QOW - Child Wants Ears Pierced
Hi there - I want to get my 5 year old daughter's ears pierced, but none of the tattoo places in town that do piercings will pierce anyone's ears who is under the age of 18. It feels like the only option we have is to go to the really crazy mall places and that scares the crap out of me. Do I have any other options? Help! - Jacqui
Answer:
I'm in the same predicament myself, but with my 9 year-old. She really wants her ears pierced, and the age minimum here is 16 in the shops. So, I called her doctor - which is usually the advice I give others in this situation - to see if he will pierce ears. He does, so I made an appointment. But after talking with the nurse for a bit, I found that even the doctor uses the same squeeze gun and stud method as the mall shops! Granted, it's bound to be clean getting it done that way in the doctor's office, but the simple fact remains that it is still an extremely traumatic method of piercing and the type of jewelry that is inserted does not promote proper healing. I was very disappointed and have not yet found a solution to this problem. She really wants them done by her 10th birthday, so I guess I'm going to call around to some more physicians, because that is usually the way to go. Even I got my lobes pierced with a needle at my doctor's office when I was 3 years old. Surely there are still doctors out there that realize this is the safest method!
If any of my readers out there have suggestions on this situation, please comment below!
Related Reading:
Piercing Guns Vs. Needle Piercing
Comments
This situation is exactly why I would love to see the gun banned. Whoever thought that the gun that they used to tag cattle should be used as a piercing implement needs to try and heal these piercings themself and then maybe they’ll see the results of their stupidity.
I am a body piercer and I work at a shop that has 3 stores in malls and my store is moving to a mall April 1st and we do ear piercings on small children with a needle so not all mall stores use guns just the ones that dont know any better. sincerly Paul H. pro. BODY PIERCER BODY JEWELRY PLUS Seattle WA, 206-329-1837
When I was probably 7 or 8 my dad pierced my ears using somekind of self piercing earrings.
Each day my dad would squeeze them until eventually there was a hole in my ear. I think it took about a week, maybe not that long. I’m 46 so it was many years ago definately before the gun was around. I’m sure there is something like this around still.
Can a 5 year sit still for a hollow needle piercing?
and if your 5 year old kid wants a gun, will you buy that too?
if you wanna decorate something get a christmas tree, your kids are not toys
the needle may be safer but you kids might either be mad at you or not get it done at all it hurts more to get your ears pirced with a needle because it gows in really slow if you get the gun then it hurts less i know i got my ear pirced twice once with gun once with needle btw i don’t see how the gun is not safe.
If you live in the right places you can go to a tattoo/pircing parlor and have them pirce there ears and they do it with needles they usually ask for parental consent.
Many local prosecutors see body artists as easy targets in their self-promotion using a “save the children” campaign.
Read the article about our body piercer http://locokazoo.com to see why piercers are hesitant to offer service for minors.
We do serve minors with parental consent, but look what happens!
I would strongly advise against self-piercing unless you know what you are doing - I gave a friend of mine a bad infection by trying to pierce his ear (ahh, youth!)
I have had my ears pierced 4 times. I had both ears done when I was a baby by my mother who is a nurse. I later had the left ear done at the mall - it was quick and simple - then my mother did the right ear a few months after that and then in college I added a third set, at the mall.
There’s nothing to be afraid of from Claire’s or other kid’s jewelry stores. Just keep the piercing clean and if there are any problems, get gold earrings with gold posts. The piercers in malls have instructions for you, and once you have it done, you can always just head to a doctor, pharmacist, or body mod place to have it looked at if you’re nervous about it’s progression.