficult piercing types. If you want a more interesting first piercing, go for a double, triple, or transverse earlobe piercing.
- Ear cartilage piercings are painful and take a long time to heal. Keep this in mind when you are choosing a placement.
- Pick jewelry from titanium, platinum, or surgical steel for a new piercing. Consult with your piercer about what jewelry type to use.
Ear Piercing Types
Ear piercings can be divided into two groups according to their placement: in the earlobe area or cartilage area. Earlobes are easy and rather painless to pierce and take 6-8 weeks to heal with proper care. Cartilage offers a wide variety of placements, but is more painful and heals for 12-20 weeks.
Standard Earlobe Piercing
This is a classic piercing type. It’s quick to do, heals easily, and does not cause any discomfort.
Double/Triple Earlobe Piercing
It provides for making two or three holes for jewelry. An earlobe can’t fit in more holes. This type is for those who want to start with something simple, yet unusual.
Transverse Earlobe Piercing
In a transverse piercing, the earlobe is pierced from side to side. This is not the most common, yet definitely the most interesting variation.
Stretched Earlobe
A standard earlobe piercing can be stretched with the help of tapers to insert tunnels or plugs of a wide diameter. When the ear heals, you can go even bigger. The diameter of the hole varies from 10 to 15 mm, sometimes more.
Helix
A helix piercing is a perforation of the upper part of the ear. It is not too painful, so you can get several perforations at once.
Important! After healing, you will need to downsize your helix piercing and replace the initial jewelry piece with a smaller one to prevent the hole from deformation.
Forward Helix
This is a perforation of the helix closer to the head. If this area is rather big, you can get several piercings for different jewelry.
Conch
A conch piercing is located in the middle part of the auricle. It is painless and rarely gets injured as it sits quite deep.
Daith
This piercing is located in the cartilage right above the ear canal. It doesn’t get disturbed and injured easily, yet it’s still advised not to wear headphones for a couple of months.
Tragus
This is one of the most painful ear piercings. You shouldn’t sleep on this side or use headphones until it’s fully healed.
Antitragus
As the name suggests, it is located opposite to the tragus. Luckily, it’s not as painful.
Rook
This is a perforation of the cartilage between helix and daith, in the upper part of the inner fold.
Industrial
An industrial piercing is basically two holes in the upper part of the cartilage connected with a barbell. The initial piece should be from bioplastic, but later you can switch to titanium, steel, or platinum pieces.
Orbital
This type resembles industrial, but is meant for a ring instead of a barbell. This is why a piercer carefully measures the distance between the two holes for a particular earring.
Snug
A snug piercing passes through the antihelix. It is one of the most painful types and can take a lot of time to heal.
Ear Jewelry
Well-chosen jewelry will fit in the hole nicely, ensure quick healing, make for a great look, and won’t cause complications. When you are choosing jewelry for your ear piercings, consult with your piercer: they know better which jewelry piece is best for which ear piercing. Remember that earrings should not contain nickel as it causes an allergic reaction. Your best choice is titanium or platinum jewelry or pieces from bioplastic or surgical steel.
Ear jewelry types
- Barbell. It is a straight bar with beads on each end. It is used in industrial piercings and can be replaced with a chain.
- Labret — a short straight barbell with beads, discs, or pointy tips on each end. It somewhat resembles studs that feature decorative elements like gems or large beads on each end.
- Ring. It is a classic jewelry type that can be adorned with gems or other elements.
- Curved barbell. It is a barbell with a slight curvature and balls or other elements on the ends.
- Circular barbell, also called a horseshoe barbell.
- Clicker ring — a ring with a clasp.
- Tunnel — a round hollow ring of a large diameter for a stretched earlobe.
- Plug. A short cylindrical piece for a stretched earlobe.
Contraindications
Before you get your ears pierced in a salon or at home, study the contraindications. Let’s look at them:
- acne;
- eczema;
- blood disorders;
- diabetes;
- a head injury in the past;
- pregnancy;
- any form of acute viral respiratory infection.
Aftercare
Reddening and swelling in the area of a new piercing in the first week are considered normal. Any piercing will heal for at least six weeks. Here’s what you need to do to help your piercing heal well:
- sleep on your back;
- do not remove the jewelry;
- do not touch the piercing;
- carefully put on and take off clothes;
- do not let cosmetics come in touch with the piercing;
- do not take hot baths or visit saunas and swimming pools.
Tip: Right after getting a piercing and sanitizing it, you can cover it with an adhesive bandage to make sure that the piece will not get caught in clothing.
How to care for a new ear piercing:
- Wash your hands with soap;
- Remove an adhesive bandage, if you are wearing one;
- Clean the piercing with sodium chloride and sanitize it with antiseptic (for example, miramistin);
- Repeat twice a day for 6-8 weeks;
- Do not rotate the jewelry, because a disturbed wound will heal longer.
If the swelling, reddening, and pain do not wear off, or the wound starts festering, turn to a doctor.
In this article, we looked at the most popular ear piercing types. Visit the theYou gallery for more photos.
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