My Stacked Lobes Piercing Story

I’m just over five weeks into healing my newest piercings—my 19th and 20th—stacked lobes.

This isn’t my first experience with stacked lobe piercings. Years ago, I had a stacked piercing placed above my third lobe on one side. That piercing happened because younger me made the not-so-great decision to get my third lobe piercings done at Claire’s with a piercing gun. While I avoided infections, the holes were unsurprisingly uneven.

On my left side, the third lobe piercing ended up particularly low toward the outer edge of my ear. Years later, I had added a properly done fourth lobe piercing, but the low third hole still bothered me until one day, while living in Worcester, MA, I decided to solve the issue creatively. I asked my piercer to place a second piercing above the problematic third lobe, creating a little triangle with the original third and the fourth lobes.

Pictured: Tabitha’s existing stacked third lobe featuring two star earrings—a 4mm titanium cut star and a tiny 3mm star.

At the time (around 2017), this wasn’t a common piercing style. To explain my vision, I even sketched it out on a Post-it note. After reviewing the placement, the piercer noticed that the area I wanted pierced was close to the cartilage border and might be challenging to heal. We discussed the risks of positioning it far enough from the existing hole while avoiding cartilage. Since I had previously healed multiple helix piercings, a rook, and a conch, the piercer felt confident I could handle it so we went ahead with the piercing.

The piercer nailed the placement, giving me exactly the look I envisioned while avoiding cartilage. Healing was straightforward, just like any other lobe piercing.

Stacked Lobe Piercings Now: The Trend and Tips

In recent years, stacked lobe piercings have grown increasingly popular. They’re often placed directly above existing first lobe piercings or between the first and second lobes to create a staggered effect. Placement varies, but the key is ensuring they stay within the fleshy part of the lobe, away from cartilage.

Here are a few things to keep in mind for stacked lobe piercings:

• Spacing: Each piercing should be at least 3mm away from others to prevent holes from merging.
• Healing Time: Ensure the existing piercings are fully healed (ideally a year or more) before adding another piercing within a 1cm (½ inch) radius of them.
• Anatomy Matters: Unlike standard lobe piercings, which almost anyone can get, stacked lobes depend on having enough lobe space to avoid cartilage. Your piercer should always check your anatomy before proceeding.

Standard lobe piercings are straightforward and among the easiest to heal, but stacked lobes are more anatomy-dependent. My old stacked third lobe piercing was a tight fit, requiring precise placement to avoid cartilage.

The Piercing Experience

Each year around my birthday in early January, I treat myself to new piercings. This year’s additions were matched stacked lobe piercings placed directly above my first lobe piercings.

Pictured: Me in the waiting room at Drift Piercing in Orlando, FL getting ready for my stacked lobes.

After being checked in, picking jewelry, and filling out any necessary paperwork, you’ll be called back to the piercing room. 

Your piercer will either set up in front of you, or already be prepped to go, but either way, you should see them opening tools, and jewelry from vacuum sealed packages that have been fully sanitized in an Autoclave. This is one of the biggest reasons that a professional piercer is best, even for simple lobe piercings. The additional training a professional has means you’ll have a safe and sanitary piercing experience.

The next step is the piercer sanitizing the spot getting pierced with rubbing alcohol, iodine or both, then marking the spot to get pierced (with a clean one-time use marker like a doctor prepping for surgery). You’ll be able to check this placement in a mirror to confirm it meets your expectations, and then it’s time for you to get pierced.

For the actual piercing stage, the piercer will put on a special pair of gloves taken from a sealed sanitary package (rather than a multi-pack box on a counter). This ensures that the gloves themselves are completely clean and sterile.

Immediately before performing the piercing, your piercer should take a brand new tapered hollow needle out of a sealed package and move directly to lining it up with the dot they marked on your ear earlier. They’ll ask you to take a deep breath in and out, and next thing you know, there’s a needle through your ear.

If you are getting multiple piercings in one sitting, a professional piercer will complete the full piercing and jewelry placement process on each piercing before moving on to the next. 

After the needle goes into through the ear, a metal taper will be placed in the back of the hollow needle and it will be threaded through the ear. The piercer can then safely remove the sharp needle from the area, then follow the taper through with a titanium flatback post.

Once the post is in place, the earring front will be added. Threaded ends will need to be lined up and screwed into the post, while threadless ends just need to be lined up and pressed tight. 

After cleaning any iodine, blood or pen marks from the new piercing, you’ll be ready to sit up and admire your new piercings.

After several hours, I had a little swelling, but the posts used have plenty of room to safely accommodate it.