The body is full of artistic potential. From tattoos to dyed hair, you can let your personality shine through these creative modifications. At EarFleek, one thing we particularly love is the vast opportunity that the ear alone offers when it comes to piercings. Did you know that there are 14 different types of ear piercings? Imagine the possibilities!
Before you head to your local piercing shop, check out our guide on what the 14 ear piercing types are, how much each hurts, how long they take to heal, and what kind of earrings look best with each!
What Are the Different Types of Ear Piercings?
- Standard Lobe
- Upper Lobe
- Transverse Lobe
- Daith
- Tragus
- Anti-Tragus
- Helix
- Forward Helix
- Conch
- Inner Conch
- Rook
- Snug
- Orbital
- Industrial
What Should I Know About the Different Types of Ear Piercings?
Some ear piercings can be more painful than others. Certain ones heal in a matter of weeks, but some of them can take up to a year to heal! We’ll give you a quick rundown of these need-to-know items below.
Lobe Piercings
These are generally the least painful. The lobes don’t contain hard cartilage and they heal a bit more quickly than other piercings (in 4-6 weeks)!
Outer Ear Piercings
Outer piercings that occur in the thin cartilage of the outer ear can be a bit more painful than lobe piercings, as the cartilage is thicker and less flexible.
Outer ear piercings include helix, forward helix, tragus, orbital and industrial piercings. Out of these, tragus piercings are considered to be more painful. Outer piercings are known to heal between 8-16 weeks.
However, the industrial piercing and helix piercing hold the prize of taking 2-12 months to heal. This far outer cartilage receives less blood flow, which makes piercings like these take a long time to heal.
Inner Ear Piercings
Inner piercings include conch, daith, snug, rook, and anti-tragus. Daith and rook piercings are known to be a bit more painful, but the conch piercings are considered to hurt the most.
All of these take about 8-16 weeks to heal. The rook piercing, on the other hand can take 2-12 months.
What Earrings Look Best With Each Ear Piercing?
Studs, hoops, and bars are popular earring choices that work well with many different ear piercings. Adorn your new piercing with some of the styles we recommend below!
Stud Earrings
These are a popular choice that will work with many ear piercings! Standard and upper lobe piercings, of course, are a wonderful spot for studs. They’re a popular pick for conch, tragus, and forward helix piercings, too.
A regular helix piercing could accommodate a stud earring – especially a stud that includes multiple gems that curve along the inner part of the ear. This is a unique spot that accommodates unique pieces of jewelry!
Hoop Earrings
These are another popular earring choice that will work with a majority of ear piercings. Lobes and tragus piercings are wonderful with hoops. Daith, rook, snug, orbital, and helix piercings are also ideal spots for hoop earrings.
Curved or Straight Bar Earrings
The industrial piercing (which contains two piercings on opposing ends of the upper ear) is primarily seen connected with a straight bar.
Curved bars will work well for any piercing that pass through thicker tissue or ridges, such as daith, rook, snug, or transverse lobe piercings.
Dangle Earrings
You gotta love them, and you know we supply them! Dangle earrings are best suited for standard lobe piercings. This lower piercing allows them to hang without interfering with other earrings.
Get Your EarFleek On
When you have multiple ear piercings to work with, you can’t help but get creative with mixing and matching. That’s why we love offering monthly earring subscription boxes! Your earring collection will never grow dry, and your mixed and matched styles can multiply.
Save 50% on your first month with code BLOG when you sign up here.
