Investigations of ethnic differences in pain experience have been largely confined to the hospital or laboratory. Such studies are limited by the potentially confounding effects of the expectation of pain in the former and of little or no pain in the latter. The present investigation overcomes some of these methodological problems by studying ethnic differences in pain experience following ear-piercing. Afro-West Indian, Anglo-Saxon and Asian subjects (n = 84) completed a pain questionnaire and two rating scales after ear-piercing. Half the subjects were told the study was about pain and half that it was concerned with sensation. There were highly significant ethnic differences in pain ratings. The pain condition produced higher ratings than the sensation condition but there were no significant sex differences. The results are discussed in the context of subjects' ratings of their parents' attitudes to minor injury and their own ability to cope with pain. It is argued that investigation of the bases of ethnic differences in pain experience is important in order to develop maximally efficient pain control regimes for all sections of the populations.