Where to get 13 year old ears pierced - not Claires - Central or North London?

[loveyouradvice]

Hi all ... just rung Cold Steel who seem to get rave reviews only to learn they won't pierce under 16s.... and scared me rather by saying how much damage they seen on young ears pierced with a gun (as well as being wonky cos ears still growing), and that no one reputable does under 16s.

Any idea where I can take DD where they're good and use needles?

Any other advice or tips ... realise I didnt get mine done til 16 so feels like virgin territory!

Huge thanks

please do not worry about gun piercings. the important thing to watch for is that the earrings are in a sterile blister when they are put into the gun. the earring pieces the ear, the earing is sterile. They will be sterile!

DD's were done at a local beauty salon with a gun. No problems.

I can't give advice on where to get them done but PLEASE PLEASE stick to your original plan and get needle piercings.

In addition to the lack of sterilizations and teenager wielding yuckness - What also seems to have been skimmed over with gun piercings is the fact that the earings that are pushed through are pushed through with pure force and are in fact blunt thus causing a lot of trauma to the piercing itself. As someone else has rightly said a lot of gun piercings will get a small infection but it will be put done to normal healing.

I have had 20 ear piercings my first 6 lobe piercings were done with guns and none of them settled and all migrated - these were done by a qualified piercer. I've now had 4 of them re done with needle - no problems.

I had gun piercings. The first lot were fine. I then wanted a second hole, just above the others, so still in the soft tissue.

One was okay, the other got badly infected and tore the hole a little. I waited two years before getting it redone, believing it would have fully healed. I had the second one done slightly below the previously-infected site. This time I went to a piercing/tattoo parlour thinking they may be better at it, but was told a gun was fine.

It got infected again, and the tore the whole way so from the hole to the bottom of the lobe is a full tear.

I asked my GP if it could be fixed, she said it would be considered cosmetic.

So, that's what a piercing gun did to me. Both times I followed the cleaning instructions.

(This was when I was a teenager, so I didn't know the issue with guns vs needles then).