What does "ear curation" mean?
Ear curation means making the jewelry and piercings on your ear come together in one intentional flow that matches who you are.
An experienced piercer will listen to what you say, what you like, your job, your hobbies, how you dress, how you present yourself. In most cases, just by looking at your ear, we can already visualize which piercings it needs to mirror who you are. A curation should feel like you. It should fit your lifestyle, your wardrobe, your life — not just look good in a photo.
Do I need existing piercings to start a curation?
No. We can start from a completely virgin ear, or we can work with piercings you already have.
To be precise: when you already have healed piercings and we're building a flow around them, it's technically called ear (re)styling rather than curation — but the concept is exactly the same. Either way, we're placing carefully chosen jewelry with intention, not just filling spots.
Is there one "right" way to curate an ear?
No. There are multiple ways to go about it, and no single correct approach. Every piercer has their own style, philosophy, and way of working. Whoever you feel most comfortable with, and who gives you the sense that they actually understand your goal — that's your piercer.
Personally, I'm specialized in minimalism. I like to create playful, unique, and subtle looks — curations that fit a busy lifestyle, or environments where piercings haven't been fully accepted yet.
I grew up in an environment where tattoos and piercings were considered vulgar or unprofessional. So I found a way to do what I wanted while building a look refined enough that the same people who used to disapprove ended up saying, "well, if piercings look like that, I actually really love it." That tension is exactly what I design for now: pieces subtle enough for a boardroom, meaningful enough that they're still completely yours.
Even as a minimalist, I'll sometimes use a bigger statement piece or a chain when it genuinely belongs — I do love a moving piece of jewelry, a small dangle, a chain, a bit of playfulness for the little girl in each of us. But the overall look I build stays calm and classy rather than maximalist. You can have fifteen piercings in one ear and I can still make it read as subtle, if that's what you want.
How do you decide what to pierce first?
This is where balance matters more than most people expect. If you're deciding between two piercings and can only afford one right now, I'll usually steer you toward whichever one makes your ear look finished at that stage, but the final decision is yours.
Here's a real example: a new client with lobes only wants a flat or helix piercing and a conch, but can only get one today. I'll almost always recommend starting with the flat or helix, not the conch. If we start at the conch, all the visual weight sits at the bottom of the ear. It looks fine at first, but over time it starts to feel like something's missing up top — even if the client can't quite say what's off. I see this constantly with new clients: a heavy lower ear and a completely bare upper ear, and an ear that just feels disconnected.
When there's no flow, it bothers you eventually. Balancing the ear at every single stage — not just at the "finished" stage — is what makes it feel complete the whole way through, even mid-progress.
How long does a full curation take, and how many piercings can I get at once?
That depends entirely on your budget and your pace, but there are two hard limits worth knowing:
We can pierce a maximum of three piercings in one sitting — that's what your immune system can heal comfortably and fluidly at once. And we generally wait around five months between ears: if we pierce your left cartilage, we'll wait roughly five months before piercing cartilage on the right ear. Lobes are excluded from that waiting period.
So a full curation is genuinely built over months, sometimes longer, piece by piece.
Can you mix metals, styles, and colors?
Yes — there are no fixed rules here. We can mix styles, colors, and metals freely. It's my job as the piercer to make sure it still reads as one balanced look that makes sense together, not a random collection of pieces.
One honest downside worth knowing: in some cases, a piercing is placed specifically to hold one particular piece of jewelry. If you later want to change that jewelry or restyle that spot, it's always possible — but it may never feel quite as perfect as it did originally, simply because that placement was chosen around that exact piece.
How many piercings do I need to start a curation?
None. Wherever you're starting from, we can build from there.
How many you'll end up wanting is entirely up to you — but I'll tell you honestly, they grow on you. If you're starting from a virgin ear, we might begin with just two. Once you're used to how it looks, most people find they want more.
Do you do custom jewelry for curations?
Often, yes. I know the full collections of most of the brands I work with in real detail, and sometimes I already know exactly what a specific ear needs — it just needs a small adaptation: a different gem, a slight adjustment so it sits right on that particular ear. There's really no limit to what we can request.
The one thing custom jewelry asks of you is patience. Most of the brands I work with make each piece by hand, and real craftsmanship doesn't respond well to being rushed — it takes the time it takes.
What if I have old piercings I stopped wearing?
If a piercing was fully healed at some point, there's a good chance it's still technically open even after years of not wearing jewelry — it's just shrunk down to a tiny hole. In most cases we can gently stretch it back open and reuse it, with no needle and no new healing time needed.
What if my budget doesn't match my timeline?
That's completely normal, and there's a way around it. For clients who want the full look sooner than their budget allows, we'll sometimes start with an entirely titanium set-up: new piercings heal, you get used to wearing the full composition, and then we upgrade piece by piece over time as budget allows.
How I approach ear curation at LPR
I work at your pace, your budget, and your lifestyle — not the other way around. Most curations start with a conversation, not a piercing needle: we figure out together what you actually want, what your ear needs to feel finished at every stage, and what pace makes sense for you. Sometimes that first appointment is a single upgrade. Sometimes it's just ordering one specific piece of jewelry, nothing else yet. It genuinely depends on you.
If you want to start planning your own curation — whether from a virgin ear or restyling piercings you already have — book a consultation and we'll map it out together.
