Wednesday, June 1, 2011

all kinds of different ear piercings

Anti Tragus - An anti-tragus piercing is an ear piercing done through the ridge of cartilage immediately above the earlobe (and "across from" the tragus). To many people's surprise, it is also one of the most painful piercings!

Daith -
This ear piercing passes through the ear's innermost cartilage fold. In most areas this piercing is pronounced "day-th" although the proper pronounciation is "doth" (rhymes with "moth")
A client of Erik Dakota that is said to have been studying Hebrew in college first named this piercing ("daath" meaning "knowledge"). Her reasoning was that the piercer must have been very "smart" to figure out how to do the piercing. The actual root word of the piercing is the "da'at", a part of the Kabbalistic tree of life traditionally representing the union of wisdom and understanding. In more modern times daath has come to represent the void or the abyss ("the sacred nothing"), or the hole left behind when Malkuth fell out of the Garden of Eden

Ear Lobe -
Earlobe piercing and earlobe stretching is perhaps history's most common piercing. The typical placement for an earlobe piercing is directly in the center of the lobe and can vary from one earring to multiple earrings. Earlobe piercings other than directly "across" the lobe include lengthwise transverse lobe piercings as well as vertical lobe piercings.

Forward Helix -
A piercing on the inside of the upper rim of ear cartilage, close to the head.

Helix -
The helix piercing is any piercing through the rim of the cartilage (thus making it susceptible to complications such as Ear Collapse if care is not taken to use proper tools and procedures; for example, Piercing guns have been shown to be capable of causing cartilage to shatter).

Industrial -
An industrial piercing is two or more piercings connected by a single barbell. In normal usage it refers to an ear piercing whereby two helix piercings are connected by a single straight (or curved) barbell. While most industrials are a straight bar connecting two helix piercings, they are also often done vertically (sometimes more than one, becoming an ear cage) or through piercings other than the helix, such as rook to helix piercing or inner or outer conch piercings.

Inner Conch -
The inner conch piercing is a piercing through the innermost shell of the ear, next to the ear canal itself. Piercings through the outer shell are called Outer Conch Piercings. Historically it was performed by the Mangebetu of Zaire and the Gorakhnathis.
While this piercing is often done as a standard piercing, a great many people choose to Dermal Punch this piercing immediately to a larger gauge. It should be noted that making significant changes to the structure of the conch can cause minor loss of hearing. Large gauge inner conch piercings and other piercings that noticeably alter the structure of the ear will make slight differences in the ability of your ear to channel sound (like a funnel) into the inner ear. The degree of this change should be extremely minor in normal circumstances and most people arent even aware of it
Most people pronounce this piercing with a soft "ch" (ie. as in "cherry"), although the "official" (and less common) pronunciation is "konk" with a hard "k" at the end

Lobe Orbital -
A lobe orbital is best described as two earlobe piercings fitted with a single piece of curved jewelry (captive bead rings, circular barbells, etc).

Orbital -
Similar to an industrial piercing, an orbital piercing is two piercings connected by a single ring.

Outer Conch -
An outer conch piercing is a piercing through the outer shell of the ear. It is actually a somewhat unusual placement when it comes to "normal" sized piercing because most people tend to pierce along the edge of the ear (helix piercing) which one could argue are not really outer conch piercings, or do inner conch piercing instead.

Ragnar -
The Ragnar piercing is a local term for a "deep snug" piercing; sort of half way between a snug piercing and a transverse lobe piercing. As you can see from the picture, the jewelry enters the body inside the ear roughly where a snug would start, and then exits on the edge of the lobe/helix.

Rook -
The rook piercing is an ear piercing through the fold of cartilage between the inner and outer conch (the anti-helix). Care must be taken with it during healing, as it is easy to contaminate (and damage) from things like telephones touching it.

Snug-
This cartilage piercing passes through the vertical ridge that "outlines" but does not edge the ear. Technically speaking, this is an "anti-helix piercing," although snug seems to be the term in most common circulation.

Tragus -
Piercings through the tragus, the little nub in front of the ear canal, are a common form of ear piercing. This piercing is not known to have a historical basis.
This piercing can be done with a captive bead ring, barbells or even a labret stud. This piercing should have no effect on hearing, nor is it linked to facial paralysis or any other urban legends.

Transverse Lobe -
A transverse lobe is an earlobe piercing turned 90 degrees such that the length of the piercing is parallel to the sagittal plane of the earlobe. Most often, it runs as close to horizontally as the ear will permit

Vertical Lobe -
A vertical lobe piercing is just that; a piercing, usually using a straight barbell, travelling from the top of the lobe (ie. the anti-tragus) down and exiting at the bottom of the lobe. It is essentially a transverse lobe piercing turned 90°.

Vertical Tragus -
Using a curved barbell (or other jewelry), the tragus may be pierced vertically. Many piercings that appear to be a vertical tragus piercing are actually surface piercings located immediately in front of the tragus. These can be done with a curved barbell as well, but are prone to rejection. The chance of rejection can be reduced by using surface bars, as well as having the piercing done by an experienced piercer. Even under optimal conditions though, they can still reject.

1 comment: