Piercings have taken a new turn in popularity over the last couple of years, to a point where almost every young adult has at least one piercing. If you’re just now considering getting your own body or face piercing, choosing out of the hundreds of different types of piercings can be a little daunting.
At Piercing Models, we have created this piercing infographic that easily explains the most popular piercing locations, complication and piercing aftercare statistics, and popularity by gender.
Piercing Infographic: Most Popular Piercing Statistics
If you are reading this list because you are planning to get a piercing you are at the right place. Getting a piercing is exciting and rewarding, but it must be a personal decision based on taste and experiences in life. Choosing to get a piercing is luckily not as final as getting a tattoo since you can always remove your piercing.
However, it is still of the utmost importance that for any piercing you decide to get, you find a trusted, experienced practitioner and follow all of their instructions to the letter for the best possible outcome.
The big questions here are: “What piercing should I get?”. We cannot make this decision for you, but at least you will find what the rest of the world thinks when it comes down to picking a piercing.
Different Popular Piercings Explained
Below the most popular and trending piercing explained that people tend to choose this year.
Navel Piercing
The navel piercing or belly button piercing has gained huge popularity during the 80s and 90s. A lot of people consider them sexy and cool, especially the younger generation. It is a very common starting choice for a piercing with a huge variety of body jewelry readily available.
This is widely considered to be one of the least painful piercings procedurally but has a higher rejection rate than it is often given credit for. The navel piercing does also have a great number of variations, including the inverted navel, sides of the navel and even the ‘true’ navel piercing. The best success is seen when a curved barbell is used as initial jewelry, with 14 being the standard gauge.
Nose Piercing
Nose piercings are the second most popular piercings and have been around for a long time. There are several different types of nose piercing, the two most popular of which are the nostril and septum.
The nostril piercing, in particular, has gained wide social acceptance specifically in the workplace and even many larger corporations and businesses will allow their employees to don one small piece of jewelry in their nostrils. These can be done with rings, L-Curves or nose bones, but historically will heal the most quickly and efficiently with a simple corkscrew.
Post-healing jewelry is entirely at the discretion of the wearer and is a matter of personal taste and comfort. The septum is another great nose piercing for those whose job, school, or family wouldn’t appreciate a visible facial piercing.
This also has a very low pain factor and heals quickly, but either with a standard horseshoe (anywhere from 18-12 gauge is common to start) or a specifically designed septum retainer, the wearer can actually invert the jewelry itself to sit inside the nose and be completely invisible to picky bosses, sports coaches or even persnickety grandparents.
Ear Piercings
The ear-piercing with its many variations is the third most popular piercings (we’re not talking about earlobe piercings here). Pain and healing time differs vastly depending on the type of cartilage piercing; with the helix, forward helix and tragus being among the most common to see.
The daith has recently seen a serious push in popularity due to its purported benefits for those suffering migraine headaches.
Tongue Piercing
The tongue piercing is the 4th most popular piercing on the list, and more popular among guys. The tongue standard center piercing heals quickly and only hurts for about a week. As with any modification, but particularly those in the mouth, be sure to eat prior to your appointment.
An empty stomach can be problematic not only with low blood sugar playing a role in the procedure but also because it can be difficult to pick up eating solids again right away.
However, resist the urge to binge prior to this appointment, as the excitement can easily cause nausea and subsequent vomiting, which will not only be unhealthy and embarrassing to you but also very unsanitary and frustrating to your artist.
Nipple Piercing
Last but definitely not least, the nipple piercing. Nipple piercing is popular among both women and men, and while some say it makes your nipple more sensitive others say it actually numbs your nipples down. Of course, this is very personal and it can change from person to person. That means you have to try it to find out!
Which piercing is your favorite? Is it similar to the statistics on piercings above? Let us know in the comments below!
Hello! My name is Emily and I obsessed with piercings (and tattoos) since I was a little girl of 6 years old. I was fortunate enough to make my passion my work after meeting my amazing husband Jeffrey who owned his own tattoo shop. I just recently finished my internships at some of America’s most famous piercing shops and a dream to start something together was born. After falling in love with each other (and each other’s piercings and tattoos) we decided to expand his tattoo shop and I got to manage my own piercing shop in the same space! I’ve never been so happy being able to share my love for piercings through my shop and this blog I started back in 2013. We love to share models and inspiration, so feel free to email me your suggestions, pictures or if you just want to say hi!