Types of Ear Piercings

Types of Ear Piercings

Types of Ear Piercings

Body piercing has been a popular tradition since ages, but more than a tradition, it has emerged out to be an art. It refers to the act of puncturing or carving out holes into various body parts, usually for wearing jewelry. Ear piercing as well as nose piercing have been most popular and accepted forms of body piercing. Ear piercing, in particular has become a global practice, though its types and numbers vary across the world. The origins are not quite clear, but they are way back dated. Ancient tribes have been performing ear piercing since time immemorial; in fact, mummies with their ears pierced have been discovered in Egypt. Down the years, various types of ear piercings have been adopted by masses from theirs or other cultures. Ear piercing varies with the type of ear cartilage being pierced and also with the thickness of the hole. Generally, the piercings are of smaller thickness just to let a thin metal wire pass through, but there are practices of dermal punching and passing of thick objects through the pierced ears, known to the world. The growing variations and practices of ear piercing have given a boom to the jewelry industry where different beautiful earrings are being designed to adorn men and women worldwide. Various popular ear piercings have been described below:

Ear Piercings types
ear piercing diagram

Tragus Piercings:

Tragus is a part of our ear which is located at the opening of the ear and is formed of a fairly thick part of the ear cartilage. The process of tragus piercing involves small gauge piercing needles and the jewelry usually worn in the tragus is of the form of captive bead ring or thin circular wire rings. Though it is a comparatively robust form of ear piercing, but it may turn irritable at times. Wearing earphones during the heal time can be problematic in this type of piercing, however the chances of tearing or stretching are low.

Anti Tragus Piercings:

The anti tragus is located opposite parallel to the tragus towards the inside. It is kind of a protruding outward ridge placed lateral to the canal. Anti tragus piercing is rare to find, and is mostly sported by the adventurous ones who have a genuine love for ear piercings.  It is a distinct and unique style of ear piercing that will surely catch the eye of people. However, it is a painful practice and needs proper care and professional assistance at times.

Rook Piercings:

Rook piercing is regarded as one of the most painful and difficult to perform ear piercing. However, once done, it imparts you style that no other ear piercing can. This is because of the fact, that depending upon the ear shape, the rook may not be protruding enough to perform the piercing, plus the piercing has to be done in different ear cartilages. It occurs in the folding cartilage separating inner and outer conch and is therefore vulnerable to tearing. It is not possible to carry it out in ears that do not have this fold.

Daith Piercings:

The term “daith” has been coined from Hebrew language meaning wisdom. Daith piercing occurs in the inner ear cartilage that is located just above the ear canal opening. This inner ear cartilage is perforated to give way to thin wired jewelry. The needle employed for performing daith piercing is usually curved or have small receiver tubes at the opposite end, so as to prevent damage to other ear parts. Small bead ring type jewelries are worn in daith piercings that make it look cool and trendy.

Conch Piercings:

Conch ear piercing has been acquiring speedy popularity in recent years. There are two conchs present in our ear, the inner and outer one. While the piercing of the inner conch is performed at the ear cartilage’s centre, it requires an advanced and trained profession with special and thicker piercing needles. It is stylish since it lets you sport a classy gem or a barbell ear accessory. Outer conch piercing involves piercing of the outer cartilage of our ear and lesser complex mechanisms. However, conch piercing should not be confused with the helix piercing as the former is performed on the flat portion of the cartilage.

Industrial Piercings:

Industrial piercing is a more noticeable and out of the box type of ear piercing. It is often also referred to as Scaffold piercing. What happens in case of industrial piercing is that two punches are made, on the helix or the ear cartilage and a single long piece of jewelry is worn in them, connecting the two. In case of a vertical scaffold, the holes are carved in a vertical direction comparatively, and a similar long jewelry item is worn. The two ends of the long jewelry have two metal balls so as to prevent the jewelry piece from slip out. This kind of piercing has shown graphs of increasing popularity lately.

Anti Helix Piercings:

The anti helix ear piercing is also referred to as the “Snug piercing”. Snug piercing is carried out on the cartilage inside the ear rim which is basically a vertical fold. These piercings appear comparatively shallow to other forms. Curved ball bearing jewelry or circular rings often adorn the snug piercing. The anti helix is placed adjacent to helix and same jewels can be used in both piercings to give an attractive look. Anti helix piercing may not be as popular as helix piercing since the latter is more convenient, still there are many round the globe who have absolute love towards anti helix piercings.

Lobe Piercings:

Lobe piercing is the simplest and most popular form of ear piercing where the lobe at the bottom of the ear is perforated and jewelry is fixed in. It is also regarded the least painful of all as there is no cartilage involved and the number of nerve endings are less in comparison with other parts of the ear. It has been adopted as a trend-cum-tradition by people of most of the world communities. The widest range of earrings is available for ear lobe piercings, of varying lengths, colors and designs. Actually, this traditional form of ear piercing witnessed its popularity heights around three decades ago and since then, there has been no looking back. Multiple piercings and stretched piercing are variations of the ear lobe piercing.

Earlobe Gauging Piercings:

Lobe stretching or ear lobe gauging is one of the newest trends in the field of trendy ear piercings. Earlobe piercings that feature bigger diameter gems or piercings big enough to look through are new and unique. Among teens particularly, their influence has been prominent. The process involves stretching of healed lobe piercings to accommodate large sized earrings repeatedly in steps over a long time. However, the risk is high, as chances of tearing and bleeding exist, if careful and correct stretching is not undertaken. Plugs or eyelets being worn as stretched lobe jewelry are common. When it comes to cartilage piercings, dermal punching helps since stretching can lead to scars. Dermal punching is a technique of cutting out holes in cartilages to fix in large sized gems.

Helix Piercings:

The helix piercing is the  most popular kind of ear piercing where punctures are made in the upper ear, towards the rim, better known as the forward helix. Helix offers enough space for multiple piercings which are definitely in trend. Usually piercing guns are employed for puncturing the helix but bigger needles may also be used by a few. The helix piercing has found favoritism in the Western world where men and women both are least reluctant to go for it. Helix piercing is the leading fashion, you can’t be hanging out without noticing people with those attractive helix jewelry. Helix piercings often bear two ball earrings, metal rings, studs, beads or gem closed earrings of different colors. Multiple helix piercings forming colorful or bling patterns look really cool. The last decade has seen the sharpest rise in its popularity.


Leave a Reply