fern hill inspired this thread with a joke on another. And after yesterday, I am really in need of light thought about shiny groovy things that don't mean too much beyond themselves.

Or, I dunno: maybe you feel there's heavy significance in your earrings, so go for it.

I didn't get my ears pierced effectively until I was forty. I had tried years before, but I have exceptionally fleshy earlobes and the staple-gun routine didn't work because healing around studs takes forever in my lobes. But an old-fashioned middle European jeweller finally pierced me the old-fashioned way and gave me old-fashioned keepers that I could keep turning, and that worked.

I have some serious earrings, but mainly I have colourful junk. I like colourful junk. My very favourites, although I almost never have a chance to wear them, are the clusters of pink plastic disks that I think of as my synchronized-swimming earrings. I will take a picture of them and post it later. (No, I don't do synchronized swimming, but if I did, I would be wearing these earrings as I rose from the depths with a plastic smile and far too much make-up on my face.)

I have thick earlobes too (did get them pierced the old-fashioned way, but decades ago) so there are many post-type earrings I can't wear.

My favourites are dangly silver Middle-Eastern ones. I do have an old passport photo a couple of decades ago (when we were allowed to smile) with me wearing colourful wooden fish earrings from Brazil.

It's been ages since I've worn earrings at all, even though I really do love to wear them. Alas, I can only wear gold ones though - everything else gives me terrible allergic reactions. If I had a really nice, not too ostentatious, pair of earrings, I would probably put them on and never take them off, much like the necklace and ring I wear and never take off.

Actually, I'm waiting till I hit 40.

No, the real reason is that I'm a terrible wuss, and I don't see the point of poking a hole through a sensitive section of my skin. Plus, I have allergies.

My mum used to try and get me to wear those clip-n earrings, but that was just another form of torture she inflicted on me as a kid (along with wearing curlers at night so I'd look good for pictures.)

Yeah, I guess the non-mainstream earring thing is sort of boho and urban. Know a fair number of men, straight and gay, who wear them too - usually just one, unless they are punkoids with multiples.

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Originally posted by lagatta:
brebis, seeing as you do a lot of hands-on work too, I'm surprised you don't find finger-rings a pain. I always took them off and lost them when I was painting, sculpting, making bread, whatever.

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Originally posted by lagatta:
colourful wooden fish earrings from Brazil.

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Oh, I have/had several pairs of those, also from Indonesia. I also had parrots, but they disappeared (I'm *terrible* at losing the earrings with hooks) and I adore my polka-dotted pink and blue cats.

I loved earrings, had a large collection of cheap and cheerful ones. When I was about 20, boyfriend and I hit the highway in a VW bus (yup, the whole hippie deal, no flowers painted on it though). Bus was stolen in Phoenix, Arizona, with most of our possessions in it, including my earring collection.

Bummer. (I'm regressing. . . ) I gave up earring collecting for several years. But I started again and now have a smaller, but more select, assortment.

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Originally posted by lagatta:
brebis, seeing as you do a lot of hands-on work too, I'm surprised you don't find finger-rings a pain. I always took them off and lost them when I was painting, sculpting, making bread, whatever.

Yeah, I guess the non-mainstream earring thing is sort of boho and urban. Know a fair number of men, straight and gay, who wear them too - usually just one, unless they are punkoids with multiples.

Speaking of subjugation, I'm do for a touch-up of my greying roots.

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I object to the term "punkoids", as I find it highly oppressive! plus, I used to be a punkoid meself, and didn't wear earrings (although I did do the mohawk thing! Boy, were my parents impressed!). Don't paint us all with the same brush, you!

I think earrings (two r's or one?) are terrific. I like the long, dangly, silver ones, with all kinds of adornment on them, and stuff. Or, you know those hands that you see in the middle east? With the kind of bent thumb, and the eye in them? I like those earrings too. They look like this:

I avoided piercing my daughter's ears until this past summer. She's got such tiny earlobes it just didn't seem right. But after her best friend got it done we could postpone no longer! We took a family trip to the Rideau Centre. My husband got his ears pierced at the same time - now he gets to wear all the fun earrings I can't! Daughter chose some pretty blue semi-precious studs which suit her dainty lobes quite well. I'm surprised how much I like the look after all those years of balking.

[ 06 February 2006: Message edited by: Accidental Altruist ]

I don't have as many earrings as I used to. Mostly silver with semi-precious stones or interesting shapes. The blond guy likes to buy me amber. I'm just starting to get back to dangles now that my hair has grown out some. I look odd with big earrings and short hair -- my head is too small for them to look right.

edited to add: Ms B waited until she was 6 to get pierced ears. The blond guy insisted that she had to make up her own mind -- I'd have had them done when she was small. Ms T doesn't want to yet, but I suspect she will in a couple of years.

B set up the most awful howl when she got the first ear done, but stuck it out for the second. I wasn't sure, for a moment, that she would. I also took my niece in to have hers done when she was 5. She was such a brave little bug -- sat totally motionless after the first, just had tears well up in her eyes. After the second, she said "I don't wanna do this anymore!" Fortunately, we were all done.

[ 06 February 2006: Message edited by: Zoot ]

Martin's hand is called a Khamsa or Main de Fatma (Fatima) in the Maghreb and is worn among Arabs, Jews and Berbers, though the versions I've seen a lot in France don't have the eyes - think that is more a Turkish or other Middle Eastern thing. Usually filagree in gold or silver. Main de Fatma is a Muslim reference, but the good-luck symbol predates the Arabo-Muslim conquest.

I'm philosophically opposed to marring god's splendid handiwork with any such contrivances.

I also tend to worry that my own natural radiance, reflected off of shiny bangles, would blind passersby and cause traffic accidents and so on. So no jewelry, except for a modest necklace sometimes.

Also, the idea of an earring getting snagged on something makes me shudder. I'm very active, and that's something I'd worry about constantly. I can't look at earrings without feeling slightly nauseous. I keep imagining some poor woman screaming and clutching what's left of her ear.

Also, just chicken. Scared of having nails jammed through my skin.

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Originally posted by lagatta:
I knew Zoot would be on this thread as soon as her timezone logged into babble!

Martin's hand is called a Khamsa or Main de Fatma (Fatima) in the Maghreb and is worn among Arabs, Jews and Berbers, though the versions I've seen a lot in France don't have the eyes - think that is more a Turkish or other Middle Eastern thing. Usually filagree in gold or silver. Main de Fatma is a Muslim reference, but the good-luck symbol predates the Arabo-Muslim conquest.

In African (North African/West African) districts in Paris, there are jeweller's windows full of lovely dangly 18-carat gold filagree earrings - guess they are given as presents at weddings and other important life events. I've never been able to afford any while also having to spend on travelling. And Créoles - the big gold loops that look especially cunning on Black ladies. Indeed those wouldn't go with all shapes of heads.

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I'd have posted earlier, but we slept in an extra hour in honour of the blond guy's birthday.

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Originally posted by FabFabian:
I had my ears pierced when I was 7 for my 8th birthday. It was the most horrendous pain I ever experienced in my young life. My mother basically told me to stop whinging about it. Fast forward to 10, they got infected even though I was religious about cleaning my ear lobes. I left the earrings out for a few weeks and they closed up. I have never had them punched again, but I can feel where the scar tissue in my lobes are.

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That all stopped in univeristy for two reasons. One: some mornings is was all I could do to get dressed, brush my teeth, grab a coffee and get to class, and two: I had the misfortune of seeing someone have a stud torn out of their ear after catching it on a volleyball net. Not pretty.

These days, I have two holes in each ear. I had a third put in when I was treeplanting, but I took them out after a week. Not the best environment for healing. I usually wear gold sleepers, even when playing volleyball. I do have a couple pairs of nice earrings for 'occasions', but I haven't been able to get back into earrings.

[ 06 February 2006: Message edited by: clersal ]

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Also, the idea of an earring getting snagged on something makes me shudder. I'm very active, and that's something I'd worry about constantly. I can't look at earrings without feeling slightly nauseous. I keep imagining some poor woman screaming and clutching what's left of her ear.

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Originally posted by Cartman:
Thread drift
I always get nervous when I see a person eating and they have a piercing in their lips. I keep thinking the fork will get stuck or something.

The ear to nose piercings/chains from the 80's were pretty wild. Now they must have caught on things from time to time.

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Originally posted by fern hill:
A friend told me about her baby grabbing an earring and oouuuch ripping it out. After that I was always very careful around babies and would take earrings off around them. Dangerous critters, babies. And they do go for earrings.

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Originally posted by skdadl:
Martin: which end is the thumb? (Very nice, btw.)

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I...don't...know...

Oh, and thanks for the summary, lagatta! Very informative.

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Originally posted by fern hill:
Dangerous critters, babies.

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Originally posted by ephemeral:
But tell me this. Why would anybody want to make holes in their ears when those clip-ons are available? We've heard skdadl's explanation, but it can't be the same reason for everybody. I just canna understand it.

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I find the holes to be much more comfortable. The clips are either too tight, slipping off or too bulky for my taste. I've got fairly small earlobes without alot of meat on 'em so maybe there's not much for the clips to grip?

Plus, I find a simple hoop to be very pleasing to the eye.

99% of the time I have in a three diamond studs, and two fiar-sized gold elongated hoop-like things (I have four holes in one ear and one in the other). I really only change earrings if I am going out for a specific event. These ones are dressy enough to go with suits and casual enough to go the rest of the time.

I take them out and wash them when I wash my hair, and then *pop* back in they go. Simple.

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Originally posted by FabFabian:
I had my ears pierced when I was 7 for my 8th birthday. It was the most horrendous pain I ever experienced in my young life. My mother basically told me to stop whinging about it.

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Originally posted by white rabbit:
Does anyone have a tongue piercing?

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yes, and i am now actually shocked so many people go through with it because the healing process is really slow and awkward.

i had my ears pierced unwillingly when i was 4 by my biological father. not a good experience. my daughter wants hers pierced but i told her she should get them pierced with a needle, not a gun. the guns are very, very dirty as they cannot be put through an autoclave for sterilization. this is high-risk for catching hep c, for example. to be pierced with a needle means waiting til she is 16. she seems pretty ok with that.
i have been stretching mine out a bit, but not much. they are probably like a six gauge or something. maybe not even.

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I always get nervous when I see a person eating and they have a piercing in their lips. I keep thinking the fork will get stuck or something.

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I've never had that problem, but in the summer I changed the hoop in my lip to a sort of 'c' shaped piercing with balls on each end. I was playing in a soccer league and this type of piercing is easier to put in and out.

Anyway, I got it caught on a beer can awhile ago. It was a bit surprising, but it didn't really hurt and it didn't tear anything. Minus pesky beer cans, it has become such a part of me that I'm usually aware of it sort of like any other part of my body and I don't have any problems.

quote:

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Originally posted by fern hill:

A friend told me about her baby grabbing an earring and oouuuch ripping it out. After that I was always very careful around babies and would take earrings off around them. Dangerous critters, babies. And they do go for earrings.

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Later that year at UVIC I was in line to give blood and the nurse asked when I had gotten my ears pierce. When she heard it was under six months, she reached over and hit a bell which she told me (and the other 100 students in line) meant that I was unsuitable for giving blood.

When I was 20 or 21, I decided to have my tragus pierced. Unfortunately, I knew more about my budget and its constraints than I did about body piercing, so I had it done cheaply with an ear-piercing gun. I'll never forget the crunch as the stud went through the cartilidge and the matching looks of horror on the faces of my friends who'd come along for moral support. We went out and got drunk immediately afterwards - Strongbow Cider has never tasted so good.

I quickly discovered that in body piercing, as in many other things, you get what you pay for. For me, it was a gross infection that lasted for months. My mom removed the stud for me, because the swelling had become so awful, but she replaced it with a hinged hoop. Every time I rotated it, the nasty, bacteria-laden hinge tore the skin open again. After six months of not being able to sleep on my left side, or hold the phone to my left ear, I went to a professional body piercer who (after scolding me soundly) inserted a proper captive bead ring and sent me home with a bottle of tincture of echinacea. The infection healed that same month and I haven't had any problems with it since, thought it occasionally gets a little tender if I've been very ill.

Though I change the earrings in my lobes often, I never change the jewellery in my tragus or in my other, more intimate, body piercing. They feel more like parts of my body than like ornamentation. Once, while cavorting with a date, the bead broke and the ring in my genital piercing came out. Suddenly, things didn't quite feel like me anymore. I made the chap cease and desist immediately, turn on the overhead light and put on his glasses to help me search the bedding for missing ring. We found it, but the mood was ruined, so distracted was I with figuring out when and how I'd have the ring replaced.

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on many, it just looks like they slept on something and it stuck to their forehead.

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Indeed. Personally I think piercings can look good anywhere there's a "natural thing" on the body to emphasize — ears, noses, nipples and genitals, and perhaps the lower lip — but the urge to pierce anything one can, such as a cheek, an eyebrow, or a pinch of skin somewhere, results in a piercing that to me just looks "plopped". Like, "Oh, I wanted to pierce something so I just grabbed a hunk of arm and went at it".

I didn't think it hurt that much, actually - it is very fast, and the needle is less of a shock than the staple gun.

Walking about in sub-zero temperatures with a piece of metal stuck through your flesh can cause some problems. Through the colder months, I often just get out of the habit of wearing the earrings every day because I have to take them out whenever I go outside (no car; all trips are walking or TTC).

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Originally posted by white rabbit:

Does anyone have a tongue piercing?

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You bet!
I've had it for about 18 months and I have grown very fond of it. When I first got it done I loved the feeling of it in my mouth and I secretly loved the freaked-out expression some people got when they noticed it. But now it's like a part of me, and feels very natural. I also wear slightly smaller beads than most people, mostly for comfort, and to avoid a speech impediment.

I had never crunched it or had it hurt my teeth until the other day. I was eating a hefty toasted tomato sandwich and somehow my tongue rolled and I bit down so hard on the steel bead that I actually cracked a molar. A big chunk of my tooth broke off and I swallowed it. So now I have one sort of jaggedy tooth but the weird thing is that it didn't hurt once. I did feel queasy about swallowing the tooth though.

I also had a labret for about 6 months but it started cutting my gums so I took it out. I don't actually miss it, it never looked right on me anyway.

[ 21 February 2006: Message edited by: Amy ]

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Originally posted by Kaitlin Stocks:
I remember begging my mom to get my ears pierced since I was about six. Her concerns were to do with "being old enough" and that I was horrible at losing things as a child - I would always lose one of a pair of something, socks, mitts, you name it.

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