Students are exploring self-expression in a new way…with piercings!

Ears, belly buttons and noses are becoming prime real estate for piercings. Piercings are becoming more common in teenagers and are a growing trend. People used to just get their ears pierced, but it is now a way for people to express themselves.

“I wanted to be different,” ninth grader Sydney Hurst said. The majority of people get a piercing because it gives them something that makes them different from other people.

“I kind of get piercings because it is something different,” senior Julia Bobrovskiy said. While ninth grader Maya is more into the self expression, “I thought that ear piercings were really cool and a good way of self expression.”

Parents play a big part with getting piercings. Hurst, who got her nose pierced around three months ago, said it took  a long time to convince her dad to let her get it done. Maya had a similar experience with her mom.

“Since my mom is a doctor I really had to convince her since there are a lot of infections and risks with the more rare ones. It took a few months to think about and consider doing it,” Maya said. Maya continued to say that the tragus, a part of your ear, is the most prone to infection which is the main reason her mom was apprehensive to get the piercings. Bobrovskiy, who got her belly button pierced, had a different reaction from her parents,

“My parents really didn’t care.” Bobrovskiy also said that she thinks the piercing got a little infected, which was the only difficulty there was.

Everyone’s experience with piercings is different.

“When I got my first ear piercing I was in kindergarten so I was four. My most recent one was two months ago,” Maya said. Maya also said she wants to get other piercings to, not body ones but but she would consider getting a nose piercing or a few more on her ears. While Hurst, who got her nose pierced at the age of 14, said she had a very interesting experience.

“It was probably less painful than I thought it would be,” Hurst said, “I had a lot of adrenaline so I don’t really remember what it was like but at one point I thought that I would pass out.” Bobrovskiy has an interesting past with piercings,

“I got my first piercing when I was in first grade and I got my ears pierced. From then on it was like an obsession,” Bobrovskiy said. She continued to say that in seventh grade she decided to pierce her own ears and had five on one ear and four on the other.

By: Emma Van Deursen