The study reviewed electronic, international library-based medical (including forensic) literature on methods for identifying individuals from their ear piercings. There were few papers on the prevalence of ear piercing within the world community and no published papers that addressed only the use of ear piercing as a tool for identification (living or dead, images or prints). Researchers then proceeded to seek volunteers (n=400) from university, hospital, and community populations of Leicester (United Kingdom) for the purpose of having both of their ears photographed and printed to assess the distribution of ear piercings and the effect of ear piercings on earprints. Only adults were recruited for the study. The methods used in the study are described in detail. Of the 400 volunteers, 209 had 1 or more piercings to 1 or both ears. Summary data are presented to show the number of piercings per ear per gender. The authors advise that the presence of a piercing may help to explain in part why partial rather than whole earprints are sometimes recovered from a crime scene, suggesting that the offender's ears may be pierced. The presence of piercings through the tragus and the superior part of the helix of an ear were found to be infrequent in this study compared to piercings in other areas of the ear, suggesting that such piercings may assist in the identification of a body. 4 tables, 4 figures, and 15 references