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

@Peraltiago

That is just awful. Not quite the same scenario but when I was six I was pinned down for a medical procedure - I needed stitches on my face and was terrified. They sent my parents out of the room, two nurses held me down and the doctor stitched my face with no anaesthetic. I can honestly say it's caused me no end of issues with medical procedures. The feeling of powerlessness is just horrendous. The fact that this is an unnecessary cosmetic procedure and it's the girls own family holding her down... just wow. I hope she won't have any lasting issues from it.

I totally get this.

I had my face stitched as a child of about 4 maybe 5. No parent allowed and I was perfectly behaved, then a nurse came along ripped my knickers down and gave me a tetanus jab.

I walked back in to the waiting area crying that, 'they took my knickers down'.

I still cannot get an injection in my bum, I've had tetanus jabs since and depo but not in my bum. I'm 55 in a couple of weeks.

However I disagree with some PPs comments that guns are always bad and should be banned. I have 2x holes in each ear done by gun and I was quite glad that I had them done by gun, especially for the first ones, as it’s less daunting than a needle. Never had any issues with them.

Me too.

There is a lot of talk about sterilising and guns v needles, but guns were designed for this, needles are not and I have yet to see a needle piercer keep a sterile field.

I have had piercings done with both gun and needle.

Of course 5 year olds can’t consent. You could offer a 5 year old a tiny tattoo of beautiful flower or a smiley face on their earlobe and they’d love the idea. Tell them it would hurt just like ear piercing and they’d still want the pretty thing on their ear. But we don’t do it just because they really want it.

That's disgusting and so upsetting.

I had my ears pierced at 8 and was very keen, sat still and took good care of them but actually I do think 12 would be a good cut off.

Children don't have their autonomy respected in general.

This video is horrible but what about religious male circumcision ? If your talking about long term psychical effects there is no comparison will that be banned as well?

No one cares unless a video comes out.

Absolutely disgusting!! And that's coming from someone with over 30 piercings in her life time!! I love them! My daughter however will not have hers done until she is over 10 AND comes to us asking for them to be done! It's abuse! Plain and simple!

No one cares unless a video comes out.

Well that’s not true, is it? People have been discussing genital mutilation of boys for a long time. It’s a much debated topic. Ear piercing in babies has been discussed on MN for as long as I’ve been here (13 years).

This video is horrible but what about religious male circumcision ? If your talking about long term psychical effects there is no comparison will that be banned as well?

It has been discussed time and again on Mumsnet and the vast majority of posters are completely against it.

@Bagelsandbrie

I actually wanted to complain openly on the stores Facebook page but there’s nowhere to do that.

I have complained about Claire’s before after witnessing something similar.

They do have a Twitter page.

@nanbread

Agree *@Kanaloa* I imagine the staff really didn't want to do it

So then they shouldn't have done.

The people who restrained are clearly in the wrong but then surely piercing without consent is worse?

[quote EllieQ]It has been reported to the police, according to the BBC

www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-58971560[/quote]
Good. I have watched the video and I hope everyone involved is prosecuted.

I would in fact like all the adult to be locked up for a very, very long time and never to be allowed anywhere near a child again, but I do know that this WBU!

Should be illegal under 13. I had mine re-pierced by needle at a tattoo place recently and they won’t pierce anyone under 16.

That’s appalling! Once the little girl made it clear she didn’t want it done (at least that day) all the adults involved should have taken a huge step back and said “ok we won’t do this” end of story. Is it even safe to be putting holes in a person's ears when they’re screaming, trying to move and having to be restrained?

I have never had my children’s ears pierced and never would (I don’t see the point in it personally) but what other parents do regarding that kind of thing is up to the and their child- or it should be. But no one should be restraining a child for a procedure like that, ever. No excuses for it.

@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

It’s Lavisa

This is disgusting. I've got 9 piercings in my ears, most of which I got as an adult and it's very painful (although the pain is over quickly, but children don't process things like that!), I don't think anyone should be piercing the ears of very young children and certainly not without their consent. It's absolutely unnecessary for one thing, and for another I don't think they can be expected to do proper aftercare. I've got lobe piercings that have been more tricky to heal than my cartilage ones and a child can't be relaxed upon to take care of them properly until healed, in my opinion.

Those guns are also a recipe for disaster. Piercing should be done by properly trained professionals using a needle.

Absolutely shocking, I can’t understand how the staff just carried on, or watched or didn’t step in. Surely there must be some training before hand that should take into account when children change their minds and say no. The parents/grandparent should be ashamed of themselves. Awful people.

Jesus. That's shocking. I can't watch it all the way through.
That poor kid. Am also wondering what her life is like at home
Let's hope the police take action on this.

@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.

That was extremely poor decision making on the part of the staff.

That being said, I don't have a problem with ear-piercing kids under 12, I think it's a leap to go from this video to that conclusion. Ear piercing is actually pretty safe, and it's not seriously affecting anyone's appearance or life long term.

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

Bagelsandbrie
I actually wanted to complain openly on the stores Facebook page but there’s nowhere to do that

I have complained about Claire’s before after witnessing something similar.
They do have a Twitter page
It’s Lovisa not Claire’s, sorry

@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).

Yeah, I wonder that too.

This sounds a much better way of doing it but why on Earth is there any need to pierce a 6 year olds ears.

It's fairly usual around here for them to get it done at around 6-8 years old and the majority have it done by age 9 when they move up to middle school. DD had been asking for it done for ages, she's sensible for her age so I knew she would help keep them clean and not fiddle with them, she knew what was involved, and I took her somewhere reputable. DS wanted his done at around the same time but once he found out what was involved he didn't go ahead and that's fine, other DS and DD have no wish whatsoever to get theirs done and that's also fine.

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

This is the reply I got from the Lovisa website:

Thank you for contacting Lovisa and sharing your concern with us. The incident has been brought to our attention and is being resolved by the relevant Lovisa management. Should you have any further questions or concerns, do not hesitate to contact us via email [email protected]

So, dear Mumsnetters, do feel free to contact them via email with your own questions and concerns.

I'm not sure how it's going to be 'resolved' for the poor little girl in question.