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How midlife tattoos and multiple piercings became the new normal

Why 2022 is the year for midlife tattoos and piercings - Sophie Morgan via Instagram / Getty Images
Why 2022 is the year for midlife tattoos and piercings - Sophie Morgan via Instagram / Getty Images

After a year on maternity leave, slumping around in leggings, I was feeling distinctly unglamorous. My clothes didn’t fit but, with the pandemic raging, I had nowhere special to be and couldn’t quite make myself buy any bigger ones.

However, I did make one style upgrade and it proved to be more of a mood-booster than I could have predicted. Inspired by Instagram images of influencers with pretty jewels snaking up their ears, I decided to get myself a new ‘stacked’ ear wardrobe to distract from my new eyebags.

Bling instead of Botox, if you will. Two more piercings in my left ear and one in my right won admiration from my five-year-old, as well as a trio of mum friends who signed up for their next piercings, too.

Traditionally, extra holes and inkings were something done – and regretted – by rebellious teenagers, but in recent years, they’ve crept towards the mainstream. Now, the pandemic seems to have pushed the trend fully centre stage.

In 2022 getting a new hole doesn’t need to involve a trip to an intimidating piercing studio, thanks to a glut of luxe piercing bars popping up in department stores and boutiques.

Upmarket London piercing parlour and jewellery shop Sacred Gold has seen a rise in ‘women over 40 with more refined, luxurious taste’, according to its resident piercer Nicole Mitchell.

Meanwhile, fashion jeweller Astrid & Miyu reports piercing appointments have increased by 280 per cent since 2019, with notable uptake among older customers. And such is the success of Monica Vinader’s five piercing parlours (decked out with comfy pink chairs and sweets in bowls) that the brand is opening two more in February.

‘Earrings were our fastest-growing category over the last year and it has shown no signs of slowing down, which I think really speaks to the popularity of ear stacking as a new and bold form of self-expression,’ says Vinader, who is herself planning on getting a second piercing on her lobes soon.

While second (and third) lobe piercings are most popular, Astrid & Miyu, which has piercing salons in London and Manchester, says there is a rising interest in older women getting piercings on their helixes (top of ear), conch (midway up) and tragus (the bit of cartilage at the entrance to your ear; apparently the least sensitive to pain).

But in terms of midlife taboo-busting, tattoos take it to the next level. Celebrities from fashion designer Samantha Cameron, 50, to Halle Berry, 55, have them, as well as national treasures Dame Helen Mirren, 76, and Dame Judi Dench (who got her first tattoo aged 81).

Nicole Mitchell, who is also a tattoo artist, says more women are coming in to discuss ‘delicate and fine-line tattoo styles. They’ve become more mainstream and offer a more accessible version to many people who previously thought tattooing was very “heavy duty”.’

For some, it’s a deeply personal, permanent amulet to carry them through or mark a passage out of challenging times. For others, it’s a symbol of bodily reinvention that doesn’t involve the normal punishing new year diet and fitness regime. But whatever the reason, now more than ever, tattoos or piercings are making an appearance on midlifers’ wish lists.

Sienna Miller: the style icon has piercings in her helix, conch and lobes - Getty Images
Sienna Miller: the style icon has piercings in her helix, conch and lobes - Getty Images

Rosanna Wollenberg, 32, co-founder of jewellery brand Otiumberg, which counts Claudia Winkleman, Fearne Cotton and Ella Mills among its fans (while Paul Mescal famously wore its silver chain in lockdown hit series Normal People), agrees:

‘We have definitely noticed an interest from our slightly older customer demographic.’ Between her and her co-founder sister Christie, 36, they have 13 piercings, but recently their 63-year-old mother got her second holes done, too.

There’s also a shift in the range of jewels you can get pierced with. Instead of the standard-issue piercing studs (most regular studs can’t be used because they ideally have sharp tips and a narrow post to help the earrings stay in place while the piercing heals), you can now get pretty jewels or hoops put in from day one.

Otiumberg is responding to demand with a new range of piercing earrings launching this month, while Monica Vinader, Astrid & Miyu and Sacred Gold each have a line of pretty ear jewels that can be used to pierce.

Helen Thorn, 43, co-host of podcast Scummy Mummies and author of the book Get Divorced, Be Happy, got her first tattoo last July: ‘I’d just gone through the most horrific period of my life. I found out my husband had had an affair and entered lockdown suddenly single. Every day I went walking with my children to this local spot where there were lots of oak trees and I really felt like they helped heal me.’

Having not had a tattoo before – ‘never been interested in them’ – she decided it would be something meaningful. ‘There are lots of big life moments you go through as a woman, from childbirth to divorce, and usually we just get on with it. But I wanted to mark this change.’

Helen Thorn sat down with tattoo artist Rebecca Vincent: 'After a traumatic time, having these two tattoos was ‘cathartic’ - Courtesy of Helen Thorn and Rebecca Vincent
Helen Thorn sat down with tattoo artist Rebecca Vincent: 'After a traumatic time, having these two tattoos was ‘cathartic’ - Courtesy of Helen Thorn and Rebecca Vincent

She sat for an hour with tattoo artist Rebecca Vincent and told her the story: ‘It was so cathartic.’ Together, they decided on an oak leaf, as a ‘symbol of strength’. ‘I wanted something to remind me of what I’d gone through and how much stronger I am.’

In November, she was back in Vincent’s chair to get ‘forty two’, written in her children’s handwriting, tattooed on to her arm to mark the end of her 42nd year and the marathon (42km) she ran last year.

‘I love that I see them every day and they are a reminder of where I’ve come from, where I’m going and that they involve my children,’ she says.

She’s not alone; a huge number of women are using tattoos to commemorate life milestones. For example, Clemmie Telford, 39, parenting writer and author of But Why?, got her latest tattoo (of 15) to commemorate ‘my darling granny who died aged 100’.

‘It was my way of channelling her spirit,’ Telford explains. ‘Every time I get another tattoo, I look in the mirror and I feel more like myself.’

Meanwhile, Jo Fiddy, 41, a life coach, recently got a tattoo ‘to mark coming out of my depression and anxiety’. The iridescent feather on her inner wrist is ‘to remind myself that life is for living and how far I have come’.

And television presenter Sophie Morgan, 36, says her multiple tattoos are her way ‘of beautifying my paralysed body and of taking control of what I’ve lost’.

For many of the women I spoke to, tattoos and piercings are a powerful way to articulate something emotional. For others, like myself, the sparkle in the ear is the perfect way to accentuate an ageless twinkle in the eye.

Get the look

Starting from top left: Gold and onyx single earring, £95, Monica Vinader; bottom left, Gold and topaz staple threaded stud, £125, Otiumberg; top right, Pavé teardrop, £190, Sacred Gold; bottom right, Gold crystal curved piercing stud, £175, Astrid & Miyu
Starting from top left: Gold and onyx single earring, £95, Monica Vinader; bottom left, Gold and topaz staple threaded stud, £125, Otiumberg; top right, Pavé teardrop, £190, Sacred Gold; bottom right, Gold crystal curved piercing stud, £175, Astrid & Miyu

Starting from top left: Gold and onyx single earring, £95, Monica Vinader; bottom left, Gold and topaz staple threaded stud, £125, Otiumberg; top right, Pavé teardrop, £190, Sacred Gold; bottom right, Gold crystal curved piercing stud, £175, Astrid & Miyu


Are you considering an extra piercing or dramatic tattoo in midlife? Let us know in the comments section below