Couples are ditching the traditional rings for dermal piercings, as the latest style of declaring their permanent love to the world, and each other. It's painful, but then so is love.

Pace Beyoncé, but the days of ‘putting a ring on it’ seem to be passé. After Avocado proposals, the latest ‘pop-the-question’ trend on social media is engagement piercings. This rather painful – albeit unique – way of declaring one’s love and as a gesture of ever-lasting commitment has taken over the photo-sharing app as the latest flavour among die-hard romantics.

These dermal piercings are quite similar to other piercings and include two pieces of metal – one under the skin with a sort of screw and the other is the actual stone/metal stud on top, which forms the visible part. Apparently, couples are ditching the old ring for this new style of declaring their love to the world, and each other.

Of course, many have raised concerns about the viability of this fad, since hands are one of the most mobile parts of one’s body, and a piercing like this can get caught in, say, pockets, bags, or anywhere with a loose thread, causing not only the possibility of immediate injury but also cause infection for a longer period of time if it doesn’t heal properly.

Some have posted their negative experience with dermal piercing as well. Take this account, for example: “I had a dermal piercing on my ring finger. I had it for a few years. I bumped it constantly. One day I went to the beach after school, and it started to swell on my way home. My finger was huge and purple. I went through 3 different antibiotics and nothing worked. So after the 3rd one didn’t work my doctor had me go straight to the surgeon. This was on a Friday, I had surgery on Monday. They used cosmetic stitches so I don’t really have a scar. But if I bump my finger I feel the same pain as when I had the piercing.”

Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen a number of fashion trends — this year we’ve already seen the fishtail eyebrow and avocado proposal – that have gained popularity and following thanks to social media, and especially the photo-sharing platform Instagram, and finger piercing seems to be the latest to join a rather long list. While early adopters seem pretty excited, it remains to be seen if more people would prefer to ditch the ring for a pin or not.