Ear piercing without consent at Meadowhall in Sheffield (might be triggering)

[PoetryLaser]

I'm amazed that I can't find another thread on this – and I know I'm not being unreasonable to find this video incredibly upsetting. Poor child, perhaps six or seven being pinned to the floor while having her ears pierced in a jewellery store at the Meadowhall in Sheffield, screaming her head off saying "no no no".
Should ear piercing be banned for say under 12s, until they're old enough to consent?
Warning - the video is very distressing to watch: twitter.com/mrscjos/status/1450020437744885761?s=10

Surely classes as child abuse? If I pinned my child down now and stabbed him with a couple of needles for absolutely no reason while he was screaming and thrashing around in pain, I would be abusing him. I don’t think this is any different at all. My DD’s are 9 and 10 and they have absolutely no desire to have pierced ears, they realise it’s a massive inconvenience because their friends have to cover their earrings with tape for PE and swimming.

No one, not the shopping centre nor the shop will say anything meaningful while the police investigation is live.

That's unbelievably distressing. I hope social services take a good look at that family. With so little respect for consent and her bodily autonomy in public, what the fuck are they doing behind closed doors. She needs removing from their care.

I do not understand why they carried on trying to do it. The child didn't want it done, why would any parent keep going? Why did the staff keep going? They could have missed with that gun, made a total mess of her earlobe(s)!

I'm disgusted.

This is horrific. What assistant in their right mind would even want to pierce a dc in such distress.

I was in a Claire's in Exeter about 10 years ago when a woman brought a baby about a year old for ear piercing.
The baby was fast asleep.
The very lovely and quite young assistant politely but firmly refused to pierce the baby's ears.
I was impressed because the mum was pushing for the piercing to be done but the assistant stood her ground.

@nitsandwormsdodger

All citizens have the power of arrest Rather than filming you could have called the shopping mall security team or 101

I think online it says it was filmed by a 14 year old. They still could have called, but I assume they filmed it because they felt it was wrong and thought that this was the best thing to do.

It would make more sense that it has been done & they are trying to put backs on I guess.

@SinisterBumFacedCat

The police seem more concerned about finding the person who filmed the incident than finding the parents

Probably because they'll be an eye witness and might have seen something that's not in the video

@GlomOfNit

While this video is an appalling watch and I'm horrified, I'm wondering what we're seeing here, really. I couldn't see a piercing gun in the staff member's hands, and the poor girl is clearly screaming 'get off my ears! get off them! ow ow ow' as the woman bends over and seems to fiddle with something.

Could there not be a possibility that the piercings have already happened by that stage and that this recording is the aftermath, where the butterfly backs are adjusted or fitted to the stud? (of course if that's the case, we still don't know if the girl gave her consent to the actual piercing.)

I had mine done at 19 at a booth in Debenhams (didn't know about needle piercing at that stage and wish I had, they got my holes mismatched for one thing). They used a gun, it was fairly painful and then they adjusted the back and that really HURT.

Having said that, I certainly don't want to let anyone off the hook here. I think piercing young children is an appalling practice, I think using guns is dangerous, I think doing it out in the open like this is bad practice, and if that poor girl had consented at one point, she was clearly unprepared for how sore it would feel afterwards (if that's what this video records).

You know what, I take that back. I watched it again and with more volume, and the staff member who's bent over the girl does clearly say something like 'right, that's that one done' and then again after she bends over the other side 'all done' So please ignore my 'balanced' post asking if we are necessarily seeing what we think we're seeing!

@FinishWhatWeStarted

On Twitter I've just seen Claire's replying that it's not one of their shops? I don't want to see the video though

Sorry I've no idea why I thought it was Claire's. I thought I'd read on here that it was but a quick skim through shows I was wrong.

This is my local shopping centre and it's Lovisa. Not Claire's.

Definitely won't be giving them any more of my money.

Surely thats child abuse

Prosecute the parents. Close down these shady places and put in place an age of consent (12 or so). Horrible excuse for a mother. I hope she is named and shamed.

I can't believe what I've just watched, it's horrific. Surely the police or social services should be involved?

Gun piercing in fucking accessories shops should be banned outright anyway.

It's massively unsafe, prone to infection, unhygienic and damages the tissue.

Only needles in properly accredited professional shops should be allowed.

I've had tens of piercings over the years, the only ones that went badly wrong were the ear gun ones when I was a kid, as a result I got a serious infection, had to have them removed by a doctor and now can't have my ear lobes pierced as they are still so prone to infection.

That video is disgusting and I hope the parents are prosecuted.

I'm not especially against him piercing but fucking hell! That's just an assault on a child.
The police should have enough with that video to do something?
Saying that SYP don't have a good track record when it comes to bad things happening to girls in Meadowhall so I won't be shocked when they do nowt.

I can't understand why the staff went ahead? Even though they clearly didn't care about the girl, the screaming must have been putting off other customers. Maybe they didn't know how to refuse without seeming judgmental. If the mother insisted, there wasn't really a way to say no without implying she was a shit parent.

I'm glad it's gone viral and the mother is now going to get her comeuppance.

[quote mistermagpie]@sashh

Guns may have been designed for piercing ears but needles have been designed for piercing skin etc as well. A hollow needle causes less trauma to the skin than a gun. Guns are also harder to clean whereas every piercing I have had done has been with a sterile needle out of the packet. Guns also 'spray' blood for the piercing around the place which is a risk to the person doing the piercing.

The main thing for me though, is the fact that piercing with a needle allows the piercer more control. A piercing with poor placement or at a bad angle is going to be harder to heal as well as looking aesthetically bad. A lot of the people using these guns are just shop staff who have been shown how to use it, they aren't trained properly in piercing. [/quote]

1. Modern guns are single use so no need to steralise

2. unless you were draped with sterile sheets, betadine applied to the skin and the piercer was wearing a surgeon's gown and sterile gloves then you were not pierced with a sterile needle.

It may have been sterile in the packet, but the moment it is picked up it stops being sterile where it is touched, your skin isn't sterile so when the point of the needle enters it stops being sterile.

The needles used are hollow because they are designed to put something into the human body

This made me physically nauseous. I just don't understand how anyone could ever, ever hurt or frighten a child.

@Couchbettato

This is my local shopping centre and it's Lovisa. Not Claire's.

Definitely won't be giving them any more of my money.

This

I feel sick watching that. That's fucking awful. Parents should be reported to social services and staff should be sacked.
I must say I'm not a fan of everything being filmed these days but I'm glad someone filmed that. It's disgusting.

That’s extremely disturbing and appropriate action should be taken.

I don’t believe in a ban though or specific age. One of mine wanted theirs done from 3yo. As in went on about it eleventy billion times a day literally from the second they opened their eyes. Had significant speech issues so I was subject to incessant signing. They are also disabled and even at that age had numerous painful medical procedures so even telling them it hurt was a fucking empty threat as it was nowhere near as painful as other things us adults made them endure (for medical purposes). After 12 months and shredded nerves I caved and took them on their 4th birthday. Best day ever. They were so thrilled. We just did antiseptic and turning numerous times per day at same time as meds. They spent the next year pulling their hair back for everyone they met to show their ears. Couldn’t give two shits if anyone judged.

Imagine holding your child down for someone to hurt her so she can be a bit more 'pretty'. The video is horrendous and there should be an age restriction on piercings as there is for other body modifications. I'm usually really each to their own but know of two little girls who have had earrings ripped out through normal play. I absolutely cringe when I see little ones with them and wonder what their parents were thinking.

This is awful. Echoing what everyone else has said about consent, assault, abuse etc. Hope the police involvement leads at least to Lovisa and similar stores making big changes.

DD is 6 and luckily hasn't asked about getting her ears pierced yet. I have already said to DH that we won't do it until she is 12 at least. That said, I had my ears pierced at 13 and was too afraid to touch and clean the piercings so ended up with a bad infection. Wish I'd waited till I was older. Children don't need pierced ears!

Absolutely shocking. Why? Why? Why???