Black Haired Girl With A Necklace And Earrings Undresses Her Black Coat, Skirt And Fishnet Stockings In The Studio

Among sailors, a pierced earlobe was a symbol that the wearer had sailed around the world or had crossed the equator. In addition, it is commonly held that a gold earring was worn by sailors in payment for a proper burial in the event that they might drown at sea. Should their bodies have been washed up on shore, it was hoped that the earring would serve as payment for "a proper christian burial". Regardless of this expression, the practice predates Christianity and can be traced back as far as ancient Greece where the gold paid the ferryman, Charon, to provide passage across the river Acheron to Hades.
Pierced ears were popular in the United States through the early 1900s, then fell into disfavor among women due to the rising popularity of clipped-on earrings. Nevertheless, a small male following continued to exist.
In the late 1960s, ear piercing began to make inroads among men through the hippie and gay communities. At that time, the practice re-emerged, but since a large commercial market for them did not exist, most ear piercings were done at home. Teenage girls were known to hold ear piercing parties, where they performed the procedure on one another. Such an event is depicted in the 1978 motion picture Grease (set in 1959), where Sandy (Olivia Newton-John), the leading lady, is pierced by her friends.
In the late 1970s, amateur piercings, sometimes with safety pins and/or multiple piercings, became popular in the punk rock community. By the 1980s, the trend for male popular music performers to have pierced ears helped establish a fashion trend for men. This was later adopted by many professional athletes. British men started piercing both ears in the 1980s; George Michael of Wham! was a prominent example. The heavily jeweled Mr. T was an early example of an American celebrity wearing earrings in both ears, although this trend did not become popular with mainstream American men until the 1990s.