The Different Kinds of Piercings You Can Get in Your Ear

Ear piercing has been popular across the world, in many cultures for generations and generations. It started becoming quite popular in the United States in the 1920's and has been gaining popularity since. It has always been a practice that mostly females did, but some men have always done it as well. Traditionally, the ear lobe was the only piercing most people would get. Times have changed and now there is at least 10 different piercing you can get done to your ear.

The first piercing is the most traditional, done through the earlobe. More than one piercing can be done in an earlobe, depending on how big the earlobe is and how far the piercings are spaced apart. It is the only ear piercing that is not all cartilage. This piercings usually take 4 - 6 weeks to heal and is usually done with a piercing gun and the jewelry used is a stud. The next kind of piercing is called the Tragus. This is the part of skin that protrudes from your head, covering the ear canal. This piercing can take 8 - 12 months to heal, as do most cartilage piercings. The Anti-Tragus piercing is the part of the ear right above the lobe and across from the Tragus. These three piercings are all done on the lower part of the ear.

Piercings that can be done in the middle part of the ear are Inner Conch, Daith, and Outer Conch. The Inner Conch is adjacent to the ear canal. The Outer Conch is the outermost part of the ear cartilage and is the flat part of the ear. It goes from the middle ear up to the upper part of the ear. The Daith piercing is located above the Tragus and goes through the fold in the inner most part of the cartilage.

The upper ear piercings consist of the Industrial, Helix, and Rook. The Industrial is done by piercing two holes in any part of the upper ear, preferable across the ear from each other, and then running a long barbell from one hole to the other. The Helix piercing is done in the part of the ear that curls around along the top edges of the ear. A variation of this piercing is called the Helix Orbital, which is done with a hoop going through two side by side holes in the Helix instead of hole than run front to back. The Rook piercing is done to the cartilage that is right above the ear canal.

Generally the cartilage piercing is done with a hollow needle instead of a piercing gun, although I have seen Outer Conch's pierced with a gun. The type of jewely usually used is a hoop that is 14 - 16 guage, to start out with.