Yes anno it is a custom amongst older Zulu men as well, younger ones not so nowadays, they may just have an ordinary earring. Can you want to be faffing around tucking your earlobes over the tops of your ears?!
On another note, my DD who did never did anything rebellious, at one time had a sort of a punk boyfriend and I think she wanted to impress him, so she had a tongue piercing. I went bananas in the worst possible way, I was so worried that it would become infected. Partly because she had a hip replacement at a very young age (15) after an accident, and the surgeon had told us/her that she must be careful of infections generally "as a prosthetic is a weak spot in the body and will attract infection". (No idea whether it is so or not, but it stuck in my head). She took it out after not too long but it really upset me. I couldn't do anything except rant and rave though, because she was in her 20s (she ignored me). Luckily it was fine and ten years later the hole has closed.