My ears have always reacted to any kind of metal, so on the 4th occasion of re-piercing them, I went to a tattoo/piercing parlor that uses only surgical steel.  It definitely worked wonders on my ears, and they lost all signs of infection/irritation after a couple months of non-stop surgical steel post wearing.

However, I lost the back to one of those posts (they are the barbell screw type, and a rather thick gauge anyway) so I decided to look for another pair of posts to wear all the time.

These are totally cute and small and definitely don't make my ears react at all, however, the points of the stars are TOTALLY SHARP.  It doesn't bother me too much, only if I am laying in a funny way do they poke my skin.  My boyfriend loves to call them my "ninja stars" because if I lay on his chest wearing them, they sometimes stab him.  He has a pretty low threshold of pain, but he's right, they are sharp.

It doesn't bother me really, but does warrant a 4/5.  I will definitely consider buying more s.steel posts from this seller, though!