Types of Ear Piercings Explained

The amount of ear piercing options has doubled since your grandmother’s day. Any and every location on your ear is not available for piercing by a top Toronto piercer. Below are the most common types of ear piercing types available today.

Lobe

Your standard lobe piercing is so common now babies even have them. This piercing hurts less than all the rest and heals quickly with proper care.     

Upper Lobe

The upper lobe is often what people get for their second piercing. It is now just as common as the love piercing. It hurts a little more but not by much.     

Anti-Helix/ Snug

Snug, or anti-helix piercings, are located just inside of your outer ear. The area here isn’t as hard making it easier and less painful to get pierced.     

Tragus

The tragus is the cartilage that extends over your inner ear from your head. The cartilage there is really thick making it a painful area to get pierced.     

Anti-Tragus

As the name implies, the anti-tragus is opposite the tragus. This area can be small for many people making it hard or even impossible to get pierced. In addition, it is extremely painful, difficult, and uncomfortable to get pierced.     

Surface Tragus

The surface tragus is the area on the outer part of the tragus. The piercing won’t go through to the inner ear but this piercing is the most painful part of the tragus to get pierced.     

Conch

The conch is the larger concave region on the outer part of the ear. The area is very easy to get pierced due to the large and soft cartilage.

Daith

The daith, pronounced “doth”, area is situated just above the inner ear. The cartilage here is hard making it more difficult to get pierced but it looks great.     

Rook

The rook is the area just below the cartilage. Just a warning, this area is considered one of the most painful places to get pierced.

Helix/ Cartilage

The helix area is the outer part of the ear. Most often it is simply referred to as a cartilage piercing. The pain of the piercing depends on where along the helix you get pierced. The area is hard to heal though due to the low blood flow.

Forward Helix

A forward helix piercing gets placed through the upper, outer cartilage- the part at the front near the head.     

Flat

The flat area is the part of your ear between the upper cartilage and the rook, which is flat as the name implied. This area can take over a full year to heal so take care of it.     

Industrial

An industrial piercing is a rod between two holes on the top part of your ear cartilage. It takes a skilled piercer to get the two holes in the right position so find a good one.     

Gauges

Gauges are a type of piercing that makes large holes in the earlobe. The process requires you to start out slow and then work toward stretching out the ear lobe.  

Come visit us at our Toronto tattoo shop to discuss getting one of the following piercings.