Jennifer Garner ears pierced

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Jennifer Garner and her younger sister, Susannah - The only two "Garner girls" to have had their ears pierced.

When interviewed in 2002, Jennifer Garner stated that neither she nor either of her sisters had ever had their ears pierced, saying that their strict parents had banned them from having them done. However, in more recent interviews, Jennifer has admitted that this comment wasn't exactly accurate, and that both she and her younger sister have actually had their ears pierced.

Rules, rules and more rules

When she was growing up in Charleston, West Virginia, Jennifer's parents set out a number of rules they expected their three daughters to follow. They weren't allowed to go to the movies. They had to attend church with the rest of the family every Sunday. They weren't allowed to wear any make-up at all. And they couldn't have their ears pierced until they reached the age of 16, and only then with parental permission. And while Jennifer's older sister, Melissa, did follow those rules fairly closely, Jennifer has admitted that she and her younger sister, Susannah, weren't quite so obedient.

Teenage rebellion

Although she obeyed the "no make-up" rule at home, Jennifer has admitted that, as soon as she got to school, she'd get out her carefully-hidden make-up kit and quickly put on her make-up.

As for the ban on ear piercing, Susannah flagrantly flouted that rule when she was 14. Having gone on a Saturday afternoon shopping trip into Charleston with friends, she returned home with her ears pierced. When her father noticed this over dinner, he asked her what had happened to her ears, to which she apparently replied simply, "I got them pierced". Although he disapproved of this obvious act of teenage rebellion, he allowed her to keep them, and Susannah became the first of the three "Garner girls" to have pierced ears.

However, Jennifer has admitted that she almost became the first, as she almost had her's pierced while at summer camp when she was 13. While there, the girls in Jennifer's hut decided to have an "ear piercing party" and pierce each other's ears using sewing needles after using ice cubes to freeze their earlobes. Jennifer initially agreed to go along with this, and got as far as using the ice cubes to freeze her earlobes. However, as soon as she felt the point of the needle touch her earlobe, she decided that she couldn't go through with it, and backed out of actually having her ears pierced.

Jennifer finally does it

Having backed out of getting her ears pierced at the last moment when she was 13, it would be another 14 years before Jennifer would join Susannah and become the second and last "Garner girl" to have her ears pierced.

In 1999, a 27-year-old Jennifer was cast in one of the leading roles in the television disaster movie, Aftershock: Earthquake in New York. Her character in this movie, Diane Agostini, had pierced ears, and in one scene had to remove one pair of stud earrings and replace them with a pair of valuable diamond studs given to her by her father (who later dies, and Diane is devastated when she loses the earrings). In order to play Diane, Jennifer agreed to have her ears pierced for the first time ever. Once filming was completed, she continued to wear earrings for a short time, until she knew that she wasn't needed for any additional photography. She then allowed the piercings to heal up, and once again could only wear clip-on earrings.

Jennifer as 'Diane Agostini'

Jennifer later in 1999, still wearing pierced earrings.

At the Oscars

With the success of Alias, Jennifer became a regular guest and presenter at various awards ceremonies and charity events, and has attended every Academy Awards ceremony since 2002, with the exception of 2005. Her first appearance there as a presenter came in 2003, when she presented the awards for Best Short Film and Best Animated Short Film. Her outfit for this ceremony included a pair of Neil Lane-designed diamond hoop earrings, which had to be specially designed for her unpierced ears, and which were only completed a few hours before the ceremony began.

Jennifer at the 2003 Oscars, wearing clip-on hoops specially made for her then-unpierced ears.

For her appearance at the 2006 Academy Awards ceremony, where she presented the award for Best Sound Editing, Jennifer wore a flowing halter-style Michael Kors dress and a collection of diamond jewelry worth well over $1,000,000. In addition to an antique 18.5-carat Cartier diamond cuff worth $900,000, she wore a Paris 1964 8-carat diamond hair clip worth $76,000. Completing her accessories, she also joined in with that year's main jewelry trend and wore a pair of long chandelier-style diamond earrings worth approximately $250,000, designed by Fred Leighton. Because these were made to be worn in pierced ears, which Jennifer did not have at the time, she had to have her ears re-pierced especially a few weeks before the ceremony in order to be able to wear them.

"A couple of months before the ceremony, I went to pick out the jewelry I'd be wearing on the night. I picked out the diamond cuff and the hair clip, and then they showed me the most gorgeous pair of earrings I'd ever seen. It wasn't until I came to try them on that I realized they'd forgotten I didn't have pierced ears. They could see how much I loved them, and how disappointed I was that I couldn't wear them, so they said that, if I really wanted to, they could pierce my ears for me there and then. That would give them enough time to heal before the ceremony, and I could then wear the earrings. And I really did want to wear those earrings, so I said 'OK', and they pierced my ears for me before I left the boutique. It felt a bit odd to have them done, although I did have them pierced for a couple of weeks a few years back for a movie I was in, but it was worth it because I knew it meant I'd be wearing those fabulous earrings to the ceremony."

Prior to the 2006 Oscars, Jennifer shows off the studs in her recently re-pierced ears.

Jennifer at the Oscars, wearing the earrings she'd had her ears pierced especially for.

A look behind Jennifer's ears, showing that the earrings were indeed pierced.

A closer look behind Jennifer's ear, showing that it really was pierced.

Following the Academy Awards ceremony, Jennifer continued to wear pierced earrings for a short while, before again allowing her ear piercings to heal up.

Jennifer later in 2006, wearing a pair of hoop earrings in her ears, which were still pierced at that time.

Jennifer in December 2007, after she'd let her ear piercings heal up again.

2009

On January 27th, 2009, Jennifer and her older sister Melissa were spotted visiting a medical center in Santa Monica, California. They were photographed both going into the building and coming out a short while later. Although both of them entered the building with bare earlobes, when they emerged, both of them had clearly just had their ears pierced and were wearing small stud earrings.