Cartilage Earrings Guide
In today’s world, body jewelry normally through piercing, has almost become the norm. Though still primarily a culture of today’s youth, increasingly older adults are seeking information on body modding and piercing.
When I myself was younger, body piercing was an art mainly performed by foreign cultures, and groups who followed punk rock music at that time. The majority of the devotees of punk who i met at that time, all supported cartilage earrings. This however largely died out for a couple of decades with the decline of punk
Today though cartilage earrings are back, as big as and as bright as ever. Now not so much music orientated statement but rather a fashion and cultural statement by today’s youth.
Ear jewelry can be worn in a variety of different areas around the ear; this includes the ever popular lobe, through to the tragus, to the helix/cartilage. Today we will concentrate on the cartilage, being the longest part of the ear allows the cartilage to have a greater variety of jewelry than most other parts of the ear, which is why it’s probably one of the most popular piercings available today. With that said let’s get started.
Cartilage piercing procedure
So you’ve been down the local drinking establishment, or you’ve seen your pal’s cartilage earrings and thought I’m having a bit of that! How’s it done you ask? The procedure can be done through a gun e.g. normal ear piercing or it can be done by using a needle. Others have even done this themselves, this I do not recommend, there is just too much that go wrong, and can we say infection.
You should pop along to your local center that specializes in ear piercing, there you’ll be asked to take a seat, normally a lady will hand you a mirror and ask you to point out which area of the cartilage you want pierced, this normal as the cartilage forms the largest part of the outside ear.
the lady will then mark the area and don a pair of latex gloves, don’t get too excited, this is just too make sure that no bacteria or germs are passed during the procedure. The area will then be swabbed and you’re ready to go.
Time to get ready for the pain………kidding! unless you have a very low pain threshold, it’s relatively painless. A small needle is pushed through the cartilage, this then pulled back out after a second or and re-swabbed.
Depending on which choice of cartilage earrings you picked either a stud or a ring will then be inserted in the hole and you’re good to go. One thing to keep in mind though, as it’s a cartilage piercing, this takes a lot longer to heal than a normal piercing.
Risks of cartilage earrings procedure
Well as with anything that’s invasive to the body, there are always risks. You may take an allergic reaction depending on the type of cartilage earrings used after the procedure. You would however be in a tiny minority though, so you should be fine.
Damage can also be done to the cartilage, resulting in small deformities of the cartilage; small bumps are normally the result.
You obviously run the risk of infection too. This shouldn’t happen of course if the area was properly swabbed beforehand.
With all the above said and all things taken into consideration, literally thousands of people have this procedure done every day with no adverse side effects, so try not to worry.
Cartilage earring jewelry
Earrings come in a whole variety of types, shapes and sizes, and more materials than you can shake a whip at. Let’s look at some below.
- Barbells as the name suggests are barbell shaped, skinny through the middle and ball shaped at either end. The ball at either end can adorned with gems of any variety or even plastics, the variety are almost endless. The materials used are normally metal, keeping with the typical barbell image.
- Slave/bajorn earrings are another form of decorative earrings. These earrings need two piercings to be worn properly. Normally one at the higher end of the cartilage and one at the lobe. Then a chain links the two together. This type of cartilage earrings can also be connected to the nose from an ear piercing, it’s then typically known as a bajorn earring.
- Stud earrings whilst not particularly fancy, are another common choice of cartilage earrings. The shape is pretty much set, but you can choose from a variety of gems and metals.
- Cartilage earrings hoop can be used as well, but you need to take into consideration the size. I personally don’t think they’re a particularly attractive choice when considering cartilage earrings, but obviously the choice is yours.
Well this brings us to the end of this article regarding cartilage earrings; I hope that this has helped you make some informed choices. Till the next time!
