What is ‘ orecchino al naso’ ?

‘Orecchino al naso’ is literally ‘the little ear at the nose’. It may be very confusing also for otorhinolaryngologist.
But it is not the little ear.
As a matter of fact it is A pierced earring of the nose.
Orecchini( plural form)　usually means the pierced earrings because they are two( one pair).

By the way what do you think that ‘orecchione ‘ ( big ear) means?
It is the name of the disease what we call ‘ mumps’ or ‘viral parotitis'(what is big is not the ear but the salivary gland called ‘parotid gland’) in English.
It is very interesting in English we use plural form ‘ mumps’ and in Italian they use single form ‘orecchione’.
From the academic point of view , from European article the percentage of bilateral swelling of the gland is 30- 40% on the other hand from US 80%.

PHOTO thank you Mylon