Ear Piercings

This depends on your pain tolerance.

Your earlobe is considered one of the least painful parts of your ear as it's fleshy and doesn't contain many nerves.

You can choose a range of ear piercings based on the placement on your ear. They are:

• A standard lobe piercing is low-pain and heals in six to eight weeks. You can change your ear-piercing jewellery after three months of healing time. These are also known as traditional lobe piercings.
• A daith piercing, which is a medium pain, and in a slightly awkward position that hugs the ear cartilage on the inside of your ear. These piercings require a skilled piercer and take six to nine months to heal.
• A helix piercing is placed anywhere on the upper outer cartilage of the ear. The healing process for this piercing is around six months to one year, and it is medium pain.
• A forward helix piercing is also placed on the upper ear above your tragus. These piercings are tricky for piercers and must be lined up perfectly with your ear. They also hurt more than a standard lobe piercing and have a healing time of three to nine months.
• A tragus piercing on the tiny flap that covers your ear canal is moderately painful and takes time to heal. As the tragus protects the outer part of your ear canal, piercing through it will block where your earbuds go, so if you use earbuds a lot, this piercing may not be for you.
• An anti-tragus piercing sits directly opposite your tragus and is above the earlobe. Some people may not have a prominent enough tragus to be pierced, which means some piercers will decline the work. The healing time for this piercing is around nine months to a year and is a relatively high amount of pain.
• A conch piercing is located in the middle portion of your ear cartilage. The healing time for this piercing is three to nine months and is a medium to low amount of pain.
• An inner conch piercing is pierced through the middle shell of your ear, which is the thickest area of cartilage and closest to the ear canal. The pain is medium to high, and the healing time is three to nine months.
• An outer conch piercing is also pierced through the thickest piece of cartilage in your ear and sits lower. The healing time is three to nine months, and if you're a side sleeper, you should sleep on the opposite side of your new piercing until it's fully healed.
• An industrial piercing is a straight barbell piercing connecting one cartilage piercing to another on the upper ear. It's difficult to heal because it's two cartilage piercings instead of one, and it takes around nine months to a year to fully heal.

This piercing rule suggests that for every two piercings you have, there should be at least three units of space between them.

However, this only matters if you're after multiple piercings and your ear piercing specialist will be aware of this rule.

The most painful ear piercings are rook piercings, as the placement is on the upper ridge of the inner ear and requires a hole passing through very thick ear cartilage.

Another painful ear piercing is the snug piercing, which is placed on the inner conch and outer ridge of the ear.

While our experienced team will explain some aftercare steps for your piercings, it's generally important to keep some of these in mind:

• Only touch your new ear piercing with clean hands
• Clean around the front and back of the piercing two to three times a day by spraying saline solution
• Pat the piercing area dry with a clean paper towel
• Avoid putting your ears in the water while swimming in pools, hot tubs or open water like oceans
• Let your piercing heal, as ear piercings usually take six to 8 weeks to heal
• If you're a side sleeper, cover each ear piercing with a bandage so no lint can get into the piercing

This all comes down to your personal preference!

Many types of ear-piercing designs are available in studs, barbells, and rings in all colours and sizes.

However, to minimise the risk of allergic reaction and infection, it's recommended to get ear piercing jewellery made from the following metals:

• Implant grade titanium
• Surgical steel
• 14K or higher solid (not plated) gold

This depends on the type of piercing.

It can take from eight weeks to a year, but your ear piercing specialist will outline how long it will take to heal after your appointment.