Most people have piercings, and the most common ones are ear piercings. Depending on the country and people’s beliefs some parents pierce their kids’ ears when they’re still toddlers, others wait until they go to school, some of us get our earlobes pierced as teens and others wait even longer. But in most cases people don’t really think much of earlobe piercings, they’re considered to be safe and very common. When it comes to getting other parts of the ear pierced – that’s were myths start spreading. Nowadays, metals in jewellery are very common. So let’s talk about the kinds of ear piercings and what each of them looks like.

In general, there are 6 main piercings: helix, industrial, rook, conch, tragus, and lobe, obviously. But if you want to get into the specifics and name them all there’s also the forward helix, the anti-helix/snug, the antitragus, surface tragus, and upper lobe piercing, not to mention the orbital, the auricle and dermals.

Earlobe piercings have been very popular for ages, but lately, upper lobe piercings have been very trendy too. You have to admit they look incredibly cute with those tiny earrings. Same goes for cute little helix piercings, especially if you choose small yet intricate jewellery for it, something like a minimalist gold band or something with a sparkly tiny gem in it. 

All piercings hurt, it’s just part of the process. You’re literally making a small hole in your ear and that warrants some paint. But depending on the placement the pain can be minimal to quite noticeable. Piercing the cartilage is generally more painful and takes longer to heal, with the rook, tragus and conch scoring mid to high on the pain threshold.