Throughout the past years, body modification has become more popular and accepted within society. The most common, and most widely accepted form of body modification is the ear piercing. While an ear piercing may seem bland or generic, many people have found different ways to make the piercing their own. The Gauge, the Stud, and the Cartilage are the three most common and accepted forms of ear piercings. The classification of ear piercings is vital to anyone who ever needs to sort out the type of people they meet.
The Gauge

Growing in popularity, gauging is the practice of stretching one’s ear out by increasing the size of his or her earring. These piercings, which typically have a horrendous stench, have become popular partly because of the recent change in music trends. Teens listening to hardcore rock or screamo bands such as: The Devil Wears Prada, IWrestledABearOnce, and A Day To Remember sport gauges. Gauges range in size, beginning at eighteen gauge and usually stopping around double zero. Someone bearing a double zero gauge can fit a wine cork through their extremely elastic earlobe. Many teens participating in gauging their ears usually have other body modifications or piercings: the septum, bridge, snakebites, spider bites, Monroe’s, et cetera. While hardcore music may influence teens to show their unique style, the Gauge is just another fad that will quickly go out of fashion.
The Stud

While the Stud is the most popular piercing, there are a variety of classifications inside of this simple piercing. First, there are the trashy parents who pierce their children’s ears directly after the child exits the parent’s womb. Besides the newborns with their ears pierced, there are the girls hitting puberty who have finally gained the privilege of getting a hole in their ear. What a pleasant way to start womanhood: someone hurting a young girl for the sake of beauty! Next, there are the women who have never had the courage to deliberately hurt themselves due to low pain tolerance or some other pathetic excuse. But these women have decided, “Hey! Maybe something hanging from my ear will look fantastic with my new outfit”. My personal favorites are the guys who think that having a stud piercing actually make themselves studs. The males decked out at bars sporting gelled up hair, popped collars, loud rap music, and their flashy “bling” on their ears easily top of the category off the stud.
The Cartilage

The Cartilage is the perfect final touch for the bleach blonde Barbie wannabes. Although this piercing was trendy, it has now turned into a discrete tramp stamp. A few teens may be seen with this piercing because extra holes in their ears are the cool thing to do, but they are unaware of the meaning behind their cartilage piercing. The Cartilage, better known as Barbie, is usually found at Planet Beach getting a flawless orange glow to her skin tone. College students who have their cartilage pierced usually have, or plan to have, other, more provocative forms of body art. The Cartilage is typically found out at a local club socializing with the male Stud, who is desperately attempting to buy the Cartilage some overly fruity adult beverage.

There is no purpose behind the Gauge, the Stud, or the Cartilage except for the sake of pain, stupidity, or lack of trendiness. While all three categories have different styles, the one similarity is that there is no reason to pay money to pierce a hole in someone’s ear, let alone increase the size of the hole intentionally. And, the next time you find yourself contemplating acquiring a piercing, be sure to reflect upon the types of ear piercings and how “trendy” that hole in your ear will appear.