After the Gucci show, you will definitely want to get a piercing, and here’s what you need to know in advance

What do William Shakespeare, Britney Spears, Zendaya, Zoe Kravitz, FKA Twigs, Rihanna, Kylie Jenner and the models at tonight’s Gucci Love Parade show have in common? That’s right, piercings. This accessory is timeless – ears and noses have been pierced for rituals since before our era. In 1975 with the opening of the first piercing salon in Los Angeles The Gauntlet in the U.S. it became a mass phenomenon, and in London closer to the 1990s it moved as a symbol of punks and anarchists, which later was transferred to the catwalk by Vivienne Westwood. Today Alessandro Michele showed us all that a massive metallic face jewelry can be worn not only together with lavish tuxedos, Mohawk and heavy rock in the background, but also with shiny eye shadow, curls and flowing dresses like Bjork.

Piercings have entered the modern fashion agenda rapidly and spectacularly. “The biggest piercing boom in the last ten years happened in the summer of 2020. Then all of the Influencers, from Alesia Kafelnikova to Kylie Jenner, went crazy and started piercing their lobes and cartilages, inserting either Alexander McQueen-style rings or funny colored earrings like the ones Gilda Ambrosio has been wearing for years. But there is a feeling that then, in 2020, the fashion industry as a whole reconsidered its views on piercings. Even one of the most popular models of the last year was Chaikra Maximus – a girl who has her nose and upper lip pierced in two places, and a massive tunnel gaping in her left ear.

And we agree – you don’t have to do something once and for all to try new things today. The beauty industry has long come up with temporary tattoos, colored eye lenses, tinted hair balms and, of course, jewelry that mimics facial piercings. Everyone who succumbed to the nostalgia of glam-rock of the 2000s has already got decorative septum rings, and someone, like Grimes at the last Met Gala, is actively trying on alien earrings in order not to make unnecessary (and very painful) punctures on the cartilage, which heal about three to five months. Now it makes sense to hunt for the jewelry from the last Gucci show – the intricate design was attached to the septum of the nose and lifted by metal lines with massive balls on the ends to the beginning of the eyebrow.

If the decision to get a real piercing is deliberate, however, you can start with a fashionable orbital piercing – it goes from side to side rather than front to back and creates two holes at once instead of one. While the short healing period (about eight to ten weeks) is a bonus, the biggest advantage of this type of piercing is its placement. It blends perfectly with existing jewelry and creates an entire composition on the ear. Cartilage piercing is more prone to infections because the blood supply is less there. Finally, the safest option is lobe piercing, which takes four to six weeks to fully heal. To speed up the healing process in the ear area, masters advise using good old saline instead of medical alcohol or peroxide for treatment. Take note.

The nose ring is still a hit – just be careful – for such piercings at the Gucci 100th anniversary show Michele was accused of cultural appropriation (similar jewelry was worn by Bengali women to indicate marital status). As for health issues, the painfulness of facial piercings depends on your threshold of sensitivity. Keep in mind: piercing your lip and nasal septum is less pleasant than piercing such a superficial area as your eyebrow or nostrils.

Below are some variants of decorations both for a real piercing, and for its imitation. Express yourself in different ways and remember that beauty is not just about makeup and hair. It’s everywhere.