THE PIERCING TRENDS THAT WILL SOON BE EVERYWHERE, ACCORDING TO CELEBRITY JEWELLER MARIA TASH

If there's one name that has become synonymous with the recent boom in multiple ear piercings, it is American jeweller Maria Tash. Once the reserve of punks, goths and teenage rebels, piercings are now the smallest must-have fashion accessory, seen everywhere from catwalks to billboards and adorning even the most conservative faces. Since launching her first eponymous store in New York's East Village in 1993, Tash has become a jewellery mogul, with concessions worldwide and an Instagram following pushing 300,000. Her intricate, fine jewellery can be seen punctuating the ears of celebrities from Beyoncé to Margot Robbie and - differing from most mainstream piercing salons - customers can wear most of the pieces immediately, without having to spend months waiting for holes to heal around sterile surgical steel bars. Speaking at the launch of her new Harrods boutique (open for less than a week and already buzzing with customers champing at the bit to go under the needle), the jeweller tells The Independent how our view of piercings has changed so much in recent years. “There are no rules any more," says Tash, explaining how conventional matching lobe earrings have been eschewed over the past six-or-so years for what she calls “asymmetry," multiple all-over ear gems. “High fashion brands now allow all the models to wear all their own earrings and piercings. Ear piercing has become quite liberated.” Tash, who first got into piercing in her late teens – when she would pierce the ears of all her friends in their bedrooms - flew to San Francisco in the early nineties to take a class from piercing guru Fukia Musafar, in the city that was home to what she calls the “modern reinvention of piercing.” She puts the recent boom in multiple ear piercings down to the wider range of jewellery now available. “People don’t just get something because they feel badass about it. They think ‘oh that’s really beautiful, where can I put that?' The quality of the jewellery has inspired the piercing now." And with Maria Tash jewellery setting customers back anything from £95 for a basic hoop to as much as £18,000 for more elaborate jewelled pieces, you'd have to really want something.