Was there ever/Is there now…any significance between wearing an earring in the left ear vs. the right ear? At one time, it was said it indicated your sexual preference, but was/is this ever true? If so, which ear meant which preference???
It was left for straight, right for gay.
My friends and I got our left ears pierced on Spring Break in Daytona Beach. We looked around and asked before getting it done.
What ticked me off years later: I bought a Bajoran earring (being a Trekkie and all), but couldn’t wear it because it’s designed to only fit on the right ear.
What would Brian Boitano do / If he was here right now /
He’d make a plan and he’d follow through / That’s what Brian Boitano would do.
Hmmph. I think it would be less damaging to my psyche falsely to be identified as gay than correctly to be identified as a trekker. 
Livin’ on Tums, vitamin E and Rogaine
In the '80s, in New Jersey (well, we’ve just got ourselves a good working definition of hell there, don’t we?), left was also straight.
The darling little mnemonic of the day was:
“Left is right and right is wrong.”
Aren’t kids wonderful?
…but when you get blue, and you’ve lost all your dreams, there’s nothing like a campfire and a can of beans!
I pierced my own ear, a long time ago. I pierced the right one. I did that one because I am right handed, and it was easier. Aside from declining an interested suitor now and again, I don’t even bother to correct the misapprehension. The hole grew over, a few years ago, since I found out that earrings were just another piece of jewelry I usually forget to wear, loose, and can’t be bothered to keep track of. My High School Class Ring lasted three weeks. It’s at the bottom of Occoquan Creek. I am just not an accessorized sort of guy. I don’t dress anywhere near well enough to be gay.
<P ALIGN=“CENTER”> Tris </P>
By the street of By-and-By, one arrives at the house of Never.
– ** Cervantes **
I remember reading in Playboy Advisor some 25 years ago: Someone wrote in with the exact same question claiming that their “motorcycle gang” needs to know so as not to be mistaken for something else. Playboy’s answer?..Its a “piss-assed” motorcycle gang to worry about what anybody else thinks!
Isn’t it left if the sailor has not crossed the equator and right if he has?
The whole left/right thing is pretty much out the window at this point. At least here in NYC. Walk through the Village and you’ll see people of various sexual orientations with every possible combination of ear piercings. Among other piercings…
Marge: Your father is… resting.
Bart: “Resting” hung over? “Resting” got fired? Help me out here.
I figured as much. Just wondering what the thinking was in the past and is in the now!
Triskadecamus wrote
You sound like a normal enough hetero male to me. Stop apologizing!
Gentlemen, gentelemen, gentelmen…
The one earing thing is out. If you want to be ultra-hip, you need to get both ears pierced. And then wear some 15cm silver hoops. I, for one, will be putty in your hands.
“I should not take bribes and Minister Bal Bahadur KC should not do so either. But if clerks take a bribe of Rs 50-60 after a hard day’s work, it is not an issue.” ----Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, Current Prime Minister of Nepal
Trisk:
Why take the earring OUT?
I had my left lobe pierced (by a muscular member of the Cornell Women’s Crew)in 1979, wore the gold stud for a month (to let things heal nice and clean), then changed to the silver ring I’d planned to wear when I had the thing done.
My first ring broke in 1981, and I replaced it with a simple ring of silver wire. This same ring has been in there (it’s fallen off occasionally, but I pick it up and put it back) for the past 19 years.
And of course, you’ll all be beating down my door since I’ve proven my intellegence by demonstrating my spelling skills.
Sorry
:::hanging head in shame:::
What about two (or more) one one ear? HAve guys gone there, yet? And girls, doesn’t that get heavy by the nth earring on the same ear lobe/rim???
Lucky:
Thanks for the fashion tip!
The one-pierced-ear thing was considered weird in 1979, and I’m delighted to hear that its passe now. For a few years there, people thought I was all “downtown,” and “cutting edge.” How cringe-making.
Frankly, I just wanted to look like a Pirate Captain.
I heard the same saying that Da Ace mentioned, “left is right, right is wrong”. The cruder saying was “left ear-buccaneer, right ear-queer”.
When I got my ear pierced awhile back, I had it done in the left ear. Being right-handed, it was easier to put the earring in. Now that I’m a older I don’t even bother with the earring. If I put it back in and looked in the mirror, I would probably think I was looking at a short, swarthy, out-of-shape, partially-bald Mr. Clean. (Actually, now that I think of it, I would look more like Jon Lovitz with an ear stud. Whoopeee!)
“It’s only common sense,
There are no accidents 'round here.”
What sucks about the whole thing is I have a small mole on my right earlobe exactly where an earring hole should be.
``Beware of elaborate telescopic meat; it will find its way back to the forest.’’
– William S. Burroughs, Tom Waits
Well, this guy went there. I had two small silver hoops in my left ear for 12 years. I just took them both out last month. Not yet sure if I’m gonna’ put them back on or not.
Free beer is ALWAYS a good thing. - Falcon
I posted this information here last year. True, there is very little significance anymore about what is pierced, or where (right now around town a stud centred above the chin and below the lip seems to be popular) the historical significance was a fundamental sexual underground code: “Left is dominative, right is submissive.”
This makes sense when you consider that the preferred male pierced ear is left. “Don’t come on to me, I’ll come on to you” is the message the pierced left ear sends.
I had my left ear pierced. After several years I decided I needed another earring, so I pierced my left ear again. Several months later I felt a little out of balance so I had the right one pierced. All better. Some people think I’m gay, but I’m not and it doesn’t matter what they think. (Anecdote: This girl I like said I scared her cousin because he thought I was gay and “might flirt with him” because of the earrings. I told her, “I’m straight, and ready to prove it!” Didn’t work though. :()
FTR: Although I haven’t measured them, the left rings are about 10mm and the right one is about 15mm. Silver, with Celtic-type or wire wrappings.