"Some people get really carried away," says Sterman, chief of plastic surgery at Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck. The multiple holes are one thing. But then there's the many large and heavy objects hung from all those holes — and we're not just talking regular old diamond stud earrings or tiny crucifixes anymore — before the poor ear is literally stretched to its outermost limits.

Call it a strange sign of the times. Some doctors, like Sterman, say they are noticing more and more millennials coming in because their ears have become deformed from overpiercing and need reconstructive surgery. ...