Like most girls, I got my ears pierced when I was young and soon as I was 16, I was begging my mother for a nose piercing. I thought the nose stud would be the end of my piercing journey, but as I got older I found myself being drawn to more adventurous body jewelry. Now that I’ve overcome that addiction, I am here to give you my honest opinion on every single one I’ve gotten. I’ll be giving subjective scores on the pain level, how stylish I found each one, and the overall healing process in the order I got each piercing!
Earlobes
Pain: 1/10
Style: 6/10
Healing Process: 10/10
I have gotten my ears pierced and re-pierced a million times, and although I find them cute, I cannot stand to wear them. They irritate my ears and I find myself taking them off by the end of the night, every night. At one point, I even had two holes on each earlobe, which I would specifically rate a 10/10 for style. It is the least painful and easiest piercing to care for, so if you don’t have them pierced already, I do recommend it!
Nostril
Pain: 3/10
Style: 9/10
Healing process: 6/10
I would call my nose stud a gateway piercing; once I had it, I had to have more. I first got it when I was 16 and then re-pierced at 17 (after it had fallen out). It is such a classy-looking piercing, and there’s such a wide variety of jewelry you can switch it out with once it’s healed. I have tried a hoop, but it wasn’t personally my style, and I stuck by the double nose studs. Like most of my face piercings, this one barely even hurt. At most, it feels like a pinch, and your eyes will get watery, but nothing more. Now, the healing process is fairly easy. I am prone to keloids, which are bumps of scar tissue, and I had them around the hole of each nostril piercing, which is why the rating isn’t higher. This isn’t the case for everyone, though! Just make sure you clean them regularly.
Navel
Pain: 5/10
Style: 10/10
Healing Process: 2/10
My belly button was one of the most exciting piercings, and I wanted to show it off every chance I got. It looks so cute when you’re at the beach or wearing a crop top to class! The first time I got it pierced (yes, I took it out and then pierced it again), the pain was very tolerable. It felt like a pinch and then a little pressure, and then it was over! The second time though… there was scar tissue from healing the first time, and having to push a needle through the thicker tissue definitely hurt a bit more. I am not the most consistent with individually cleaning the piercing, so the healing process was very long. It would ooze pus and get a little crusty around the jewelry, and if this happens to you, I recommend taking some antibacterial spray and a Q-tip and just going in.
Septum
Pain: 3/10
style: 10/10
Healing Process: 10/10
My septum is one of my favorite piercings. I got it spontaneously and the pain was equal to a nostril piercing. It was just a pinch, and maybe a little sore after, but after the third day, I felt absolutely nothing. I started with a classic horseshoe, which is not only cute but functional. If it’s on the bigger side, you can flip it up into your nose so that it’s hidden; a helpful tip for those of you in more conservative careers. You can change out the piercing after only six months of healing, which was so simple because there was no oozing or scarring! Currently, my septum is my only face piercing because I just couldn’t bear to part with it.
Nipples
Pain: 8/10
style: 10/10
Healing Process: 3/10
I was persuaded by a friend to get my nipples pierced since I was too chicken to go myself. Everyone tells you it’s unbearable and painful, especially when they do the second one, but I honestly found the initial piercing to be quick and easy. When they first inserted the needle into each nipple, it was a quick pinch — I didn’t even have time to make a sound. The reason I rated the pain an eight is because the soreness after is incredibly difficult. My breasts ached for days and the only thing that could soothe me was a tight sports bra. I promise you the pressure helps. Now they say to give your nipples six months to heal, but I found that it took me 12. In the end, though, I found it absolutely worth it! I am a firm follower of the no-bra movement, and the piercing always gets to shine.
Pro Tip: Avoid using a loofah.
Philtrum
Pain: 5/10
Style: 5/10
Healing Process: 4/10
Typically known as the Medusa piercing, this was one of my more “unique” piercings. I didn’t notice a lot of people with a philtrum piercing, and after doing a little research, I decided to book an appointment for the following day. The piercer will make you rinse your mouth with mouthwash and then dry your lip with a paper towel. Then they’ll take a clamp and push the needle from the top of your lip, between your cupid’s bow, to the inside. You can barely see it, but it was essentially a little, metal ball sitting on my cupid’s bow. On the inside of your top lip is just a flat back, which will click and clack against your teeth, and in some cases, get stuck between the front two. Because it tends to catch between your teeth, this can irritate the piercing and cause a big ole keloid to grow on the inside of your lip. Mine got so big that I just had to take the piercing out.
They give you a longer bar because your lip will swell, but if you’re like me, your top lip will blow up like a balloon. It looked like a bee had stung my lip several times until it was the size of a grape. This lasted for almost a week, but then my lip returned to a normal, yet bigger than original, size. It was like I had gotten lip filler!
Vertical Labret
Pain: 4/10
Style: 9/10
Healing Process: 6.5/10
Another one of my more unique choices of body jewelry was my vertical labret. This is the one where they put a bar through the middle of your bottom lip and out the bottom. I loved this piercing more than anything and I thought it was so, so stylish. It barely hurt when they did it, and I loved playing with it after. I would tug on it with my teeth which inevitably freaked people out but kept me entertained. I had to give the healing process a six and a half because although lip piercings heal amazingly quickly, I did develop a keloid after a bit of time. The only real downside to this piercing is that it makes your lips somewhat chapped. No matter how much chapstick I used, my lip was always cracked and peeling. A small price to pay in my opinion.
Smiley
Pain: 2/10
Style: 8/10
Healing process: 9/10
A very short-lived piercing was my smiley. I thought it was the cutest way to decorate my smile, but unfortunately, dentists do hate it. I was told it would damage my gums if I wore it for too long, but I never got to that point because I had to remove it after three months for a surgical procedure. Since a smiley is just a horseshoe through the upper frenulum (the thin skin between your top lip and gums), it heals almost instantly after taking it out. You can change the size of the horseshoe jewelry though, and I chose the smallest size so it would just barely be peaking out when I smiled. Unfortunately, it’s constantly crooked (as you might have noticed), but cute nonetheless. So cute, I’m even considering getting it pierced again!
Eyebrow
Pain: 4/10
Style: 7/10
Healing process: 6/10
The last piercing I ever got was my eyebrow. I felt this gave me a more edgy look, which is what I was going for at the time. You could barely ever see it when I had bangs, but I thought it was still worth having. When you first get it pierced, it feels more like a lot of pressure rather than pain. I did experience some bruising after, and my eyelid appeared mostly yellow for a few days. It bled quite a bit initially, and would ooze pus after I would get it caught in something, which happened occasionally. Sometimes it appeared red and irritated, so I took it out.
I don’t regret getting a single piercing, even if I found them irritating after. I had a total of seven face piercings at one point, and after some time, I missed what it felt like to not have them. I removed everything but the septum, my nipples, and my belly button, which I firmly believe was the right choice. I have grown and changed as a person, and so has my aesthetic! I wanted my face and body to reflect that. Some will say it was just a waste of money, and while piercings are quite pricey, I trust that the experience was worth it. If you’re thinking about getting a piercing right now, just do it! You can always take it out and the scars left behind are barely noticeable. And in case you were wondering, I go to CT Ink in Middlefield, CT for all my piercings!