Five Awesome Cartilage Piercings!

Cartilage piercings are a great and fun way to express your inner personality. There are so many endless piercing combinations, and they look different on everyone’s ear. These piercings can be dainty and cute for work or they can be extensive and creative for a bold and intense look. The placement of a piercing and picking out the perfect jewelry can create an overall incredible look, the sky is the limit with your imagination. This list has everything you need to know about the top five awesome cartilage piercings.

#1 The Orbital Piercing

The orbital piercing is extremely unique due to its many different placements within the cartilage area. This piercing gets its name from its shape; it is two piercings connected together with one ring, creating the illusion of an orbit around the ear. The traditional orbital piercing is pierced through the lower piece of the conch, with a circular barbell. This can create a look similar to an “ear cuff” or it can be completely unique and different when done on the upper helix region. Although this piercing is specific to a circular barbell, the barbell can be customized with different colors and the “ball” that connects the circular barbell can be enclosed with different colored gems.

#2 The Snug

The Snug is also known as the anti helix piercing and it is located at the lower- mid portion of the ears outer rim. This piercing gets its name from its snug fit around the cartilage of the ear. This piercing is dainty and perfect for anyone looking for extra sparkle. The location of the piercing determines specific jewelry, a small curved barbell. Even though the barbell is small the ends can be customized with different types of gemstones and all different color gemstones. The cool thing about this piercing is that it can be recreated! With any piercing anatomy is extremely important in determining the viability of the piercing, and some people don’t have the anatomy required for this particular cartilage piercing. Instead of the traditional snug piercing that goes horizontally through the cartilage a piercer can do two piercings with straight barbells. One barbell will be one the outer edge of the cartilage and the other will sit right on the inside of the cartilage, giving the illusion of the snug piercing. 



 

#3 Constellation Piercing

This is unique piercing because it is multiple different piercings arranged close together to create a “clustered” look based on ear shape. Since everyone has a different shaped cartilage it can create a very unique and personalized look. This is a piercing that will often take 1-2 sittings depending on how many piercings you want. A “shooting star” look can be achieved with as little as three piercings, or you can create a “constellation” with as many as five piercings. Not only is the shape of the piercing fun, but the colors and the shape of the barbells are completely unique as well. For example, the shooting star can be achieved with different sized circular cabochons leading up to a star shape cabochon at the top.

 

#4 Forward Helix Piercing

The forward helix sets itself apart from other piercings due to its unique placement close to the side of the temple. This is done on the upper cartilage facing forward; it is the piece of cartilage that sits directly above the tragus. Due to the position of the piercing a piercer can fit multiple piercings creating a single, double, or triple frontal helix piercing. Photo cred(@piercing_zhestianka)

 

#5 Four Point Industrial Piercing

This is a switch up to the standard industrial piercing. The four-point industrial is placed in the same position as the traditional industrial, but it adds two vertical points that go through the top piece of cartilage. Each point meets in the middle of the barbell at a circular piece. This piercing has a lot of versatility after healing. It can be worn as one unique piece with the standard bar and the two extensions off the standard bar or as four separate piercings. There isn’t anything boring about this piercing. The bar can be anodized to create different colors and each end piece can be picked specifically by color or shape.