By Madeleine Gray
Most of us got our ears pierced for the first time at the back of our local chemist’s – or at a friend’s sleepover using a sterilised paper-clip – unaware that the earliest ear piercings belong to Ötzi the Iceman, the 5200-year-old mummified male discovered in Europe in 1991. Down the centuries, earrings have signified different things in different cultures – sailors once wore them to indicate they’d crossed the equator, for example – and in fashion, as in life, these practices have slowly been subsumed into the mainstream.
Fine jeweller Sarah & Sebastian offers individual, anatomy-specific ear styling. Right: British actor Sienna Miller wears an understated yet elegant stack. Credit: Courtesy of Sarah & Sebastian; Getty Images
Now the trend for multiple ear piercings is having an Instagram moment, with influencers flaunting their conches (middle-ear cartilage), helixes (upper-ear cartilage) and snakebites (two piercings close together). And a surprising new market – middle-aged women – is signing up.
Sharona Harris, of Byron Bay’s F+H Studios, says, “I’m in my 40s, I currently have three piercings in each lobe and I’m booked to get a helix done, maybe two! Most of my friends and customers, who are now in their 30s and 40s, have more than one piercing, too.” For Harris, “it’s all about wanting to be unique, showing off my personality. My style of jewellery is quite strong and multiples balance glamour with a little toughness.”
Older women tend to have more disposable income, too: “We can afford to purchase little luxury items,” she says.
Australian fine-jewellery brand Sarah & Sebastian, famous for its delicate pieces, also caters to this market. Its diamond studs, which cost up to $360 each, are usually styled in “stacks”. The brand now has three “conceptual piercing labs” in Sydney and Melbourne where, says creative director Sarah Munro, “women of all ages are tapping into anatomy-specific styling and luxury piercing services.” That is, piercers analyse each client’s ear structure to establish what will suit them best.
For 47-year-old Sydney sales manager Jess Hillman, her recent two orbitals (two holes connected by a single piece of jewellery) and two helix piercings – in addition to her two classic lobes – are about showing the world she’s not “past it”. She remembers her mother telling her, “‘Only layabouts have piercings and tattoos’ … But the world has changed and so have I. I feel that having multiples at this age shows off my attitude – and sense of fun.”
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