Ear piercing before "the Gun" was invented

[jenna3]

My mother pierced my ears at age three (1973) herself at home just as her mother had done for her at the same age. While I don't remember much other than really wanting earrings, I know she cleaned my ears with alcohol, then pushed a large sterilized sewing needle through each ear into a piece of cork and then placed studs in my newly formed holes.
This process was repeated when I reached age ten for my second set of holes.
I did the same for my own daughter at age three and again for her second set at age five. About two years ago we gave each other our third set at home using the same technique.
I would NEVER consider being pierced with a gun nor would I suggest it to anyone considering having their ears pierced.

[Old Timer]

Jenna3,

The debate over the best way to have your ears pierced will probably never end. I pierced my own ears 43 years ago using a safety pin. My daughters had their ears pierced using a device that was only slightly advanced over the piecer discussed above that recently sold on e-bay. My granddaughters have had their ears pierced using a modern piercing gun, except for the youngest (8 years old) who has not yet asked to have her ears pierced. None of us has ever had any problems with healing or infections. I think more important than the method of piercing your ears is cleanliness at all times and not just during the healing period. I always wipe the posts or wires on my earrings with an alcohol swab just before putting them in my ears and trained my daughters to do the same. They have now trained my garnddaughters to do the same.

Old Timer

[Guest]

None of this is true.
I had my upper cartilidge done once and mylobes done 3 times with a gun and they've all been fine.
They throw away the whole gun after use so there's no problem
All the stuff is exactly the same...it's all been copied from one place.
It's crap!

[PaulMcG]

Another Simplicity ear piercer has gone on e-bay - item number 160150609463. Unfortunately the picture only shows it in the box.
This is the one that pierces and puts in the hinged sleeper in one go. It is in the box with a bottle of numbing spray and instructions.
Does any one out there remember this device and had their ears pierced this way? This looks a step up from piercing and then inserting the sleeper separately, but a good looking piece of kit.
There was no marking the spot to be pierced back then, it was just the judgement of the operator.

[Old Timer]

There was no marking the spot to be pierced back then, it was just the judgement of the operator.

Before the purple marking pencils commonly used today were invented a person's ears would sometimes be marked with a dot of mecurechome (spelling?) or iodine. The real fancy method was to have your jeweler mark your ears where they should be pierced, then go to your doctor to have it done. The more common method, which I used, was to wear "look pierced" earrings screwed on as tight as possible for several hours to mark your ears. Both then and now it was the judgement of the person making the marks.

[Akshun]

DANE

I've received your pm but I have been blocked from replying.
If you pm again with your direct e-mail address, I will reply

Ian

[Gladys 70+]

I wouldn't presume to comment on the best method of piercing ears but I will tell you my story.
When I was a child my aunt lived a few doors away from us and had a daughter only a few weeks older than me. My cousin and I were great pals. One day when I was 4 my mother took me round to her sisters house where my cousin and I were informed that we were to have our ears pierced. Both our mothers had pierced ears but it was fairly unusual at the time. My aunt did the piercing using a hatpin into a cork held behind the ear. My cousin went first and gave a little yelp each time as her lobe was pierced. Then it was my turn and I was determined not to yell and I didn't. Actually it didn't hurt very much.
When we were 10 there was a picture in a newspaper of a lady (I think an Australian air stewardess) who had multiple piercings (I think 3 or 4 studs) in each ear something virtually unheard of at the time. We were much taken with this picture and eventually asked our parents if we could have additional piercings. After some deliberation they agreed and we both had two more rings put in each ear. At our school there were only about 8 other girls with pierced ears and no-one else had multiples. We even got our picture in the local paper under the heading 'Piercing Screams for these Youngsters'.
We were going to a posh wedding and I had a smart new dress. My mother suggested that I might like to wear a pair of her dangling earrings in the place of the first pair of rings and I jumped at the chance. They were quite heavy and it was a strange sensation at first but I quickly got used to it and found that I enjoyed having weight hanging from my lobes and the way in which my lobes moved as the earrings swung. From that day onwards I wore heavy earrings.
A couple of years later we saw a picture of an English actress who wore a stud in her nostril again something not previously heard of. Of course we wanted our nostrils pierced and this time we had to really plead with our parents before this was allowed.
I had another cousin 10 years older than us who was something of a black sheep of the family although we didn't understand why, after all she was a dancer on the stage in London what was wrong with that. Later we came to realise that her dancing was done in topless clubs. On one of her rare trips home we were proudly showing her our multiple pierced ears and our pierced nostrils when she announced that she had something else pierced and did we want to see. Of course we said yes so she whipped off her blouse to reveal pierced nipples and tattooed boobs. She explained that under the law (at that time) the dancers had to keep their nipples covered at all times. To ensure that their nipple covers and tassels didn't fall of in mid performance they all had their nipples pierced so that the covers were secure. She added that as she was now the principal dancer it fell to her to pierce the nipples of new dancers joining the troupe. (There were no body piercing studios in those days). We asked Kitty if she would pierce our nipples and with a wicked grin she agreed on condition that we didn't let on to our parents that she would bring the necessary equipment next time she visited. Meanwhile we had to save our pocket money to buy the rings to wear. As her next visit came close we were both very nervous and then she was there and our parents were out and it was piercing time. As 14 year olds it was the first time we had appeared in front of anyone except our mothers topless. I decided to go first as I was afraid that I would chicken out if I watched and it was a bad experienced. In the event it was extremely painful and I gave a loud gasp as the first nipple was pierced and a small shriek for the second one but then it was done and I was the very proud possessor of a pair of gold rings through my nipples. My cousin had gone quite pale but to her credit didn't back out although she had tears streaming down her face by the time she had been pierced.
Once my nipples had healed I tried wearing different things in them including some of my pendant earrings and I found that I liked the sensations of weight in my nipples even more than weight in my ears so from that day onwards I wore danglies.
I am now in my 70's and still wear heavy earrings (my lobes have stretched quite a bit) and I still wear rings in my nipples (which point downwards from the weight they carry) which still give me wonderful sensations as I move.

[Diane Smith]

Gladys, your story is fascinating! Thanks for filling us in on this bit of piercing history! I hope you don't mind a few follow-up questions.

From your age and that you mentioned being 14 when your nipples were pierced, I assume the time period when you got your piercings was the late 1940s or very early '50s, correct? Multiple earrings and a nose stud must have created quite a sensation in those days. Do you have any more stories about how people reacted to them? (Nowadays, we tend to think of the '50s as such a conservative period! I was born in 1957, and only recently found out that my own father wore an earring for a while before WWII!)

Did your parents or your aunt ever find out about the nipple piercings? If so, what did they say? Did your older cousin, or any of the dancers she worked with, keep their nipple rings after they retired from the stage, to your knowledge?

Do you still wear the nostril stud as well as the ear and nipple rings?

I visited my own piercist Saturday and had an extra stud added at the top of each ear, for a total of 16 on each side now. (One or two more yet to go!) She also pierced a second nostril stud on the right side -- eventually I'm planning to make the left side match it, two in each nostril.

- Diane

[Gladys 70+]

Gladys, your story is fascinating! Thanks for filling us in on this bit of piercing history! I hope you don't mind a few follow-up questions.

From your age and that you mentioned being 14 when your nipples were pierced, I assume the time period when you got your piercings was the late 1940s or very early '50s, correct? Multiple earrings and a nose stud must have created quite a sensation in those days. Do you have any more stories about how people reacted to them? (Nowadays, we tend to think of the '50s as such a conservative period! I was born in 1957, and only recently found out that my own father wore an earring for a while before WWII!)

Did your parents or your aunt ever find out about the nipple piercings? If so, what did they say? Did your older cousin, or any of the dancers she worked with, keep their nipple rings after they retired from the stage, to your knowledge?

Do you still wear the nostril stud as well as the ear and nipple rings?

I visited my own piercist Saturday and had an extra stud added at the top of each ear, for a total of 16 on each side now. (One or two more yet to go!) She also pierced a second nostril stud on the right side -- eventually I'm planning to make the left side match it, two in each nostril.

- Diane

Yes we did attract quite a lot of attention as it was very unusual at the time. We loved all the attention we attracted.
Certainly my mother found out eventually (can't remember quite when) but I don't recall that there was any fuss about it. I suspect my aunt found out around the same time. Kitty certainly kept her nipple piercings. She married into the aristocracy - a minor Lord - who loved her nipple rings. Don't know about any of the other dancers.
Yes I still wear my nostril stud in fact in later life when these things became more popular I got the other side pierced to match and also added to my ear piercings. The heavy pendant earrings I always wear in my ears have extra thick wires attached so that they stretch my lobes rather than cut through them.
In my 20's I had my boobs tattooed.
I even had my navel pierced for my 60th birthday.

Best wishes

Gladys

[Guest]

Gladys,

Did you have any children, particularly daughters? If so, what did they think of all your piercings and tatoos? Did they have any intersting piercing experiences?

[Guest]

Gladys,

Did you have any children, particularly daughters? If so, what did they think of all your piercings and tatoos? Did they have any intersting piercing experiences?

Yes I have 2 sons and 2 daughters and now have five granddaughters and a grandson.
I don't think my children had any problems as a result of my piercings and tattoos. The girls ears were multiple pierced when they were 4 years old. They have both gone on to get additional ear piercings, nostril piercings nipple rings and some tattoos. The boys haven't done either.
The three grandaughters by my daughters have followed suit. One grandson has a tattoo and wears a septum ring.

[snd25]

I had my ears done at the dentist!
My friends older sister were working as a nurse at that place.
We decided to pierce ouer ears one week. On saturday we went to the jewelery shop and bought sleepers. The lady, working there, made them for us. Silver hoops that was 1,5 mm thick and with the end a bit sharpend. We learned that during the healing process, we were suposed to were ear rings thicker than normal. That would decrease the risk for infections when we put in new earrings for the first time. We gave the rings to her sister and she took them to work on monday. That evning she, together with everything else used by the dentist, put them in the autoclave for sterilization. She also had some old reuseuble, fat cannulas that she cleaned. Tuesday after school and after the dentist closed we, on shaky legs, went there.
I remember the sight of two small stainless trays. Eatch with two needles, two corks and ouer pair of rings. At that moment I realized I'l have my ears pierced! I'l have holes in my ears in just minutes!
Her sister marked ouer ears with a smoked match, she told us she didn't trust the ink in pens - they could cause a allrgical reaction. I was the first, with a wild beating hart to enter the chair. She held a cork behind the lobe and "drilled" the hole. She told us that felt less painfull if you tvisted the needle while pushing it.
I so well remember that chrashing sound... or if it's just a feeling when the cannula penetrated. And the warm and pulsating feeling bumping in my ears. I rized from the chair and went directly to the mirror. It was a owerwelming thing to to se the metal true my lobes!
Than I was standing beside and watch my schoolmate get her ears done in the wery same way.
After the piercing we hade to sit and wait 1/2 houer for the rings. During this time the needels were in ouer ears and the corks still hanging on the back of the ear.
I remember we got a Coke and some cakes. Its god for the blood sugar level when you are nervus she said w a smile.
This was also the first time I felt this thrilling in my whole body when have something dingling in my ears.
After those 30 minutes we went back to the dentist chair and she pulled out the needles and directly put in the rings. She held a napkin in her hand but there were no blood at all. Those 30 minutes had obvioesly helaled that mutch.
This was a grate day. I can recall every second of it.
Some years later I had one more piercing done, just above the first in my left ear. That one was done with a gun in the mall. I decided, went in, and "Plopp" it was done! No thrill, no feeling. The bumping and warm feeling in the lobe come when I was paying for the service.
Today I have this thrilling feeling when I touch/change my "old" earrings. The new hole newer have given that type of possitive reaction - it's just there...

[snd25]

1973

[Yamaharley_UK]

Gladys 70+ - the things you discover on this site...! You know, I remember that exact same photo in the paper, and yes it was an Aussie air hostess and she had 4 graduated gold ball studs in each ear... unheard of then. Wowed me. But that surely must have been in the 60s?

[PaulM]

Slight tangent here, I was wondering if anyone out there used to wear clip on earrings before they had their ears pierced and wore them close to the face and not in the middle of the lobe. I ask this because I was watching Abigails Party with the wonderful Alison Steadman in the lead role and she was wearing clip on earrings close to her face. (I know she has since had her ears pierced as this programme was set back in the 70's) I remember my Mum used to have the best clip on earrings that looked like good hoops and on the rare occasions she wore them, she always wore them close to her face, not in the middle of her lobe.
Just wondering if anyone knew why. also would still like to hear from anyone out there who had their ears pierced at Selfridges in Oxford Street and had to wait on the chairs outside in the shop.