Industrial Piercings 101- A Look at these Popular Ear Piercings
Let’s talk about Industrial piercings! These piercings skyrocketed in popularity in the 90’s and 00’s and were all the rage for a long time. If you were cool, you had an industrial, and I can attest to this as I personally BEGGED my parents for an industrial at 14. It was all I wanted in the entire world and I fought tooth and nail to get permission to get it done. It also failed after less than a year. As cool and cute as industrials are, they are also one of the most difficult ear piercings to execute correctly, and for clients to heal. At 14 I was not ready nor experienced enough for this piercing. So today we are going to break down the industrial, and understand what goes into getting one, and healing one!
Not for Beginners
Piercing can sometimes be like learning to drive a car. Some piercings are easy to get done and heal, like trying a car out in a parking lot to empty back roads. Some are intermediate to heal, like driving down the main street of a town. And some piercings are challenging, like your first time on the highway. You wouldn’t learn to drive by starting on the highway right away, and likewise an industrial is not a good idea for your very first piercing. These piercings can be quite unforgiving, meaning a really good accidental snag, sleeping on them often, or hair products getting in and on them can cause them to fail easily. I typically suggest clients get virtually any other ear piercing first and get some practice in healing something else before jumping into an industrial. Once you’ve healed one cartilage piercing you have a better idea of little things like how to take a shirt off without catching it, how to answer the phone without smacking it, and you’ve hopefully mastered sleeping on just one ear! Starting slow is the boring, but responsible choice. And if 14 year old Lynn had done that, she probably would have healed her first industrial haha! I learned this lesson the hard way personally, which is why I feel so strongly about it these days! That being said iff you are adamant this is the only piercing you ever want, I will do an industrial for you, I just strongly encourage you to have healed at lease one or two other piercings first.
Anatomy is Everything
Industrial piercings are anatomy dependent. This means your ear needs to be shaped correctly to support an industrial piercing. Two main factors effect this. The outer ridges of your ear need to be developed enough to hold a piercing, and face each other for the piercing to fit. And the ridge in the middle of the ear must not interfere with the piercing either. Those are the main factors, but others can come into play. Sometimes a skilled piercer can work with custom jewelry and custom bending jewelry to make this work on a less then ideal ear, but this requires a very very experienced piercer. Bending jewelry also requires extra polishing steps in house, so if a piercer offers this make sure they are equipped to offer it correctly! Industrials can’t safely be done on everyone or every ear, so get an anatomy consult first to ensure you can get this piercing. And please don’t be too upset if you are told no! A reputable piercer won’t do a piercing on anatomy that can’t safely support it.