I have a tunnel in my lip from my lip piercing! I can feel it when I poke my tongue around.

Beth W - that is the best "chicken ate my earring story" I have ever heard. Okay, it's the only one.

My hippie mom let her best friend pierce my ears when I was ten. Ice cube behind the ears, needle and thread through the lobe. I do not recommend you try this method.

I used to love all kinds of costume earrings, but now that I'm older I would love a pair of (big enough to notice) beautiful diamond studs.

I had my ears pierced around 10 which was way late in my culture it seems. I love earrings and wear them every day - I would feel naked without them!! I really love statement earrings but have eased off of them now that we are in the statement necklace era but I will at least wear diamond or gold studs in that case.

My close friend is latina (from Peru) and she just had her baby's ears pierced at 2 months. I was kind of shocked as I had no idea people did it that early!

Fascinating! I love reading all your stories and thoughts; thanks for sharing.

Angie - I can't wait to read your write-up on Monday! I seem to recall something about you wearing earrings on your wedding and not since then... but I'm not sure if I'm remembering correctly. Will have to wait 'til tomorrow to know for sure.

How funny that many of us had parents who refused to let us get pierced! I remember my late mom stating - when I was about 17 - that if I came home with pierced ears, she'd string me up from the ceiling through my pierce holes! When you think of all the things young women can do (pregnancy, drugs, stealing, drinking, etc), it's strange and hilariouos that something like piercing could be seen by some parents as something so negative.

The chicken pecking story is the best, BethW! Can you imagine if you'd sold your bird to a chicken processing plant and somone ended up buying its meat at a grocery store - roasted a chicken and found a gorgeous earring inside?!

I think I'm soon going to start a thread on the topic of "show me what earrings you're wearing today!" and have all of you post photos of your ears : ) I'm truly interested to see what you are wearing.

I too am among those who was forbidden to have my ears pierced growing up. I got it done while away at my freshman year in college. My father had a fit when I got off the plane when I came home for Easter with safety pins in my ears. I don't think the crew cut and dog collar I was sporting helped much.
I love wearing earrings but stopped wearing them during the momjeans-and-I-give-up-dresses-years. One of them grew shut and I opened it back up. It took forever to heal. As I've gotten older I heal very slowly.
I wear earrings everyday now. And having just gotten my hair cropped off quite short I've been shopping for new ones quite a bit. I stumbled on a site that has some really unusual earrings. They have some very cool non-pierced options. You might want to take a peek. http://www.harrymason.com Check out the earwraps, earcuffs, and hook earrings. I know these styles are not for everyone but I think they're very fun.

I wasn't allowed to have mine pierced until my sister in law took me when I was 17. I also have a tragus piercing that I got when I was 29. I leave a diamond stud in it all the time. I absolutely love earrings - big dangly, hoopy ones, little dainty ones, any kind. : )

I had my nostril pierced in my 20's, but after a few years I lost the ring, and it closed up before I could get another one. For a while I talked about getting it re-done, but it never really healed right.

I got my ears pierced when I was 12 but I find wearing earrings is really uncomfortable so I eventually stopped wearing them when I was 17. I don't think I would ever have them re-pierced.

I love earrings! I wear them everyday. Sometimes stud earrings, other days hoops, yet others big and dangle style. I tend to wear bigger earrings the more hair I wear up so you see them better. Except I don't wear long earrings with collared shirts, too much rubbing against the shirt.

I have two holes in each ear and always wear a simple stud in the second holes. One ear technically has 3 holes, the first is stretched out. My first holes were done as a young child (or even baby whatever the youngest age you can have them done is). I apparently used to pull at the one ear, making it uneven. In high school I had the second holes done, and one ear, the third hole (to even out the first set of holes since the initial first hole in one ear was stretched out).

My only vice with earrings is, I do not like them very heavy. Often the larger earrings are heavy and I have to pass on them.

coming from a culture where girls have their ears pierced early, can someone explain to me why so many parents are dead against their teenage daughters (often in their late teens) getting their ears pierced? Most North American women seem to have pierced ears and the single ear piercing as far as I know is considered absolutely respectable--I see respectable elderly ladies with pierced ears. Is it the possibly unsanitary conditions under which the piercing is done?

It's good to hear so many people in favor of earrings -- I just got my ears pierced last Monday! My parents never forbid me to get them, but they didn't need to since I never wanted to as a teenager. Now at 27 I decided that I wanted it, so I went to the premier body piercing studio in town (overkill, I know, but it seemed like a better option than an 18 year old at Claire's), and had it done. I'm still surprised to see the studs every time I look in the mirror, but I think I'm going to really enjoy it. I'm already eyeing so many pairs of earrings it's not funny, but I'm going to hold off on getting any until it's safe to take out the piercing studs, since I don't want any temptation to take them out too soon!

C1, I can only speak for my personal experience. I grew up in a very rural conservative part of the country during the late 70s early 80s. My parents were very conservative and traditional (some would say old fashioned). In their opinion, pierced ears were only worn by 'fast women" (I feel this is very much a cultural difference). I got my ears pierced in college and was the first one in my family to have it done. After that, not only did my sisters have their ears pierced but my mother finally did as well. I made my own daughter wait until she was in jr. high to have hers pierced. Not because of the views of my parents but because I wanted to ensure she was mature enough to care for them herself. With some scary health issues that I had to deal with where she is concerned, I had no energy to worry about the initial care of dealing with piercings for her as well. Also, I felt that was a decision she should make for herself when she was mature enough to do so.
Hope that helps answer at least part of your question.

I have pierced ears and love wearing earrings, although for the most part I wear studs.

Hey Beth, do you mind if I borrow your "the chicken swallowed my diamond" story? I've lost one of my diamond studs and was planning on blaming it on the kids until I read how much better your story is!

Hi everyone this is my first post!

Any way, I have many piercing, some I did myself (20 years ago, forgive!) others were done professionally. So I say go for earrings! I wear all 15 of them every day.

Beth, LOL. Your chicken had good 'taste'! Bet she didn't understand being locked up for her efforts! My uncle's dog did the same to a gold pendant that swung too close when I bent down to pat her...I followed her around for days to no avail! I love wearing my diamond studs and rarely take them out.......I'll be wary of wandering chickens!

Put me in the club that has also lost diamond studs...I don't have any chickens to blame...only a husband

My Mum actually made me get my ears pierced as I had been wimping out since I was about 8. My younger sister got hers done before me!

this thread just reminded me a girl in high school who pierced her nose (by herself) during typing class. wow, blast from the past!

I never fully understood my mom's reasoning for refusing to let me get my ears pierced. Every time she gave a different reason. Sometimes it was because she saw a girl get one ripped out of her ear when she was little, sometimes it was because she was afraid of metal issues (I am allergic to gold, but fine with everything else) and frequently because "if God wanted you to have holes in your ears, He'd have put them there Himself" (I got the same rant when I asked to get highlights - although she seemed to think perms didn't fall under the same category). I have a feeling it was really because that was her mom's stance on pierced ears and she mostly did exactly what her mom would do, without questioning it. I have no idea why Grandma didn't like pierced ears.

Bisquitsmom, that is the saddest earring piercing story I've heard. That sounds terribly painful, a nightmare.

Like most American parents in the 60's-70's my parents didn't allow my sister and me to get our ears pierced. My mom always yelled, It's barbarec.

Secretly my best friends Mom pierced my ears along with her daughters ears, using the sewing needle, with a cork behind the ear method. Ouch. When my sister saw this, she went to my best friends house and had the mom pierce her ears too. I don't think our parents even noticed.

Later my mom somehow decided it wasn't barbarec anymore, and she went and got her ears pierced.

As a teen I enjoyed having a few pair of earrings. I never wore them consistantly, and the holes would heal up slightly so that the next time I put earrings in I would have to work at it and my ears would be very sore.

I forgot to mention that my earlobes grew a lump of scar tissues behind the holes, and they were always sensitive to metals. the whole thing was more uncomfortable than fun. I have large ears, so the earrings don't really look good on me. When I started reading YLF and found out that Angie doesn't wear earrings, it sort of gave me permission to not wear them too. My impression being that I wasn't dressed up if I didn't have earrings on gave way happily because just an evening with them in, would cause my ears to be sore the next day. I enjoy other jewelry like bracelets and necklaces.

Crazyone, I think that some American mothers in the years of late sixties didn't allow their daughters to have pierced ears because it wasn't something that they had done. It was new to some of them.

I didn't get my ears pierced till I was 21, simply because prior to then I didn't care to have it done. I was a huge tomboy and my mom was/is the hugest tomboy ever. She still does not have her ears pierced and she's 55! But at 21 I decided I wanted to be able to wear dangly earrings, so I had it done. I had a bear of a time with infections and such, and once my husband had to repierce the back with the piercing stud, but now it's been 6 years and I still love earrings and wear them every day. I have trouble finding necklaces that I like and pairing them well with outfits, but earrings I have no trouble with. I love them!

I never wanted my ears pierced, but my younger sisters did. My mum said we couldn't have it done until we were 13 and couldn't understand why anyone wanted to do it at all. In the end my middle sister talked my mum into allowing it a year early, and eventually convinced my mum to get her own ears pierced too.

To this day I'm the only one in the family who doesn't have pierced ears! I'm not much good at accessories so it hasn't really been on my radar until lately.

Goldie- you are very smart to go to a piercing studio, rather than the mall. It's much more hygentic and less likely to cause any health problems the way they do it. When I have my dd's ears pierced, we are taking her to a body piercing studio as well.

This thread has caused me to have a "be true to yourself" reassertion - inspired by all this talk of earrings, I bought some (for me) giant hoops (marked "hypoallergenic" - ha!) yesterday. I put one on for maybe all of two minutes, but...

- it took forever to get it in - I seem to lack some necessary spatial awareness gene that would allow me to look at myself, my hand, my ear and the earring in the mirror and actually get anything where it goes, and

- the ear I put it in is still swollen and painful this morning.

So back to Target they go. I don't wear earrings, and that's ok.

Thanks, San...thats very sweet of you to comment. It did cause bad blood between us for quite a while and is the reason I cant wear posts- the scars show too much, but if I wear dangly ones they cover most of them...I dont wear earrings much cuz everytime I look at my ears I just see the scars...

Katja, take the claims of 'hypoallergenic' from somewhere like Target doubtfully. Most cheap earrings are made out of base metal mixtures and can cause sensitivity in some people, particularly if you don't wear earrings that much. I find that when I haven't worn earrings for a while, some of my earrings will bother me, but if I'm in the habit of wearing them frequently they bother me much less. You don't have to spend a lot of $, just get them from somewhere where you know what they're made of.

Crazyone, I agree with Refugee - pierced ears used to be seen as a sign of 'trashiness' and my grandmother thought of them as the province of 'loose women' until the day she died. My mom (~55) has never had pierced ears. She wears earrings a lot, when she dresses up, but has had many years to collect a set of nice clip-on earrings - you don't see them in stores hardly ever these days.

Because my mom never had pierced ears, and she wanted to make sure that I could take care of them myself (she also kept my hair short until I was considered old enough to take care of it myself), she made me wait until I was in middle school (~13 I think) to get pierced ears. I had to get them done at the doctor's office - which was a mistake because the nurse used the same piercing gun set that the mall stores used, *and* she was inexperienced in using it. They took a while to heal partially because I didn't know the right aftercare (used harsh chemicals to 'clean' the area).

When I was in college I got a second hole in my left ear, then a second hole in the right and third in the left. I still like the look of two sets of earrings, but my second holes are all-but-healed-over; I haven't tried to put anything in them in years. Partially that look went out of fashion and I also got tired of futzing with it. You can feel the holes but they're not visible unless you look very closely.

A close friend since college has multiple piercings - nose and ear cartilage - and because of her I know that going to a real piercer is key, whether you're getting something complicated done or not.

Now that I have short hair again I think earrings are particularly effective but as I look at my earring collection I realize it's kind of blah and old. I don't regret having my ears pierced, but I'm glad I made the decision myself. Just in my opinion, I find the fact that some people have their babies' ears pierced a little creepy - what if they don't like it when they're older? It's not like a hairstyle or an outfit that isn't permanent.

I had my ears pierced when I was three years old, so I had no say in it. In my tweens and teens, when all of the other girls in my class were begging their parents to let them get their ears pierced, I couldn't care less. I think I might have gone about 10 years at one point without putting an earring in my ear, because I just didn't care (I also never had an issue with my ear holes closing up).

Since I started making my own jewelry a few years ago, I definitely wear earrings a lot more, and I enjoy having them as an option, particularly when my hair is pulled back.

As for why parents don't allow their daughters to get their ears pierced, I have a few theories. Where I grew up, almost every girl I knew had to wait until she was 12. I didn't know anyone who was prohibited past that age, however. I always got the impression parents thought it was something "grown up" and that's why their daughters had to wait. Of course, the result of the prohibition was that those girls were all absolutely obsessed with getting their ears pierced and would constantly talk about it, whereas I had no interest in actually wearing earrings. I think it's another example of wanting something because you can't have it.

For parents who make their children wait until they are true adults (18 or older), I imagine the reasoning is more akin to not letting your kid get a tattoo: earrings are a permanent change to your body, so perhaps they feel that their daughters should be adults before deciding to take something like that on.

Although I didn't have a choice in the matter, I am glad mine were done when they were. I can be a wimp and imagine I would have been afraid to get it done later in life, but I do appreciate the fact that I can wear earrings. I also suspect that the fact my ears never close up could be connected to my young age at the time. And because my ear lobes were smaller when I had it done, there was less space to put the holes, which means that they are still very even.

"this thread just reminded me a girl in high school who pierced her nose (by herself) during typing class." WOW. That's quite some typing class!

I'm late to this post, but like Tarzy and San, my ears were pierced with a needle, thread, and ice cube when I was in college. My roommates and I pierced each other's ears. There may have been alcohol involved, but I won't swear to it. Maybe that explains why one hole is lower than the other!

Yublocka, I just saw your post.

Yes, I have non-ear piercings. My navel is pierced as is my nose (left nostril). I was probably 32 or so (a while back!) and I remember my mother commenting, "Aren't you too old for that now?"

My response was, "No, but I -am- too hold for my mother to be commenting on my state of dress." Of course we have this issue every now and again. I'm recently tattooed (again) and it's a rather large piece this time around. Very visible in anything with a back that isn't right up to my nape or sleeveless. My mother doesn't like to stand out. Sadly she raised a daughter who does.

Mac, thank you for this thread! All of this talk about pierced ears and metal sensitivities has finally inspired me to do something I've needed to do for a long time.

From here on out, I promise to only wear earrings that are supposed to be safe for my sensitive ears. I will not under any circumstances put in a pair that I know hurt my ears. If I can stick to this, it will give me a good clean test of whether even supposedly safe earrings are do-able for me or not. If I can find that out, I can consider whether or not to have the ear wires on bad pairs converted.

Maya, and anyone else who has the weird "repiercing" issue--any suggestions on making this easier? It's such a pain, and it definitely contributes to ear irritation.

Katja, I also wanted to echo the warning to stay away from cheap earrings even if they say they are hypoallergenic. Many, many things that say hypoallergenic are still contaminated with nickel and/or other things one might be sensitive to. Titanium can usually be relied upon to be nickel free.