Daith Piercing, Migraines and Piercing as Alternative Medicine

At Gamma Piercing, we love daith piercings.  I personally have my daith pierced, and it’s hands-down my favorite piercing. The jewelry options are amazing. The daith piercing has a really wonderful history, one that involves people that I really love and respect. The piercing requires expert placement and attention to anatomy, not just of the tissue being pierced, but of the entire ear. It’s the kind of piercing that piercers can discuss ad nauseum, debating the finest details of placement and aesthetic. It has everything going for it.

About two years ago, a Buzzfeed article went viral, suggesting that daith piercings may be a "migraine miracle cure".  Since that moment, every piercing studio in the country has been inundated with phone calls and requests for the daith. We’ve also seen the daith and several other piercings being marketed for all sorts of other maladies such as weight loss, anxiety and depression.  

I want to provide some factual information about this piercing, and the Gamma Piercing philosophy about body piercing as an alternative health therapy.

The Daith piercing is a relatively new piercing.  It was first performed in Santa Cruz California in the early 1990’s by a piercer named Erik Dakota.  His client named it the “daith”, which is pronounced “doth”, like moth or goth with a ‘d’.  The name and the pronunciation stuck.  (Yes, we agree, that’s a strange pronunciation considering the spelling. Many piercers struggle to say the word "daith" correctly, so we don’t expect our clients to.) I’ve written about daith piercings on my professional blog several times, and in the Association of Professional Piercers journal “The Point”.  

It’s difficult to emphasize just how much I love the daith piercing, so when it surged in popularity, I should have been overjoyed.  The issue, of course, is the reason for that popularity- the purported migraine cure.  The suggestion that this piercing is a cure for any illness puts us in a very challenging ethical conundrum: how do we offer this piercing without making dubious health claims, while at the same time not crushing the hopes of our clients?

At Gamma Piercing, we believe that people who suffer from migraines really deserve the best that modern medicine has to offer.  That therapy should be lead by a doctor who is qualified to evaluate symptoms, causes, and remedies. Migraines are awful, and our hearts go out to anyone that has to deal with them in their lives. It’s because of our deep concern for those suffering from migraines that Gamma Piercing refrains from making therapeutic claims about the daith (or any other piercing). The only information we have backing up the claims of relief are personal testimonials. Until a real, peer-reviewed study supports these testimonials, we think the safest bet is to assume that daith piercings are a placebo at best.

In addition to ethical considerations, piercers who promise relief from the daith piercing may actually be breaking laws against practicing medicine without a license.

Still, the more important issue to us is that we don’t want to be the kind of business that takes advantage of someone’s suffering for a few dollars. That seems deeply predatory and unethical to all of us at Gamma. If daith piercings get studied and are scientifically proven to be effective against migraines, that’s fantastic. If they are shown to not be effective, we will rest easy knowing that we have never misrepresented the facts. 

Daith piercings are one of the most beautiful piercings that we offer.  There are lots of different, ornate, eye-catching jewelry options that you can wear in your piercing. We will be there for you every step of the way to help you with the healing of your new daith piercing.  (And we won’t yell at you if you mispronounce it, promise!) We are happy to offer this piercing to you, whatever your reasons for getting it might be.

We welcome you to come in for a consultation about this, or any new piercing you might be considering.  We love talking with our clients, discussing their future piercing plans, and we love seeing people leave with their new, safe, spectacular piercings! Please feel free to call or email with any questions, or book an appointment online.