4 year old getting pierced ears at Superdrug

100% agree my girls have never had problems with theirs either

Complained to the manager?! Okay calm down Karen. Not your child not your business. The child probably asked for their ears pierced. A lot of girls do want them done you know

Surely this is assault?

I have a relative with needle phobia and unless she can be calm and still for vaccination etc, even medical procedures cannot be done. If she were protesting; screaming, crying, trying to move away, I've been told by the nursing staff that they are not allowed to continue. I have medical POA and can give consent for her, but she still has her own consent rights and if she does not demonstrate it, it's not taken as given.

So how can this be allowed?

Piercings should be subject to the same age and legal restrictions as tattoos.

@StarlightLady in your opinion. All this snobbish nonsense about piercing not being done with a gun is a brand of pearl clutching found only in the UK.

Like most people I know, I had my ears pierced with a gun in the 90s in a hair salon and never had any problem. Most people did.

People need to get their priorities straight.

You sound ridiculous honestly.

I'll bet there are more than a few posters on this thread who do things like punish their child for perceived misdemeanours in a way that I would consider to be less than good parenting.

But I don't start threads about it because it's none of my business. If you're so worried report people to social services - you'll be laughed at 🤣

Can someone explain to me how this isn't an assault / ABH? How would the police deal with a situation like this if it was reported as an assault?

The are at least 2 issues here you are ignoring.

1. Consent.
2. Piercing should not be done with a gun.

What's even more shocking is that 29% of voters think that this is OK.

Did the 4 year old even want her ears pierced, or was it the mother's wish?

That's absolutely shocking that poor little girl.

My DS is 9 and we only got his ears pierced this past Saturday, in a proper piercing shop, he'd been asking for a couple of years but I'd kept putting it off until I thought he was ready, and because he's usually very sensitive to pain, even though I gave my consent the lady doing it made it very clear that if he changed his mind and even thought the word no she'd stop.

After the first one she asked him if he was OK for the second one and gave him as much time as he needed before doing it.
Forcing it on a kid is awful, especially in a place where they use the guns.

I don't believe this. In Claire's they pierce both ears at the same time

I am so sick of the snobbery about ear piercing in the UK as though it makes you superior. People need to get a life, seriously. Ear piercing is not barbaric - it's a tiny flap of skin that most women end up piercing 🥱🥱🥱😵

In some countries, they pierce a little girls ears in the hospital after birth.

I agree it does not compare with FGM, which is obviously much worse. But this is not the point. Two wrongs do not make a right.

We (hopefully) teach our daughters about consent and then we do this to them.

l have 3 ear piercings, a nose piercing and l am going to get my nipples pierced. The difference is l have thought about it, read about it, discussed it and taken myself to the studio of my own free will and choice.

I think 4 is a stupid age to get ears pierced.

I know in Spain the midwife will do it when the baby is a day old and a child would never wear anything except studs.

That seems to me better than at 2 - 8 years when they are old enough to remember and not really old enough to care of the piercing and don't know how painful it can be.

You were right OP, that’s just awful. Well done for saying something, poor child .

It does seem odd to me that smacking a child is frowned upon, yet making holes in them so you can dangle pretty jewellery from them isn’t.
We live in a weird world.

OP, please report back and let us know if you get a response to your correspondence.

The manager’s argument that the parents have given consent is weak. What about the rights of the child?

My ears were pierced as an older child, probably around 13, when l asked to have them done and mum talked it through with me; l think that’s fine. I’ve had other piercings since.

Fucking awful isn’t it? One of my work clients works at Superdrug and was told she had to pierce ears for her job there - on her first day after her 2 hours’ training (!!!) on plastic ears some tiny girl was crying her heart out while her mom said ‘she does really want it done, just do it and get it out of the way!’ My client got disciplined for refusing, who could do that to a crying child? It’s just grim. The mom put in a complaint because her sobbing child pleading ‘no no no I don’t want it’ couldn’t get her ears pierced.
I posted on another thread on here the other day about how awful piercing guns are and I’m sure it’s already been said on this thread. Just awful places like jewellers, Claire’s and Superdrug still do this. If you could see up close how shonky the jewellery they fire through your ear with a grotty unclean gun is you’d wonder why anyone would opt for this method when there’s safer ways to do it, it’s just lazy and irresponsible IMO. (I’m a trained tattooist and piercer so have seen some horrible shit with jewellery stuck in ears from bad gun piercings).

Hi, former baby here protesting about it.

You were witnessing child abuse.

I also had mine pierced with a gun in the 80s ( and then more piercings in the 90s also with a gun) and didn't feel anything and never had any infections.
The first time I was 11 and looked after them really well during the healing process.
The second/ third/ maybe fourth time was when I was 15/16 and kept letting the second piercings heal over as I wasn't as careful.
Ironically now I never wear earrings ( although I think I probably still could) as I just don't think they suit me...

For my sins, I worked at Claires many moons ago and pierced ears. I hated the 9ct guns though, it just blasted the earring through the ear. The 18ct guns were much gentler. We also marked out the dot before piercing, and I was meticulous with that, looking and relooking, wiping and marking and looking again. My own (done at local jewellers) are slightly lob sided, so if you got me, I was going to be 100% bang on!

They did (probably still do) one staff member per ear so they could be done together. Younger children (I hated piercing their ears) could be sat on a parents lap with a hand gently holding their forehead to help keep still. In our store, we wouldn't do childrens ears if they were held down by force, and if they started fighting and screaming then the answer was no as well.

I'd probably take DD to a proper piercing studio if she wants them done when older though (and no doubt I'll be double and triple checking the place dots!!)

My dds both got theirs done at Claire’s, both times 2 members of staff did the piercing at the same time so they didn’t have to wait for 2nd one to be done. Both dd decided to get their ears pierced themselves, I don’t wear earrings so never had any expectation that dds would. Dd2 asked for hers to be done for her 7th birthday and dd 1 only just had hers done recently and she is 14!

I can’t imagine taking a baby to have them done, it’s bad enough taking them for vaccinations at that age don’t know what anyone would put them through the pain just for appearance!

Can't get my head around this, why isn't there some kind of law around the age of child piercings?

I understand children need some autonomy and choices, but what age do we ensure that the pierced ears are something they understand will hurt and will have take some responsiblity for, such as cleaning? They should be an age they can decide they do or dont want it.
I want my dc to make choices about things they want such as piercings, but I want them to be old enough to understand the consequences.

A lass from my secondary school had a baby girl whilst we were in year 9 and she had her ears pierced at the local market hairdressers a few hours after leaving the hospital because she didn't want people to think her dd was a boy.
That was over 20 years ago now and I still hear of people taking tiny babies to that place to have their babys ears pierced.
It's fucking criminal.

I voted yabu not because I agree with young kids and babies having piercings but about complaining about it to a manager. Super drug is a chain, people who work in stores have zero say over anything. Op should have spoke to the parent if she felt so strongly as she's the one making the decision

I'd have been tempted to film it, send to HQ and ask them to review their policies.
Poor child. Disgusting excuse of a mother giving her consent to mutilate her daughter, who is cute and pretty just as she is without bits of metal in her ears.

Blame the (chav) mother. There's a lot of them around.
Treating babies and young kids as fashion accessories.
Makes me sick.