by GP on Mon Mar 17, 2008 12:46 am
Uri,
My wife did not persuade me to have my ears pierced as much as she convinced me to fulfill my own desire to have my ears pierced. So long as I wore screw on earrings there was no evidence when I was not wearing them, but once my ears were pierced I would always have those little holes in my lobes for all the world to see. My wife explained to me how I could hide the holes with makeup. I won't go into intimate details, but my wife liked playing with my screw on earrings and knew we would both enjoy her playing with earrings in my pierced ears even more, just as I enjoyed playing with her earrings. Yes, we had and still do have a very special relationship.
Ever since I started wearing screw on earrings in my teens I have always worn whatever earrings I liked and what was fashionable at the time. As pierced ears became more common, earrings for pierced ears became more common until by the late 1960s the only earrings available for ears that were not pierced were styles for older women, more in my mother's age range than mine. Back then the popular styles of earrings for pierced ears were small studs similar to the studs available today and dangles on what came to be called 'kidney' wires because their shape resembled the outline of a kidney. The dangles were attached to a small bend in the wires. To wear them you put the plain end of the wire through your ear, then fastened it behind a sharp bend in the other end of the wire so it would not come out of your ear. As hoop earrings became popular I added those to my collection also.
When my ears were first pierced I wore earrings only at home. Until my ears heled enough that I could go for a day or two without concern about the holes closing, whenever I went away from home I wore plastic studs that my wife fashioned from round plastic toothpicks. These did not have any fronts or backs, so they fit entirely inside my ears and were not at all visible, particularly when covered with makeup. The first time I wore earings in public was about 1973, give or take a year, while we were on vacation and I was certain I would not see anyone I knew other than my wife. We were at Provincetown, MA which is located at the tip end of Cape Cod. Provincetown is a mecca for gays, lesbians and cross dressers, so a man wearing small earrings did not attract any particular attention. As more and more men began wearing earrings I wore my earrings more and more until now I wear earrings almost all the time. What I wear on any particular day depends on where I am going, what I will be doing and what I happen to feel like wearing that day.
I will be 70 in May. We have always lived in the northeastern part of the United States, generally known as New England.
You asked if I liked or disliked the pain. I am not sure what pain you are asking about. I do not remember any pain when my wife pierced my ears, probably because I was so excited about having my ears pierced. We took proper care of my ears until they healed, so they have never closed up and I never had to have them pierced again. My ears have now been pierced long enough that my holes will remain open for the rest of my life, even if I never wore earrings again. There is certainly no pain associated with wearing earrings in pierced ears. They are so comfortable you can easily forget you are wearing them, particularly the light weight studs.
