Wait! How many piercings did Michelle Obama get in one sitting?!

On a recent episode of her “IMO” podcast with brother Craig Robinson, the two hosts tried out a new format with no guests and sat down to answer fan questions in a little siblings chat. The first question asked? What was something they learned about one another from doing the podcast together? 

Robinson poked at his sister and said, “What I've learned is that you tried to get your ears pierced and thought I didn't notice. And I see you got all these new piercings in your ear.”

“I have always thought about getting some extra piercings in my ear and just never got around to it,” Michelle said. “I had a second [piercing] hole that I had got before I had kids. But then I just got lazy and stopped putting an earring in it.”

The former first lady went in planning just a couple new holes and walked out with 10, “in one sitting.” “I was telling the piercer, ‘Oh, put one there and put one [there]. Oh yeah, let’s try one there,’” she told Robinson, recounting the impulse decision. “So in one sitting, I’ve got 10 piercings.” 

Curiosity and admiration of what “young people” in her life are doing led Michelle to this abundant decision. “There’s just more beautiful adornment,” she said, describing clusters of tiny studs as a “constellation, with twinkles.” She laughed when Robinson asked whether the piercings hurt — “It wasn’t bad at all,” she said — and said her husband, Barack, didn’t notice right away. “Barack…took him a couple of days,” she joked about her husband’s delayed reaction. 

She said, “He was like, ‘You haven't had your hair up, you've had your hair down.’ And I was like, ‘I don't know. I like sleep with you every night, dude, you know?’” Michelle said it took her hubby three whole days to “finally notice.”

“Don’t tell him that I noticed before him,” Robinson joked. “I think I did,” Michelle said. 

The moment is one of those perfect sister and brother beats. Super relatable and fun. People noted how relaxed Michelle has been about style choices since leaving the White House — from braids to now ear clusters — a freedom she’s described before as part of a post-White House “breathing room” to express herself without scrutiny. It’s such a cute reminder that the former first lady’s personal style continues to evolve and that she’s still finding little ways to play.