 In Europe , earrings for women fell from fashion generally between the 4th and 16th centuries , as styles in clothing and hair tended to obscure the ears , but they gradually thereafter came back into vogue in Italy , Spain , England and France — spreading as well to North America — until after World War I when piercing fell from favor and the newly invented Clip @-@ on earring became fashionable . According to The Anatomie of Abuses by Philip Stubbs , earrings were even more common among men of the 16th century than women , while Raphael Holinshed in 1577 confirms the practice among " lusty courtiers " and " gentlemen of courage . " Evidently originating in Spain , the practice of ear piercing among European men spread to the court of Henry III of France and then to Elizabethan era England , where earrings ( typically worn in one ear only ) were sported by such notables as Robert Carr , 1st Earl of Somerset , Shakespeare , Sir Walter Raleigh and Charles I of England . Common men wore earrings as well . From the European Middle Ages , a superstitious belief that piercing one ear improved long @-@ distance vision led to the practice among sailors and explorers . Sailors also pierced their ears in the belief that their earrings could pay for a Christian burial if their bodies washed up on shore . 
