Ear piercing later in life

zenmaster

Had mine done a few years ago (aged 48), at the kids' insistance (mind you, I really wanted to), in Camden Market for £2.50. Quite painless but probably not for the squeamish due to the hygeine arrangements (or lack of).

I had a stud for a couple of weeks then went for a discreet hoop. I thought I looked quite sexy .

Had a slight problem on New Years Eve a few weeks later, when I arrived home after a bit too much festivity. I tried to replace the hoop with the sleeper (in the dark). Woke up with about 15 holes in my ear and my face covered in blood.

Last year my daughter bought a pair of dice studs. She wore one and I the other. Nice father/daughter bonding I thought. Sadly, whilst I was shaving one day I managed to slice the dice off with the razor and I have been earingless ever since.

I would dearly love to to get another hoop but, to be honest I keep forgetting when I am in a position to buy one.

Also I now work with a completely different set of people than I did before and I am sure that they would view it as a product of my mid-life crisis :eek:

julynne

Savvy Sue,
Not sure if you have already pierced your ears, or if someone has already mentioned this in one of the 42 posts, but just be aware that an allergic reaction could occur if you are nickel-intolerant (as i am)..so do check with the piercer. I don't mean to put you off but thought this is an important factor.

I generally stick with sterling silver (925) earrings, my ears seem to be okay with them. The 925 denotes the percentage of silver.
But since you prefer gold to silver, I would suggest 22K gold (916) which seems to be quite rare in the UK. The 916 means it's 91.6% gold (22K divided by 24K X100). 916 gold is just about hard enough to be used as earrings although it can still bend slightly if you're not careful. You can get 916 earrings quite cheap (after conversion from Ringgit to GBP but please do factor in your travel costs) in the Far East, in countries like Malaysia (sold by grammes, approximately £11/g as of Feb 2006). In Malaysia, 916 gold jewellery should come with a "certificate" which should state how many grammes of gold is contained, price per gramme, nominal cost for workmanship and total cost paid for gold and workmanship. I guess if you're going for a holiday in the region anyway then travel costs can be discounted. Although it's not pure gold as such, I've personally not had any problems with any allergies.(I'm VERY nickel intolerant)

Hope this helps and good luck!

julynne

juno

If you get it done at a decent piercing studio, you won't have problems with nickel allergies, as they use decent studs and not cheap crap.

Pure gold is too soft to be used for studs, and anything else will have other stuff added to make it harder and then you'll probably still have problems with allergies.

Even if you don't have allergies, cheap studs with lots of nickel in will turn your skin grey.

In other news, my ears are at 3.2mm now and I have flesh tunnels!

Ken-Dodds-Hairy-Knodule

I'll second getting it done at somewhere decent using a cannula.

'piercing' guns are awful things and should be illegal.

pavlovs_dog

julynne wrote:

I generally stick with sterling silver (925) earrings, my ears seem to be okay with them.
But since you prefer gold to silver, I would suggest 22K gold (916) which seems to be quite rare in the UK. You can get 916 earrings quite cheap (after conversion from Ringgit to GBP but please do factor in your travel costs) in the Far East, in countries like Malaysia (sold by grammes, approximately £11/g as of Feb 2006).

for anyone who is interested, it is possible to get gold jewellery with a higher gold content in the uk - from your local asian/hindu jeweller.

their jewellery is often at least 23k, if not higher - they quite often refuse to buy anything lower (im led to believe that gold is seen as a good means of investment in their culture, as it tends to keep its value).

also, it is very, very unlikely that you will find a pair of earrings with a hallmark. it doesnt matter how high the gold content is, the likelyhood of you finding a hallmark is slim. this is because at the thickness required for earrings, the gold is not strong enough to withstand being hallmarked.

fact of the day for you

arkonite_babe

Savvy Sue, I'm well with Pavlovs dog on the piercing issue. I have several piercings (in upper ears and other places ) never had any problems with the tattoo studio ones. The earlobes done with a gun when I was younger, now that's a whole other issue. Two of the earlobe ones I still can't leave out for any length of time and they cause bother when I put an earring back in. Now that I can only wear one pair to work, I'm sure my wee lobes will be on fire when I put studs or sleepers back in the other holes :eek:

Savvy_Sue

Hi guys and girls, I haven't had it done yet. I still can't decide if I want to or not. Doesn't help that DH is cool about the idea. I think he can, intellectually, see the difference between a discreet (or not so discreet!) pair of earrings, and full pierced body armour plus a tasteful tattoo or two. But emotionally, he still wonders why anyone would want to do ANY of that.

juno wrote:

In other news, my ears are at 3.2mm now and I have flesh tunnels!

:eek: I'm not really sure I wanted to know that! :rotfl:

gelato_cat

Hiya

I went through 25 years of life with no piercings and now have three in each ear

I had all mine done at Claire's Accessories. It was fine. The first pair, I had one girl on either side doing it at the same time - I was worried about the pain and didn't want to do one and then not feel like I could face having the other one done!

It cost about £8 for silver or gold studs. It only hurt the instant that the ears were pierced. After that it throbbed a bit but after a while you can't feel anything (even the earrings).

They give you some stuff to wash your piercings in to keep them clean and recommend that you keep the studs in for six weeks. After that you can change earrings. They do say you have to use post ones (ie not fish hook ones) for six months (I think) but I switched to dangly fish hook ones straightaway.

Six weeks after the first set, I went back to have my ears pierced a second time. A year later I had the third set put in.

It really is nothing to worry about. Any pain is momentary and I haven't regretted any of mine! People used to buy me earrings before I had my ears done so at least I can wear them now!

HTH

Suze

Savvy_Sue wrote:

Well, I'm not quite a bona fide poster on this board, but I will be soon, and I'm beginning to think I might like to get my ears pierced. I like wearing earrings, but it's darned near impossible to get them with a screw fitting for unpierced ears. And I've just had an early pressie from my family of a lovely chain with small pearls and a pink pendant, and I'm told there are matching earrings available ...

So, has anyone else had this done later in life? I suppose that even if not, some of you will have been through this with your offspring, which I haven't had to with the boys - yet!

So where would I go? How much should I expect to pay, for one hole in each lobe and good quality studs? Is it hard to prevent infection? Will it take a long time to 'look after' my new ears? Will it take long to 'get used to' the feeling of studs? Will dangly ones drive me round the bend? Etc etc etc.

Oh, and of course, WILL IT HURT? :rotfl:

arkonite_babe

juno wrote:

In other news, my ears are at 3.2mm now and I have flesh tunnels!

Does it hurt Juno?? I would like that from the point my piercings wouldn't close, but I wouldn't want them verry big. I've seen some which are huge and look truely awful

juno

arkonite_babe wrote:

Does it hurt Juno?? I would like that from the point my piercings wouldn't close, but I wouldn't want them verry big. I've seen some which are huge and look truely awful

If you stretch properly, it should not hurt. You only go up tiny steps at a time, and you should leave it a while between stretches. It's recommended you leave it about a month before going to the next size.

You're probably only at 18g (1m), but some places do 20g (I have no idea how big it is, but it's smaller). So first you should only go to 16g (1.2mm). You could go to 14g (1.6mm), but it might be more of a squeeze.

Stretching is quite simple. You need to have a warm bath or shower, as it makes your skin more supple. Then wash your hands (you really need clean hands when touching any piercing), put some KY Jelly or similar lubricant on the new jewellery, and try to slide it in the hole slowly. It should go in easily, but if it doesn't then don't force it.

You shouldn't really need tapers or insertion pins if you're only stretching a bit. I've got up to my 3.2mm without them!

there's a bit about stretching here (but icky photos)
I buy my jewellery from BJS

I've got my 4mm tunnels ready for my next stretch, but I'm not doing that for about a month. And I'm noly intending to go to 8mm, but I might stop at 6mm. I really want these, and I'm wearing these currently