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If you love the look of a snug piercing, but you don’t want to deal with the pain of healing, there’s an alternative: the faux snug piercing! While a regular snug piercing is anatomy dependent and is notoriously difficult to heal, the faux snug piercing is much easier to heal and anyone can get one! From the front, a faux snug piercing looks exactly like the original.
What is a Snug Piercing?
A snug piercing is a curved barbell that goes through the the inner ridge of cartilage. The piercing is very anatomy dependent because you need to have a clearly defined inner cartilage ridge in order to support the piercing. Because it’s such a thick piece of cartilage, a snug piercing is also one of the more painful piercings you can get. Snug piercings are also very hard to heal. Any slight bump will delay the healing time and it is more likely to develop painful piercing bumps.
What is a Faux Snug Piercing?
A faux snug piercing is actually two piercings: one inner conch and one helix, lined up to have the appearance of a single snug. Because the conch and helix piercings are worn with straight labrets or barbells and they don’t go through such a thick layer of cartilage, the faux snug is much easier to heal. They are also less anatomy dependent because you don’t need your snug cartilage to be big enough to support a piercing.
Faux Snug Piercing vs Snug Piercing
Because a snug piercing is so hard to heal, this is one case where a faux piercing is better in nearly every way. The real piercing and the faux look identical from the front- no one will be able to tell unless they investigate the back of your ear. Normally, a piercing that requires two punctures hurts more than a single piercing, but because the snug is in such a sensitive area, most people agree that the faux actually hurts less than a regular snug piercing. The faux will also be faster to heal and you can likely get it even if your anatomy doesn’t support a typical snug piercing.
Faux Snug Piercing Pain
While a regular snug piercing is between 7-9 on the pain scale, a faux snug piercing is typically agreed as between a 5 and a 7. For the faux piercing you will need to get a helix piercing, which is not a very painful piercing, and a conch piercing, which is slightly more painful but definitely not one of the most painful piercings for most people. When healing, the faux snug will be less painful than a regular snug would be. Conch piercings are usually shielded and don’t have much difficulty with healing. The helix piercing may give you more difficulty and be sore at times, but compared to the faux, it’ll be nothing.
Conclusion
While some faux piercings were created and only used by people who don’t have the anatomy to support the traditional piercing, the faux snug was created because it is so difficult to heal a regular snug piercing. The faux snug looks nearly identical to a regular snug. If you’re considering getting a snug we highly recommend considering the faux snug instead.
