# Why did pirates wear earrings? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 31, 2003, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-pirates-wear-earrings/192132 "2003-07-31T14:39:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ValBlake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/db5fbb/32.png) [@ValBlake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ValBlake)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-pirates-wear-earrings/192132/1 "2003-07-31T14:39:45Z")
A friend of mine and I have an ongoing argument about the origins of pirates wearing earrings. We agree that they actually did (many of them, at least), but disagree on the reason. She says it was to pay for their casket/funeral upon their deaths. I say it was because they thought it would improve their eyesight. This is at least partially supported by the fact that there is (I’ve been told) an acupuncture point in the ear for eyesight and that blindness was common, due to the sun’s reflection off the water (thus the ubiquitous eye patch at Halloween). I’ve researched this on the net and found both theories presented (most support my theory), but the debate rages on. So what’s the what on this, and can we see some sources? –Ryan, Atlanta ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-pirates-wear-earrings/192132/2 "2003-07-31T15:20:03Z")
Heck, if it’s goofy theories you want, the SDMB is the place for you, matey! [ul][li]The earring, made of precious metals or jewels, is a convenient place to store a small portion of one’s wealth, like a change purse, except that while it was attached to one’s ear, it was unlikely anyone could steal it from you. Well, unless he cut your ear completely off, which I expect was common practice.[/li][li]The motivation then is largely the same as now: being cool and rebellious and making a statement that deliberately distinguishes you from the straitlaced gentry, who as we all know are a bunch of saps.[/li][li]More as I think of them.[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-pirates-wear-earrings/192132/3 "2003-07-31T15:20:23Z")
Many men wore earrings in the 17th and 18th centuries. It was only after 1800 or so that it went out of style. Also, earrings were a great way for pirates to show off their bootie! Umm, I mean, of course, their jewels. Oh, wait, that sounds dirty, too . . . ---
**Author:** ![ValBlake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/db5fbb/32.png) [@ValBlake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ValBlake)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-pirates-wear-earrings/192132/4 "2003-07-31T15:33:00Z")
I’m NOT looking for goofy theories, thought I appreciate the effort. I’m looking for documentation. Eve, if you’re saying that this wasn’t particular to Pirates, then why do we not see all men of that era portrayed wearing them, just the pirates? ---
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-pirates-wear-earrings/192132/5 "2003-07-31T15:35:59Z")
The imponderables guy answered this: [http://www.imponderables.com/new2.html](http://www.imponderables.com/new2.html) ---
**Author:** ![ValBlake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/db5fbb/32.png) [@ValBlake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ValBlake)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-pirates-wear-earrings/192132/6 "2003-07-31T16:00:04Z")
I’ve seen this site. But they give so sources. My opponent in this debate is all about proper documentation, nothing beyond a primary or secondary source. ---
**Author:** ![Bibliovore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Bibliovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bibliovore)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-pirates-wear-earrings/192132/7 "2003-07-31T16:05:51Z")
It was not restricted to pirates, as regular sailors also wore gold earrings. I remember reading that they did so as a way of paying strangers for a decent burial if their bodies ever washed up on a distant shore. The understanding was that if you happened across a drowned sailor, you arranged for the last rites and casket, etc, and took the earring as payment. Sorry, no cites, just something I remember reading. ---
**Author:** ![ValBlake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/db5fbb/32.png) [@ValBlake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ValBlake)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-pirates-wear-earrings/192132/8 "2003-07-31T16:12:27Z")
And that’s my friend’s argument, as well. Which is the problem, I’ve found multiple examples of both explanations presented as simple fact, but NONE of them give sources. Personally, I find it hard to believe that sailors (a rather burly lot) would trust that someone would use the gold for their burial and not just pocket the money, leaving the body. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-pirates-wear-earrings/192132/9 "2003-07-31T16:58:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ValBlake \* > \*\*Eve, if you’re saying that this wasn’t particular to Pirates, then why do we not see all men of that era portrayed wearing them, just the pirates? \*\* Define “portrayed”. Since photography didn’t exist in the 18th century, all we have are paintings and whatnot, and I don’t know how many pirates were used as subjects, since posing for an artist tends to cut into your rape and pillage time. As for 20th-century film portratyals, there’s the bias of earrings on men having fallen out of fashion (it wouldn’t surprise me if the Hays office frowned on it), so it might have been hard to find actors willing to wear them for nonpirate period pieces, even if it would be historically accurate to do so. Pirate characters, though, could get away with it because the whole style was stereotypically flamboyant. In recent years, though, men wearring earrings in movies is no longer seen as shocking and non-pirates can get a piece of the action. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-pirates-wear-earrings/192132/10 "2003-07-31T19:18:06Z")
> [@](#): > > Many men wore earrings in the 17th and 18th centuries. It was only after 1800 or so that it went out of style. Indeed. Check out this portrait of [Shakespeare](http://www.shakespeare.org.uk/main/0/191?image_id=47). ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-pirates-wear-earrings/192132/11 "2003-07-31T20:04:22Z")
Omigod—Shakespeare was a _pirate!!!_ ---
**Author:** ![McDeath\_the\_Mad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a3d4f5/32.png) [@McDeath\_the\_Mad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/McDeath_the_Mad)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-pirates-wear-earrings/192132/12 "2003-07-31T20:13:15Z")
I don’t have an official site, but I read in a book once (I think it was called ‘The Big Blue Book of Knowledge’, it was big and powder blue, about the size of phone book) that a pirate had his ear pireced for everytime he sailed around the tip of South America and/or Africa. I have no idea how accurate that book was. MtM ---
**Author:** ![Alto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Alto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alto)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-pirates-wear-earrings/192132/13 "2003-07-31T21:12:57Z")
My English neighbor once told me that anyone who had fallen into the North Sea and survived (it’s very cold) wore an earring to indicate this. I have no idea if it’s true, but it would explain why earrings are associated with sailors, if not specifically pirates. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-pirates-wear-earrings/192132/14 "2003-08-01T12:35:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eve \* > \*\*Omigod—Shakespeare was a _pirate!!!_ \*\* Well, he _did_ plagiarize quite a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-pirates-wear-earrings/192132/15 "2003-08-01T12:49:41Z")
Ummm, I just thought of something . . . Do we know that pirates actually _did_ wear earrings? Or just Hollywood pirates and Captain Morgan ads? ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-pirates-wear-earrings/192132/16 "2003-08-01T13:50:19Z")
Yes, **Eve** , some have argued that the idea that pirates wore them was just invented by Howard Pyle in the late nineteenth century. [http://www.pieceofeight.com/costume-note.htm](http://www.pieceofeight.com/costume-note.htm) As the [website](http://www.imponderables.com/new2.html) already cited by **DarrenS** points out, ‘the graphic depictions of pirates in the earliest books…do not picture pirates sporting earrings.’ ---
**Author:** ![bunkysmom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bunkysmom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bunkysmom)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2003, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-pirates-wear-earrings/192132/17 "2003-08-03T05:32:51Z")
I had read once that they wore them, as previously mentioned, should they wash up on the beach, a burial would be paid for, but also as a form of currency. If you were to land in a strange place, and held no currency, a gold earring take you a few places. Buy a meal, rent a room. That kind of thing. Seems logical to me.