I've gotten several ear piercings lately - third holes in lobes and a few cartilage piercings. I go to a tattoo/piercing place in VA. The pain of the piercing is not bad at all, but the healing time was much longer than when I got my first piercings as a teen. The third lobe piercings took a couple months to heal and one of the cartilage ones took nearly a year. That was much more annoying as they could be painful when irritated, but ultimately it was worth it.

I had pierced ears as a kid but let them close about 15 years ago because I was developing allergies to more and more types of metal. Recently I decided to give it another go, this time with proper hypoallergenic metal and crossed fingers. One lobe just went into the old hole, but the other was in a slightly new spot. For the new spot, I would say the pain was more a “yow, that stings!” than anything I’d describe as real pain. It burned a little for an hour or two afterward but then has been pretty much fine.

My teen has a couple of holes in each lobe, so we started going to Fattys in Silver Spring because they’re one of the few places that take minors. It’s not cheap, but I highly recommend them for anyone who might have allergies or other special issues. We looked into Studs when it opened, and it’s a lot cheaper but their hypoallergenic choices didn’t strike me as actually very hypoallergenic. For plain old piercings on someone with no special issues, I assume any reasonably sanitary place is probably as good as any other.

It's not bad at all, and extremely quick. If you're in DC go to the new Studs in Georgetown, or at least to a tattoo place. A good piercing job should have very little or no lingering pain as well.

Anonymous wrote:I got a third lobe ear piercing as an adult. It was a non-issue - I got myself really worked up for nothing. Go to a tattoo/piercing shop rather than a place in the mall and you’ll be good to go.

+1. Lobe piercings are really NBD. Find a tattoo or piercing place.

I got a third lobe ear piercing as an adult. It was a non-issue - I got myself really worked up for nothing. Go to a tattoo/piercing shop rather than a place in the mall and you’ll be good to go.

I feel silly asking this but I want to get a second lobe piercing in each ear but I am curious on the pain level. My first piercing was done when I was a baby so I have no idea on how bad it hurts.

Anyone done this as an adult?