Images: Instagram.
Move over midi rings – there’s a new fine jewellery trend taking over Instagram.
It’s called Ear Compositions – several piercings that suit your individual style and ear shape. Gone are chunky statement earrings; they’ve been replaced with delicate silver, yellow and rose gold triangles, bar studs and hoops.
The result is as rebellious as it is feminine. It’s making us want to immediately pierce more holes in our ears. But this new trend comes with a warning: one of the most dangerous places to pierce your body is through the cartilage on your upper ears.
Yes, really.
This area of your ears is prone to infection that, according to WebMD, doesn’t respond to many antibiotics. As cartilage doesn’t have its own blood supply, the most commonly used antibiotics won’t be effective because there’s no blood to transport the medication to the cartilage.
The really bad infections leave pierce-ees deformed and requiring cosmetic surgery. Yeah, not what you had in mind when you went in for a few pretty studs, huh?
Obviously this is why you need to choose your piercer very carefully. Always opt for a professional studio that uses a piercing needle over a place that uses an open, spring-loaded gun to pierce the upper part of your ear. Hundreds of bacterial infections from shopping centre piercing kiosks in the US have led to piercing guns being banned for cartilage piercings in some US states.
If the thought of getting pierced makes you squeamish, we have good news for you. There seems to be an emerging trend for fake piercings, like the ones Phoebe Tonkin modelled for Into the Gloss recently.
But if you’re keen to get some new metal, New York piercer J. Colby Smith has the best ear compositions on Instagram – check out our favourites below.
The Glow Guide to Body Jewellery
Would you try an ‘ear composition’? Or does this whole thing seem a bit silly to you?
