You lose your job, your parents won’t talk to you and metal detectors are your new worst enemy. But it’s a good thing your new piercing looks so awesome.
Though students of both genders have a wide range of facial and body piercings, the reasons they got them vary.
Junior Kaley Birchler, who had her belly button pierced when she was 15, said she did it because the piercing looks cute.
“During swimsuit season, it grabs people’s attention,” Birchler said. “They notice it.”
Junior Rachel Tyroler also got her piercings because of the way they look. She has a rook piercing, which is in the top inner fold of the ear.
“It wasn’t a sign of rebellion,” Tyroler said. “It was more of a fashion decision than a statement.”
Not everyone who has a piercing got it for aesthetic reasons. Senior Chance Brodsky, who had his left eyebrow pierced while living in Spain, said he was influenced by a friend.
“I wanted it for a really long time, and I finally had the chance,” Brodsky said.
Sophomore Jack Lake, who has both ears pierced, also had an outside inspiration.
“I did it for the babes,” Lake said, though he added that all of his friends at his old school had multiple piercings.
Friends aren’t the only people that make students want piercings. Senior Yulia Coburn got the idea to pierce her septum from the lead singer of the band The Prodigy.
“I was originally going to get my nose pierced,” Coburn said, “but then I saw some CSG girls with it and I didn’t want to be associated with them. No one has their septum pierced.”
Special education teacher Greg Harvie, who got his first piercing 17 years ago, said that getting a piercing should be for personal reasons.
“I look at piercings as making you feel alive,” Harvie said. “That moment of intense pain gets the endorphins going.”
He added that he sometimes questions students’ motives for getting piercings.
“What’s your reason for getting these [piercings]?” Harvie asked. “Is it an ‘in’ thing or does it relate to a milestone in your life?”
Students with piercings get different reactions to their decision. Coburn said she can hide her piercing by flipping it into her nose.
“When I’m around adults, I don’t want them to look at me as some stupid kid with a piercing,” Coburn said.
Senior Matt Cavallaro got his nipple pierced in September. He thinks some people might have preconceptions about piercings and judge him.
“Some people think it’s really trashy,” Cavallaro said.
Brodsky said that Spanish people didn’t seem to mind his eyebrow piercing, due to its popularity.
“It means something different in America,” Brodsky said. “It’s less accepted.”
Senior Duncan Hooper got his first earring in fourth grade. He said people mostly compliment his piercing, but not always.
“When I got my first job, my manager told me to take [my earrings] out,” Hooper said. “She said boys shouldn’t have earrings.”
Harvie said people with piercings shouldn’t worry what other people think.
“Piercings shouldn’t be for other people’s enjoyment, but for you own enjoyment,” Harvie said.
One consideration when getting a piercing is the law. Students under 18 cannot legally get a piercing without their parents’ consent.
Tyroler got her ears pierced with her parents, but her father, Charles Tyroler, does not approve of the piercings.
“Aesthetically, I’m not fond of them,” Charles Tyroler said. “I feel they tend to be acts of rebellion.”
He added that he thinks his daughter may later regret getting a piercing.
“When you’re younger, what’s appealing to you might not appeal to you when you’re older,” Charles Tyroler said.
Junior Austin Siler got his left ear pierced two years ago with his father.
“I got [my ear] pierced, because my dad was doing it, too,” Siler said. “It ended up being a father-son thing.”
Cavallaro did not need his parent’s approval to get a piercing, because he was 18 at the time.
Brodsky said he sees piercings as something fun to get while you’re young but not to keep forever.
“I’ll grow out of it sooner or later,” he said. Birchler agreed, saying that she would eventually take her piercing out. “Belly button rings on old people just aren’t attractive,” Birchler said.
Hooper plans to keep his earrings in forever.
“I could see myself as a really old man with earrings,” Hooper said.
Cavallaro doesn’t know what he’s going to do with his piercing as he gets older, but he did offer some advice to students considering a piercing:
“Go somewhere clean.”
Published October 2007. Digitized 2025.
