Everything
The first time I got my ear pierced – upper cartilage, with a gun, at a random jewellery stand in a Westfield shopping centre back in 2007 – I probably exchanged about a dozen words with the piercer at most.
“This one please.”
“Cool. Where?”
“Here.”
“Sure….Breath out. Oh. Oops! Sorry!”
A quick wipe, a panicked look on my face, and I was out of the chair. I never went back and I took the piercing out about a month later.
This kind of exchange isn’t uncommon in a society where almost everything is impermanent, easily erased like it never happened. But in the process of quick fixes we’ve also lost much of the meaning behind these experiences. Body modification, like ear piercing, remains one of the most commonly shared cultural practices. One that was done to signify wealth or social status or for its healing properties. But along the way it became less a rite of passage and more pure adornment. Modification became commodification and piercing lost some of its artistry.
But a piercing, as humble as we may think it is, is still a ritual of trust says Tamila Purvis, head of Ear Alchemy at Sydney jewellery brand Sarah & Sebastian. Purvis is who’s manning the needle today in their Strand Arcade lab – no gun in sight, and plenty of conversation – and the experience is vastly different from the first time. The space, for starters, feels more like a conceptual art gallery of grey walls and mirrored surfaces. Rows of tiny gold, silver and platinum design options are arranged, almost too much choice if it weren’t for Purvis slowly talking you through it with suggestions on what shape might work where you wish the piercing to go.
A jewellery designer herself and trained by the pioneering body piercer Andre Meyer, Purvis says that the process of a piercing is one that requires you to be fully present in a mindful manner. “I’m literally penetrating you,” she laughs. “Because it is actually quite a, I wouldn’t say spiritual, but a mindful practice and you have to be really present. There’s presence, there’s consent, there’s a lot of stuff going on.”
Ear Alchemy is Sarah & Sebastian founders’ Sarah Munro and Robert Sebastian Grynkofki way of putting the art back into piercing. According to Munro the art of Ear Alchemy, with its slow mode of selection where your talked through each piece, how it would sit and even discussing how your lifestyle could accomodate it, brings back that ritual nature that piercing once had. “Ear Alchemy is our method of ear adornment,” Munro tells ICON. “It combines luxury styling and anatomy-specific piercing done by our expert team of piercers, at our Piercing Labs.
“The Ear Alchemy experience draws upon each client’s unique ear anatomy, personal style, lifestyle and current trends to create one-of-a-kind compositions.”
Basically, your piercing should be as unique to your ear as your ear is to you, like a made to measure suit. Science backs this theory up too, by the way. Scientists at La Trobe university recently put forward a fascinating paper that suggests our ear – its curves, dips and valleys (or medically known as helix, antihelix and tragus among others) – is as unique to each of us as a fingerprint. That in some cases, could even be used to distinguish between identical twins.
It’s not just women who are adapting this more mindful and considered style of piercing, either. Grynkofki says that they’ve also seen a rise in the number of men coming in to enquire about how they can give their a ears a subtle update.
“Helix piercings are on the rise, especially for men who are looking for something different from the typical lobe piercing.” Late last year, Grynkofki introduced the brand’s first men’s collection, TRACTION, which featured several earring inclusions. These, says Grynkofki, have not only sparked a surge in interest in men’s jewellery but have also led to a noticeable uptake in men getting piercings
“It seems like there’s an increased interest in piercings overall, with more people, especially men, getting adventurous with jewellery, pushing past the usual norms. The edgier piercings and jewellery are making their way into the mainstream, and it’s less about passing trends and more about personal expression.”
But where Ear Alchemy lives up to the latter part of its name is the post-care ritual, equally as important as the initial selection conversation and choice of placement. Not just about cleansing, but dietary and overall wellness that contribute to the body’s healing factors. Purvis says that the system was created in collaboration with Orchard St founder Kirsten Shanks. “We worked with Kirsten to develop the after care ritual and it involves the nutrients that will help cell repair and cartilage renewal so things like vitamin C, zinc and silica, which is an unusual sort of supplement that people don’t normally take and that really helps healing cartilage early.”
We’ve reached the point of discussion where Purvis is about to take the plunge into my ear – specifically, the upper part of the lobe just where the helix, or outer rim, of the ear begins. A solid gold bar (signature S&S design) that sits neatly into the crevice. A decision that we came to by discussing how I wanted something that would be so discrete that it would probably take my partner weeks to notice.*
“You ready?”
“Yep.”
“Okay, take a deep breathe and slowly release…Done. What do you think?”
No regrets. And yes, I’ll be back.
*Fun fact reader it took him two weeks to notice.
