Ear Piercings Everywhere

It’s more common nowadays to find someone with their ears pierced, than without. Lucky for you readers, there are an abundance of ear piercings around the McNabb’s Tattoo and Fine Art shop! If you’ve read our previous posts, you know our two piercers are the talented Jess and Destiny. If you haven’t gotten the time to read our previous blog posts, they are easy to access through our site or through this link. These ladies are passionate about decorating bodies, and especially piercing ears.

Curious about the many ear piercing options?

The myriad of options for ear piercings can feel overwhelming. Here is a diagram of almost all the options of placement to pierce an ear.

As you can see, there are nearly too many ear piercings to keep track of! This diagram displays the most popular options, like lobes, helix (or cartilage), daith, conch, tragus, industrial bar, forward helix, and rook. Less common ear piercings are the forward snug, anti-tragus, and transverse lobe. There are even a few other ear piercings that aren’t portrayed here, like a vertical industrial, a trident industrial, and just about anything else that can be executed. A common misconception is the nature of the orbital piercing, which happens to be any ear piercing in which one piece of jewelry passed through two piercing holes.

And let us not forget gauges! Gauges are nearly a whole separate category of ear piercings. Diameter of gauges can be thought of as parentheses on either side of gauge sizes. For example, organic gauges often vary in size slightly, as they are natural materials. Regular ear piercings are 20 gauge, translating to just under a millimeter. Noses are pierced between an 18 and 20 gauge, while septums and rook jewelry are common examples of 16 gauges. Bellies, tongues, and nipples, are standard-sized at a 14 gauge. Therefore, ears can be stretched from just under a millimeter up to larger than an inch, even two, if executed properly and patiently with appropriate anatomy. Up to a particular size, and depending on an individual’s method and skin type, gauges can shrink back down to typical or almost typical size, when gauges are left out for an extended period of time.

Back to regular ear piercings!

Ear Piercings that are more than Decoration

While all of this is based on theory, some backed with research and empirical data, many experience certain piercings helping with various ailments.

Daith Piercings

Daith earrings are perhaps the most notable of all ear piercings to help with a common ailment, headaches and migraines. One of our very own piercers, Destiny, suffers from frequent migraines and experienced relief after getting her daith ear piercings on both sides.

One possible hang up with the daith piercing is that both daiths must be pierced for more effective headache/migraine therapy. This could be due to the brain rewiring nerve pathways, causing the deep pressure therapy to be ineffective on just one side.

Rook Piercings

Rook piercings can be effective for anxiety, and even quitting smoking. Destiny pierced a habitual smoker’s rook, as he came in determined to finally kick the habit. From his experience, the rook has helped his smoking habit. Perhaps the ease of anxiety has aided in the cessation of his smoking habit?

Below is another way to wear the rook piercing, with one of our opal-inlay hinged hoops.

Tragus Piercing

According to Almost Famous Body Piercing.com , tragus piercings can help with appetite control.

Conch Piercings

The conch piercing is said to be effective for generalized pain and ache relief. Here are a couple of images of conch piercings.

****Disclaimer: these claims are all based upon testimonials and not backed by any research on our part. Worst case scenario, you have a beautiful piece of jewelry decorating your ear piercings.

Fun Constellation Piercings

Constellation piercings are any group of piercings, either mimicking a star constellation or just a fun arrangement of piercings. Examples of constellations are shapes like triangles or squares, or just two piercings in a line.

Anything to add about ear piercings?

Please let us know in the comments if you have any additional information about ear piercings. Spread the knowledge!

As always, feel free to stop into 1505 South Five Mile Road in Boise, Idaho 83709, or call 208.375.7116 with any tattoo or piercing inquiries.

Thanks for the read!