I remember this girl in my freshman year at art school trying to pierce her nose with a needle. It took forever and I felt asleep, possibly drunk when it finally when through. Apparently I continued to converse in my sleep.
I got a high cartilage piercing for my birthday once, from guys with the Gauntlet and into piercing parties, etc. It didn't stick and I did it again.
I am not good with the piercing, my ears don't even want to stay open. I think I did that twice as well.

Starting with my generation, it seems like the girls in my family had their ears pierced as a babies -- I think Mom had mine done at 3 months (compared to her first set done with a needle in high school by a cousin). I've never understood the whole having to wait thing so I probably would have my distant-future daughter's ears pierced pretty early.

I was 11 or so when I got my second set of holes. My aunt's a beautician and they had a piercing gun at their shop so she did it. I remember the whole turning thing hurting so we went with pushing it back and forth on my paternal grandmother's advice and they healed without any issues.

I couldn't get my ears pierced until I was 12, and my mom was never allowed when growing up, and never got around to it as an adult. So when I was 12, I was allowed to get my ears pierced. Along with us went my mom's cousin (my 2nd cousin) who was a little bit older than my mom. They had grown up together but then my cousin departed the East Coast for California and led a free-spirit life out there. She had her ears pierced, so she encouraged my mom to get hers done. Meanwhile she got a 2nd piercing in one of her ears. So we all got done on the same day in about 1982 or 3.

I got a second set of piercings in my earlobes some time after and wore uneven earrings for a while, 80s style. Then I got a 3rd on my left ear eventually. Now I wear two tiny hoops in my left ear all the time, and just use the main piercings for earrings I change every day.

Then in 2006ish after an unpleasant breakup I was feeling all "fuck you world" and got one cartilage piercing at the top of my left ear, which was daring-ish for me. I really like it. I've thought about getting another, not sure. I'm always trying to walk the line where I look presentable and normal in my profession, but at the same time looking a little different isn't the worst thing in the world.

In high school I did an ice-cube-and-needle piercing for one of my guy friends. Kind of stupid, can't recommend it, but it worked out OK. Didn't seem to hurt any more than the gun piercing without benefit of anaesthetic. We tried to be sanitary.

I never wanted a nose piercing because it seems distracting for people who can't help but stare at nose piercings a little when they first meet someone. But I think they look very very nice on other people, especially the tiny ones which just have a subtle sparkle. Out of bounds for me are eyebrow, belly, tongue or ladypartys piercings. Especially tongue - just grosses me out.

I have never had anything pierced, even ear lobes. When I was a little kid and all my girl friends were getting their ears pierced, every time my birthday or Christmas came around there was always something I wanted way more than pierced ears, so I missed that phase. Then when I was about 13 or 14 I saw my sister get her ears pierced and it looked horrifying and painful and I decided I was never ever EVER going to do that to myself. Up to that point I had this idea that pierced ears was something I was supposed to do, because I was a girl, and I was relieved when my mother confirmed I didn't have to if I didn't want to.

I sometimes (pretty rarely these days) wear clip earrings, but I really don't understand piercings, of anything. Too overcome by childhood fear and horror to understand the culture, I guess. :)

I got my first ear piecing to celebrate the loss of my virginity. It seemed symbolic and fair. I was young and stupid and loved doing things that would irritate the people around me. I decided to get a piecing whenever I slept with a new woman. I figured this was a good incentive to keep this number low. After my second partner I was told only gay people got their right ear pieced, so I got my left ear pieced again.

When I was in college I threw a lot of parties. The same woman kept coming to them. She'd run the music (I had a beyond extensive music collection and a decent stereo). After a couple months of this stranger DJing my parties I decided I needed to introduce myself, but before I could she said, "You should let me pierce your other ear." Immediately I said, "You'd have to sleep with me first." She said, "Ok." She was my only one night stand and she pieced my ear in the morning after numbing it with a cold bottle of beer.

This is the mostly story about how I got all the piercings I currently have. For those concerned, my third piercing did not turn me gay.

My fourth partner said piecing my ears was a dumb way to keep count (this was before blogs and Facebook), and she didn't want me to do it on her account. This worked out well, as she was the only person I'd ever regretted, and I would hate to have a hole to remind me.

I tend toward long term relationships, so it's not like I'd be a pin cushion if I'd kept up the tradition, but I'm glad I stopped at three. I wear earrings for special occasions, but it has to be something like a wedding/funeral combo to get me to care enough to put them in.

When I was in high-school, not a single guy had a pierced ear and nerdy me certainly wasn't going to be the trend-setter. In college a few of the guys had one little gold stud or diamond in their left ear only but I never really worked up the courage. Maybe I'll be like Harrison Ford and get my ear done when I'm in my fifties (which is only two years from now!).

My mom took me to get my ears pierced at a jewelry store when I was 10 or 11. I remember being nervous about it, until this little girl maybe 8 years old went first, no sweat, so of course I couldn't show any fear. They used a gun. I rarely wear earrings, though. My lobes are sensitive and tend to swell, even with gold or stainless steel.

About five years ago, I got my right eyebrow pierced at a place in the East Village, New York Adorned. I loved my eyebrow piercing. Small, surgical steel curved barbell. I got it done in the summer, after my gallbladder surgery. I was feeling brave. The guy who did it was very professional and nice. It's funny, but when I went back to teaching that fall, my students barely noticed it, but my principal did. He was a bit alarmed at my new "accoutrement," as he put it. Unfortunately, I woke up with my eye all puffy one night a few months later and got scared and took it out. But I wouldn't mind having it again. The little shadow of it always in my peripheral vision bugged me sometimes, though.

I think nipple rings on guys are sexy. My ex-brother-in-law had them. He said they hurt like hell, though, getting them. To me, whatever makes you happy. Self-expression and all that.

Obviously she's unaware of proper ear-piercing protocol which ideally involves a sewing needle, sometimes sterilized with alcohol (or more often a Bic lighter) and a potato (or a potatoe if you're of the tribe of Dan Quayle) placed behind the earlobe in the path of the aforementioned needle.

(Often called the potato-ear method...)
≡ Click to see image ≡
(...which is not to be confused with having "cauliflower ear" or cauliflower IN your ear.)

Being something of a MacGyver, the first time I pierced my ear I used what was readily available, which happened to be a push-pin tack. Unaware of the fact that the earlobe has TWO distinct layers of skin, I pierced the first layer (with a loud and satisfying POP!) quite successfully but had a confusingly bloody and frustrating time inserting the earring until I realized my mistake and reinserted the tack adequately. Mild edema and erythema (which sound so much better than swelling and redness) followed but no infection.

I recommend either of these two methods as valuable life experience, if not exceptionally effective ways of avoiding the staphylococcus bacteria that is ever-present on our skin or the minimal chance of obtaining hepatitis from a foreign object.

;-)/

Seriously, though, I can't imagine paying to have an ear pierced, or for that matter to have stitches taken out (unless it's a workman's comp claim and you have to attend all your follow-ups to get your dough). I swear to God I was just looking at tattoo guns on the 'Net thinking that if I ever get those Tony the Tiger stripes on my triceps, it'd be WAAY cheaper just to buy the gun and ink and then DIY.

But that's just me. I grew up in a frugal household where Kleenex was a stage prop for use only by visitors and paper towel was considered a luxury to be used 1/4 sheet at a time. If I were any cheaper (or weirder) I'd be thinking of making Maori tattoo tools out of bamboo.

I got my first set of ear piercings at age seven, which ticked off my older sisters to no end since they'd had to wait 'til they were older. I got my second and third set of ear piercings ~ age 13, conveniently just before I tipped over the edge into punk and started wearing safety pins in every hole.

I can't remember the last time I wore more than two earrings. I should buy myself some pearls or silver studs to put in those second and third holes, just to see how I like it these days.

In that teenaged punk stage, I did some ice-and-needle piercings (ears only) on friends at parties and shows. Yikes. I never did work up the nerve to pierce my own nose, no matter how many times I stood all nerved up six inches from the bathroom mirror with a sterilized needle in hand.

We had played Rugby and were now drinking beer. On the TV we saw an Irish Rugby team and they all had earrings. We went out and got earrings. It made sense at the time.

I had mine done with a gun when I was about 12, but I didn't wear the studs regularly and they closed up. I redid them when I was about 22, sme thing. Now the spots smell like Parmesan cheese if I don't wash my ears everyday . :-(

Everyone with a nose piercing I know is annoyed with the way boogers catch on them.

I got my left ear pierced when I was about 25. I never wear anything in it now, because my partner hates earrings on men, but I still stick something through it just to see if I still can. Even after ~15 years, the hole hasn't closed up.

I was the oldest girl after a slough of boys in a very conservative house. My mom had a set of self-piercing earrings that she had used on her ears when she was 20; I had to wait until I was 16.

Those self-piercing earrings were pretty neat, if old. I just tightened the screw down a little each day, and after a week? less? the sharpened posts were pushed all of the way through. No pain whatsoever.

My little sister got hers pierced by our beautician aunt when she was 14, one year after I pierced mine. I was ticked.

I currently only have the two ear piercings. At my sister's funeral 10 years ago I put in her very tiny silver hoops and haven't removed them since. I sometimes see women wearing long earrings or fancy earrings and just love the way they look, but I can't bring myself to remove my hoops.

Totally coincidentally, today I finally went to the body piercing place to have ear jewelry put back in (I had to take mine out with pliers before my MRI in September). I don't have anything extreme, just small 14 gauge hoops with a small ball. It's just about the last punk rock thing left about me now that I'm a corporate sell-out, but you'd have to know what you were looking at to know that...to most people, they just look like regular earrings.

I got my ears pierced at age five after asking for them every day since age three. So I waited almost half my life for them at that point. It was with a gun and I was very brave- I remember the piercing lady exclaiming to my parents that I "didn't even flinch" which I was really proud of.

When I turned 15 I secretly got my bellybutton pierced by a friend of a friend on a dirty couch in downtown Boston. He was a piercer and had sterile tools but it felt very dangerous and seedy. I wanted my eyebrow pierced but I thought I'd get the bellybutton first and work up to it.

A week or two after, fashion did me in. I was wearing a cropped top that was all the rage and as I lifted my arms to put my jacket on, my shirt rode up and my ring showed and my mom screamed and the world froze.
She wanted me to take it out right then in front of her but I lied and said that it would have to be done by a professional or else it would bleed and get infected, which made her queasy enough to let me keep it in for the time being. My goal was to leave it in long enough so it would heal and I could take it out in front of her.
She called her best friend over to come help her figure out what to do with me but her best friend thought it looked great.
I was allowed to keep it but was grounded for 3 months, and felt that to be worth it.

I got a cartilage piercing two years later, and then a nose ring in college and that's been it.
The nose ring was at first disappointing because I got back after Spring break and no one noticed. When I pointed it out, everyone said they thought I'd always had it.

When I turned 25 I decided to take the belly ring out, so now it's just the 3 in my ears and 1 in my nose.

I like getting pierced; it's a rush and I like taking care of a new piercing, but I don't want anything else pierced on myself.

My mum made me wait until I was eleven to get my ears pierced and that was done at a mall kiosk. I was 15 when I got a second hole in my left ear, also in a kiosk. And I was 20-something when I got the third hole in my left ear. That was done by my mum with a "throw-away" gun you could buy at a drug store (I have no idea if they're still around). There were two earrings/options to do holes in the throw-away gun and I gave my mum a second hole in her left ear. She had her ears pierced by her doctor when she was 7 or so; that's how it was done back in the 1940s.

I've had my nose pierced twice. The first time it closed I had taken out the nose screw to change it to something else and it was so painful and awkward I just couldn't do it. The second time I had it pierced, the nose screw fell out in bed and by the time I woke up it had closed up. Both of those were done in a piercing studio. I still want to get it re-pierced, but just haven't taken the time and money to do so.

I got my ears pierced at age five after asking for them every day since age three

Wild! At the Limited Too, we were not allowed to pierce children 4 and under (it wasn't illegal or anything, it was just company policy). One day we accidentally did a girl who had just turned 4 and she screamed bloody murder the whole time. So we learned our lesson.

I have pierced ears, and they were done when I was about 12. I had one done twice, as it became infected the first time round and closed up once I removed the initial stud. The second time hurt quite a lot.

These days I wear earrings about twice a year and generally don't remember that I have pierced ears unless a topic like this comes up :)

When we decided to get married, I didn't want an engagement ring, but it seems the "buy jewellery for your woman" concept is hard to shift. When we went to buy wedding rings, we were looking in various shop windows, and I mentioned that I really love opals. As a wedding gift my husband bought me a beautiful opal pendant and a set of opal earrings. Those are my favourites and I wear them to weddings.

My first piercings (slightly squicky):

My dad was a jeweler, which means my two sisters and I always had some real jewelry from the time we started grade school. We each had a birthstone ring and a couple of nice pendants each (I had a horse and my zodiac sign). Nothing truly expensive -- 10K gold and semi-precious stone -- but despite eating macaroni a LOT as my Dad's business struggled, we did have some nice things.

When I was 9, Dad came home with earrings for all three of us. He told us it was a new and easy way to pierce our ears. The earrings were 10K gold open hoops. One end of the hoop was a loop, and the other end was a sharpened point. The idea was that these would be gently pinched onto our earlobes, and that we would pinch the hoops ourselves several times a day, gradually pushing the sharp point through and nearly painlessly piercing our ears on our own.

The bizarre thing is that this technique actually worked for 66% of the test group. My older and younger sister wound up with perfectly pierced ears within a week. Me? I was the one sitting at the kitchen table, screeching as my Dad tried to removed the looped end of each earring from under the bloody scab that had formed over it. The family legend was that I had actually pushed the hoop parts into my earlobes, but I think it was just scabs.

Anyway, I swore I would never get my ears pierced. I wouldn't even consider applying a safety pin to my cheek, fashion be damned.

My final piercings:

I dated my one and only musician when I was 21, a redheaded Bowie look-alike with a pierced (left) ear. He did his bit to live up to the jerk muso stereotype, with the result that we broke up right before Christmas, after I had bought him some silver earrings and some nice sweaters. The sweaters fit me pretty well, in the classic borrowed boyfriend sweater way, but the earrings -- well, I was still pissed off enough with him that I was able to get my ears pierced at the Eaton Centre without feeling a damn thing, and I wore those earrings for years.