piercing and boys

[Guest]

I'm a high school quarterback, 16, and I'm wondering whether it's ok for a jock to get ear piercings and maybe even an eyebrow piercing? Would this make me less popular or less likely to pick up girls? Girls advice as well please

(Sorry, looks like it threw away my reply)

An eyebrow piercing always looks scary to me, because it is in such a vulnerable
spot. If you accidentally bang you head it is likely to happen on the eyebrow
ridge and tear out the piercing. Or if some big ape decides he doesn't like
the look of your face the eyebrow ridge is exactly where he will hit you.
Also, you'd probably have to take it out for sports, since there is some head
banging involved, especially in football.

However ear piercings seems to be OK for jocks - just look at all the pro
players who have them. I'm surprised they are allowed to wear them in a game.

As for picking up girls, you'll have to ask some girls.

[Guest]

We all agree that kids with piercings is a good look. So, by the age of 5 both boys and girls should have their earlobes pierced 5 times on each lobe and have hoops in each one. Some might say that's too much but if they don't like it they can remove either some or all of them when they're older; or replace them with studs.

By ten they should be se used to wearing them that hopefully they should then be ready for studs or hoops in the cartlidge at the top of their ears, and then by 14 should be looking at body piercing.

Simple.

Why don't you just stretch their ear lobes out to an inch or so while they are little.
I'm sure that's what they will want when they are older, and meanwhile you will
be the coolest parents around.

[Guest]

I pierced my own ears in 1959 when I was 16 years old. Back then, everyone made fun of guys wearing earrings but I didn't care. When I met my wife ten years later, she fell in love with my pierced ears and asked me to let her pierce a second hole in each lobe and another in the cartilage at the top of my ears. I didn't wear earrings at work, but at all other times. I was glad when it became accepted to see non-gay men wearing earrings and hope that this progresses to the point where it is normal to see guys wearing giant hoop and long dangling earrings.

Back in the mid 1950s a boy in my high school class wore an earring. I don't
know that any of the students teased him about it. I did hear some adults
making fun of him behind his back - they said they thought he was trying to
start a new fad. He didn't seem to me to be the kind who was capable of
starting a new fad, if he had wanted to. Seems like I heard the earring was
a souvenir of a summer he spent in California. I don't remember if he kept
wearing it all through school, and I haven't seen him since then.

[Guest]

I meant to add that nobody in that day (mid 1950s) would have
thought the earring meant he was gay, because back then gays were
so far in the back of the closet that society could pretend they did
not exist. At least in the small town.

[Diane Smith]

There were stories in my family that my father, who was born in 1916, wore an earring during his teen years and into his 20s. This would have been in the late 1930s up until he joined the Army in 1942. As far as I know, there are no pictures that show it, and I never got the chance to ask him about it myself before he died in 1975. So although we think of it as a contemporary thing, there have always been some men willing to push the limits of fashion and social propriety. More power to 'em. My dad was thrilled when I first showed an interest in earrings at age 9 and was the one who arranged for one of his female friends (who was a medical technician of sorts, but not a full-fledged nurse or doctor) to pierce my ears for the first time.

- Diane

[GP]

[quote="GuestBack in the mid 1950s a boy in my high school class wore an earring. I don't
know that any of the students teased him about it. I did hear some adults
making fun of him behind his back - they said they thought he was trying to
start a new fad. He didn't seem to me to be the kind who was capable of
starting a new fad, if he had wanted to. Seems like I heard the earring was
a souvenir of a summer he spent in California. I don't remember if he kept
wearing it all through school, and I haven't seen him since then.[/quote]

Did he have his ear pierced or was it a screw on earring? Pierced ears were not common for women in the United States back then. I was in high school in the mid to late 1950s. There were about 400 girls in the school, only three of them had pierced ears. Two of the three were sisters.

[Guest]

Did he have his ear pierced or was it a screw on earring? Pierced ears were not common for women in the United States back then. I was in high school in the mid to late 1950s. There were about 400 girls in the school, only three of them had pierced ears. Two of the three were sisters.

It was definitely pierced, as he wore a hoop, fairly thin wire but an inch or two
in diameter.

[The Colonel]

We all agree that kids with piercings is a good look. So, by the age of 5 both boys and girls should have their earlobes pierced 5 times on each lobe and have hoops in each one. Some might say that's too much but if they don't like it they can remove either some or all of them when they're older; or replace them with studs.

By ten they should be se used to wearing them that hopefully they should then be ready for studs or hoops in the cartlidge at the top of their ears, and then by 14 should be looking at body piercing.

Simple.

Troll.

[Guest]

There were stories in my family that my father, who was born in 1916, wore an earring during his teen years and into his 20s. This would have been in the late 1930s up until he joined the Army in 1942. As far as I know, there are no pictures that show it, and I never got the chance to ask him about it myself before he died in 1975. So although we think of it as a contemporary thing, there have always been some men willing to push the limits of fashion and social propriety. More power to 'em. My dad was thrilled when I first showed an interest in earrings at age 9 and was the one who arranged for one of his female friends (who was a medical technician of sorts, but not a full-fledged nurse or doctor) to pierce my ears for the first time.

- Diane

It would be interesting to know when the 'male earring' actually re-surfaced. Based on footage from the 70s, it is clear that muscians etc. were sporting them from the early to mid-seventies onwards.

As far as boys go, my neighbour had one in 1978 and he would have been about 8 at the time. In school we had a couple of boys in my year (12 yrs).

[The Colonel]

It wouldn't be until about 1986 that I first recall seeing it, but it probably started at least a few years before that at least.

[Guest II]

Re: Men wearing earrings in the '40's.

From: The Saturday Evening Post, December 8, 1945, page 119.

LOOK AT THAT SAILOR'S EARRING
In Honolulu recently a malihini (newcomer) lady made a startling discovery. Noticing a huge, red-bearded sailor seated several tables away, she declared: "Look at that! He's wearing an earring!"
Now that demobilization is under way, and America's cities are filling with ex-servicemen, civilians will see more and more brawny men with a ring or pendant in their left ear. At first, they well be amused, but eventually will come to accept the custom as unquestionably as they accept jewelry dangling from the lobes of our ladies.
Men's earrings are nothing new, old salts will tell you. Even before the days of pirates, mariners who had sailed the China seas or had done any Asiatic duty took to wearing earrings as a mark of their service in the Orient. It was the campaign ribbon of its day.
The modern gob, after he has sailed in Asiatic waters, gets his ears pierced and a ring inserted, then goes to a tattoo parlor and has various Chinese legends etched on the shank of his left leg.
But not all men who wear earrings are veterans of Asiatic sea service. The custom has been adopted by many who have sailed in the Central, South, or Southwest . without entering the waters of the China Sea . . . --Hal J. Kanter

[Ben-]

If I were to get my left ear pierced and take it out shortly after (because I didn't like the look) would it leave a mark?
Cheers

ben

[The Colonel]

If I were to get my left ear pierced and take it out shortly after (because I didn't like the look) would it leave a mark?
Cheers

ben

No, it won't mark.

But to be honest, you should only do it if you want to, and if you think it would suit you.

But it suits the overwhelming majority for sure.

[Jim1]

If I were to get my left ear pierced and take it out shortly after (because I didn't like the look) would it leave a mark?
Cheers

ben

If you want to try it out first to see how it looks, there are the magnetic earrings.
Or you could just roll a bit of styrofoam into a little ball and stick it on your ear
lobe and see how it looks. If you get it pierced and take it out it may leave
a little mark, but probably only you would notice it, because you know it's
there.

[Guest]

It would be interesting to know when the 'male earring' actually re-surfaced. Based on footage from the 70s, it is clear that muscians etc. were sporting them from the early to mid-seventies onwards.

As far as boys go, my neighbour had one in 1978 and he would have been about 8 at the time. In school we had a couple of boys in my year (12 yrs).

Probably technology has something to do with it. People have long done ear
piercing at home with a needle and an ice cube, and they are still doing it on
the school yard with an unsterlized safety pin. But in the past if you wanted
it done safely you had to go to a doctor or at least a nurse. I remember in the
mid 1960s that a big department store ran an advertisement saying that on a
certain date there would be a nurse on duty in their store to pierce ears. Maybe
the law required it at the time.

Then sometime around 1980 the piercing gun technology became available
and you could get your ears pierced in a mall kiosk on a whim, no appointment,
no waiting, it only took a few minutes, and if there was any pain you didn't
feel it until the piercing was already finished. That probably made it a lot more
attractive to girls and boys.