Law to require youngsters to have parental consent before body piercing - your thoughts please?

I thought that, in England at least, you had to be either over 18 (without parental consent) or over 16 (with parental consent) to get anything other than an ear piercing done.

I've never known a (non-dodgy) piercer to do anything different.

Ideally, no piercings before junior school age at all, then ears only with parental consent & attendance. No other piercings/tattoos until 18.
Very difficult though to prove parentage and no doubt determined people would just do it themselves/with friends at home or when on holiday...?

Of course, on the religious side, it's not a body modification, but a mindset adjustment, and the reason for so much hatred, still, in the world, when factions from different religions are unable /unwilling to let bygones be bygones and 'turn the other cheek'.

I'd like to see religious teaching for under 16s banned, but doubt it will happen - too many vested interests for the 'status quo' !

Interested to see the views on this. I sent e-mail to a local BBC station which covered the same topic and compared piercings with circumcision, because for a child under 2 to have her ears pierced is something she did not necessarily want, but most likely the choice of a parent (her Mum, most likely!).

Seeing comments like "a total ban on ear piercing for under 7s. Fuck cultural reasons, if your culture involves abuse ..." and another (from someone with piercings, or tattoos, or both) saying "I don't think body piercing/modification or tattoos should be allowed under the age of 18, whether they have parental permission or not." just strengthens my feeling that circumcision (when the boy is not of an age to even know if he wants to belong to a particular faith, which is most often a reason for this being done), and even being forced to learn the teachings of one faith above all others as "the one, true faith", seems to be at odds with the several views where the point is made that being in the teens seems a better time for a young person to make such choices.

Sorry if my post appears to 'hijack', but I see immense parallels between these types of 'modification' (some may say mutilation, with justification).

redruby is right about tongue piercings. I had mine done in the 90's and cracked a tooth on it within a few months. In my defence the stud came out straight away.

I really don't like the look of all the piercing / tattoo parlours that spring up everywhere these days. My piercings were done at Into You in London and they were fab with care instructions and after-care information, I know most places wouldn't be that good.

If I was in charge if would be over 12 (senior school age) for ear piercing, over 18 for piercings and over 21 for tattoos / body modification. It's too easy for young people to get inked these days, I know several under 25's who are covered in great tattoos but I can't imagine they will be so thrilled with them in 10 yrs time.

It's not just the piercing, it's the stretching - and the stretching is a 'do it yourself' thing so how would anyone regulate that?

My son had his ears pierced but only so that he could wear ear stretchers in them, like a lot of his friends. He buys the stretchers off ebay. We have told him he can only go so far, but that's a personal agreement between us and him.

how would you know if it was the parent accompanying the minor too?

my 16 yr old dd stayed with my niece recently following some difficulties at home with dh and her, whilst she was there, my niece took dd and autorised her a tattoo!! . after I told dd no, and also told niece I'd said no!

Now she is branded for life with something that she might have not had, if she'd waited until she was 17 as I suggested, (was going for phase and said we'll talk again when you're 17, dn took her anyway, I had no idea)

Firstly, more effort should be made to shut down the risky, incompetent, dirty piercers. I'd quite like to see piercing prohibited in chainstores as it seems to be performed by the bored, bewildered 15 year old saturday staff half the time...

Secondly, a total ban on ear piercing for under 7s. Fuck cultural reasons, if your culture involves abuse of women and children your culture is shit and deserves to die out anyway. 'Culture' is not a get out of jail card for doing painful and permanently damaging things to other people without their consent.

Finally, if teens want to have themselves pierced and tattooed and all piercing and tattoo parlours are licenced and inspected, then let them get on with it. You do not own your teenager's body. S/he is free to choose to have it pierced/tattooed/impregnated/surgically altered.

Don't piercing places need local authority licensing like tattoo parlours?

In which case encourage LAs to only licence places which restrict piercing to over-18s (or over-16s), with the exception of lower earlobe piercing (simply to avoid too many people doing what I did and getting their mate to freeze their earlobe and piercing it with a stud... fortunately all the surgical spirit we sloshed around prevented infection but it's never healed quite straight)

Parental consent is unworkable and would be a waste of effort IMO.

Also why should I be allowed to make the decision to pierce dd's ears before she is old enough to say no about it?

If a person isn't old enough to make the decision without a parent present what is the point in letting them have it anyway?

Why not make piercing and tattoos illegal before 18? Fat lot of good it does me saying dd can have a tattoo at 14.. I don't have to live with it, the adult who had the tattoo at 14 is the one stuck with it.

violetwellies that is awful. I haven't heard of that before.

The (relatively) new fashion for stretching the ear is the worst IMO. That will never go back if you change your mind. My friends beautiful dd has just had that done aged 15. Very sad. Should not be allowed until 18 IMHO.

Having worked with a fabulous sporty teenager, paralysed by spinal lesions following infected belly button piercing I Would like them illegal maybe before 30?

How naive I am - it never occurred to me that there was not a relevant law!

Absolutely, all body piercings/modifications/tattoos should be illegal under the age of 16 or 18, apart from ear-piercing, which is culturally acceptable and not as potentially damaging as other modifications. Even ear-piercing a minor should not be done except in the presence of an adult who has given identification and signed a document stating that they have the authority to permit the procedure.

Considering that most reputable piercing parlours would point blank refuse to pierce a person under 18 unless a guardian was present this is a total no brainer.

Even then, the piercer is still within their rights to refuse to pierce on any given grounds. I used to pierce and I would rather lose the business than my reputation for piercing people who were too young to look after them properly or to understand the rammifications of it all.

Funnily enough there are now HUNDREDS of procedures being performed on the nhs for kids that stretched their ears as a fad and then grew up and decided they didn't want/like it anymore. (Idiots.)

There is a voluntary code of practice that most places stick to. If Wales implement this it will bring them into line with the rest of the UK.

I think it's a reasonable idea in principle. Teens can be pretty rebellious and devilishly resourceful, though. I allowed DD1 at 14 to get her ears pierced once each in the normal place, but refused to let her go on to have a pretty line of studs around the ear rim. So she did it herself with a needle. I'm sure she won't be the only one to think of that :(

(She is grown-up now and turned out very sensible. But it seemed someone took my nice little girl away at 11 and didn't return her till she was 20!)

I worked in dentistry and saw the horrendous damage that was done to teeth by tongue piercings. The patient would literally be spitting out parts of their teeth as a result of the constant 'clacking' of the stud against their teeth. The enamel literally used to shatter.

On a very serious note, there are large blood vessels in the tongue and anyone with a history of rheumatic fever should never have an oral piercing as this can introduce bacteria into the bloodstream that attacks the heart and can have fatal results.

Tongue piercing in my experience is a fad with very long lasting consequences.

As an old fuddy duddy I would welcome a change in the law. I have no problem with ear piercing in teenagers, but I don't find any other form of body piercing attractive at all. The teenagers I know (two nieces) with body piercings are lovely, but I just look at their (IMO disfigured) pretty faces and think "why on earth did you want to spoil your looks". I don't say anything of course and don't make any comment at all about their appearance - thus disappointing them

DD's school has a very strict policy about body piercings, so there wouldn't be any point in getting any before 18 anyway.

"This new law would require a parent/guardian to give a letter of consent and/or attend" - it does all smack a bit of a note to get out of PE, doesn't it? And as we know, those are easily forgeable. Even if you drag you parent along, that could be anyone - if your mother doesn't approve you get your mate's feckless mother who does.

I do agree that yes, there should be constraints. Just can't think of a way those constraints could be enforceable.

A reputable piercer will simply not pierce someone under the age of 16 without parental consent, and rightly so. But then I used to go to a reputable piercer, who had mothers coming in with 7 year olds wanting their belly button piercings. SHe was always a bit torn about what to do, because she knew that they would just go to some backstreet shonky place if she refused.

So I'd personally be all for legislation forbidding body piercing for under 14's and parental consent, by means of a signed consent form for under 16's.

I should say that I'm seeing body piercing and ear piercing as two separate things - I'm not going all out for a ban on ear piercing before 18!

I don't think body piercing/modification or tattoos should be allowed under the age of 18, whether they have parental permission or not. At a push I'd go with 16 for some piercings (because they can be removed with minimal scarring), but below that - not a chance. I could be wrong, but I think that in London it is illegal?

I have no issues with piercings or tattoos (I have them!) but I think it's a decision you should make for yourself as an adult, not something that's done as a whim as a child.

I agree, parents should be present until the age of 16, a letter is pointless.

I'm not keen on piercings on children and would rather WAG brought in some firm rules on minimum age for piercing full stop, never mind if parents were agreeable. However, I realise that there are cultural reasons behind some young children/babies having ears pierced so it's probably not workable.