Let’s talk ear curations! This has to be one of our favorite new trends. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, ear curation; sometimes called constellation ears, is essentially jewelry and piercing styling that results in a unique and fun combination of jewelry and piercings to meet your ear fashion goals! It’s like dress up for your ears but with your own personal stylist and shopper! Ear piercings can make as much of an impact and statement as a bold outfit, and these days we see more and more clients looking for just that. It can be hard to decide exactly what piercings and jewelry are right for you, your budget, and your overall style; which is where our experienced staff comes in handy! Curation is a service we offer here at Amato and we offer it in two different ways-
Option one: This is for someone who has existing piercings that they’d like to style/buy jewelry for OR someone who has more of an overall clear concept in regards to what new piercings and jewelry they like/want. With a clear plan, only a little extra assistance is usually needed! Our expert staff can help with picking final placement, exact pieces, and any additional piercings that may be added to the overall project. If you fall under this category, then you’d be able to visit the store on a walk in basis to complete your curation.
Option two: This is for someone who has maybe seen a few piercings online, and knows they want to do something fun but aren’t quite sure just what to do or where to start. We offer a 1-hour personal curation appointment where you can meet with either Lynn or Margo, our ear styling experts/piercers, and have them take a few photos of your ears that they can then use to photoshop jewelry and piercings onto to help you put together a solid plan. It’s like dress us for your ears! This also helps those who struggle with fully visualizing their plan. These appointments are available every Sunday and Monday so if you’re interested in schedule, please check out our appointments page.
We get asked all the time about how ear curation work, so here is a little FAQ:
How many piercings will you do in one sitting? We usually limit clients to 2-4 piercings healing at once, depending on difficulty and healing times. We don’t like to do more than this at one time because our goal is to get every piercing to heal well; too many piercings at once can be overwhelming for the body and can result in some, or all of the new piercings having issues. We always suggest taking it slow and letting your body heal before rushing to add more. We know it’s hard to be patient, especially when the end result is so exciting, but it’s well worth the wait, we promise!
How soon can I add more piercings after already having new ones done? Well, that’s all very dependent. If you’ve been taking great care of everything and all your piercings are looking happy and healthy, then we’d say you may only have to wait about a month or so after getting a piercing before you’re able to get another one. This is a fairly average time frame for most non-advanced healing piercings. However, if you come in and any piercing is irritated or having issues, it’s wouldn’t be safe for us to add more new piercings until everything has recovered. Everyone heals things differently so this can vary dramatically from person to person. We will always be the first to let you know that it’s best to wait a little longer. It’s more important to allow your body to focus on the piercing’s it’s currently trying to heal rather than override that with brand new ones.
How can you sleep with all that jewelry/healing piercings? Travel pillows! Seriously- for anyone interested in a curated ear or more comprehensive project, a travel pillow is going to be your best friend forever. These allow you to lay on your side without putting pressure on your ear. Simply tuck your ear in the little gap usually used for your neck; your head will be supported on both sides and your ear won’t be squished all night by the pressure of your head. Those who are natural back sleepers may get lucky and won’t have to worry about sleeping on either ear but more often than not, people are side sleepers. Once everything is healed we can ensure that all your jewelry is nice and snugly fit, which makes sleeping on the jewelry very comfortable and easy.
How does someone heal ALL their piercings? Patience and diligence! If you really want the look of a beautiful, well curated ear, you put in the time and effort to get everything to heal nicely. Our most successful projects are on clients who take the necessary time to really understand aftercare and healing and are patient with letting things heal. They’re also often very good about following up with us, either in person or through social media to check in on how things are doing!
Do my ears have to match? Not at all! Ears are siblings, but not always twins! If you want matching piercings on both sides because you like the look of matching then awesome! Let’s pair it up. If your ear is perhaps not anatomically suited to the same piercings on both sides or maybe you just want different piercings so you can showcase different pieces of jewelry, then let’s play and have fun! The only rules to curation are the rules you make- it’s all about your fashion and your sense of style.
Should I mix my gold colors? We actually have a whole article all about the trend of mixing metals here. Personally at Amato we love our mixed metals, but we also understand some clients prefer a cohesive single color. It’s all your fashion and the style that makes you happy! Our professional jewelry stylists are happy to help you mix in some new metals, or will help guide you to a cohesive matched set. Whatever you dream up!
Should I plan my ear first or see a piercer first? You can work on your curated ear plans in whatever order you choose! But please remember that many piercings are anatomy dependant. For example, many people cannot get a traditional industrial piercing, or if they can it may only be able to be done on one specific ear. Planning your dream project first may lead to some disappointment if you come in and can’t get the piercings you were planning, or cant get them on the ear you wanted. If you are unsure, it always helps to let us take a peek and see, and we can give you a list of what would work for each ear so you can go home and start dreaming up the possibilities for your ears! Something that is easy to do on your own however, is start saving pictures of jewelry and projects you love to use as inspiration for your own!
Whether we are dressing up existing piercings or adding a bunch of new ones, curated ears are fun, unique, special ways to dress up your ears and adorn yourself with fun bits of gold and gems! This growing trend gives piercers and jewelers creative freedom to work with the client’s unique anatomy and sense of style to create the perfect project!