How long between asking and getting ears pierced?

[AmIreallyBeverly]

Assuming you are happy they are old enough to make the decision and look after them, how long was it between your child first asking to get their ears pierced and you letting them get it done?

Please no discussion about piercing babies or toddlers ears. They are too young to decide or give consent so it isn't relevant to this discussion.

£60????? I know it’s £60 in Claire’s. But surely no one actually pays that do they??
Its £20 down the local piercers.

Age matter. I had mine done at 12. They looked great. By 18 they weren't really in the right place or straight any more as I'd grown.

It’s more than £60 in my nearest good tattoo parlour.

Claires start at £15.

£60 is for an independent place that specialises in piercing.

I’d hate to see what they charge for other piercings. Absolute rip off

It’s £60 for earlobe piercing in my local tattoo and piercing place.

DD had hers just before the summer hols. She was 7. She asked for about 18 months before. No problems (she’s had them about 9 months)

God yeah ridiculous! I paid less than that for my belly bar at a reputable tattooist. Not sure I believe this. People on MNet are obsessed with having ears pierced with needles. God knows how we survived in the 80s getting it done with the gun at the chemist.

What do you mean how much care they take? Clean a couple of times a day for the first few weeks, otherwise leave them alone. Nobody recommends turning them anymore so literally all you/she has to do is carefully clean around them a couple of times a day.

Just because you had problems with yours, it doesn't mean she will with hers. And so what if she then wants more piercings? It's her body.

If my dc wanted them done, id take them to get done anywhere from the age of about 6+ as long as they were mature enough to understand that it will hurt. And only at a piercing shop with a needle, never a gun.

Well I’m not lying 🤷🏻‍♀️

Just checked on my piercers page and it's £60 for a pair of lobe piercings here too. It will be more than a naval piercing because it is twice as many piercings. I paid less than half of that for my recent tongue piercing because it was one piercing that did not require a second symmetrically placed companion. We don't pierce with guns anymore because the blunt force trauma made it more difficult to heal and resulted in more things like damage to the surround tissue and keloids.

Things have moved on since the 80s! 🤣

Could you imagine if we still did everything that we did in the 80s Because "it never did us any harm"?!

My friend used to work in Claires in the 90/00s. She was given 30mins training, then watched 2 and then was let loose. They did an incentive where the person who pierced the most ears in a shop got a holiday so some places were "encouraging" people as they came in. It might have changed but it put me off completely.

Plus, what sort of company thinks it's OK to purposely hurt babies for the vanity of their parents?

I paid £35 for dd's last summer at a piercers.
I let dd2 have hers done at 8 and she was thrilled.

Dd1 was also allowed at 8 but was too nervous in the end to get them done till she turned 10. Then she was off so may well be a gateway to piercings! She had her seconds done at 12 plus 2 other random parts of her ear at 13 and 14 and belly bar at 15.
Strangely I feel quite strongly about nose piercings so have said no even though I suppose she could just go and get it done now at 16. Hopefully not.

Beginning of summer holidays is definitely easiest in terms of practicality as the primary school has always been strict about earrings in and not being able to do PE.

Oh and it's impossible to sterilise a piercing gun properly

I'd always been told by my DDad that I'd have to wait until I was 16, but somehow, with all my nagging, he weirdly relented when I was 11. I had them done as soon as possible after that before he could change his mind! This was in the 80s, and I had them done by gun. No issues at all, and then by late teens had had loads more piercings done, again by gun ( in my ear) with no issues at all. Funnily enough now ( in my 40s), never wear earrings at all...

God knows how we survived in the 80s getting it done with the gun at the chemist

I had mine done in the 70s with a needle - by a dentist who did piercings on the side!!

The fact that not all gun piercings get problems doesn't alter the fact that it wasn't the most hygienic way of doing it, and it would be foolish not to do better once you know better. Progress isn't a personal insult!

I'd say 80% of girls in my daughters class got their ears pierced just at the end of Y6, so it would heal over the summer in time for secondary. They were not allowed to wear earrings at junior school for one thing, so the demand wasn't really there. As it was the expected thing to do it then, the girls didn't ask for it earlier.

First asked aged 7-8 and I said too young to look after and that they might change their mind. I said end of Yr6 would be fine - eldest DC had it done just before breaking up so could show friends and have all summer before secondary school began. It has worked fine and other DC now know that they have to wait until then.

I think dd mentioned it once or twice at about 8

i said she could get them done in the summer holidays between junior and senior school

she finally got them done when she was 19 😀

I think DD first asked when she was 8-9 (some of her friends got them then) but she wouldn't have been able to sort them out herself.

She got them for her 10th birthday, she talked a lot about it and got a lot better with keeping track of her things. Her birthday is July, so we went on the last day of school to ensure they had plenty of time to heal during the 6 week break.

She got pierced in a piercing studio and they take them from 9 onwards anyway.

She got her second one for her 15th birthday and thinks about a third/nose sud/helix for her 16th. We will see.

My eldest got hers done at 14. She wanted it done the year before but she got covid at the start of the summer holidays so had to isolate. It would have been a hard no if she had asked before she was a teenager.

Started asking at 6 because friends had them done.
no way was she able to look after them at that age (ND) nor loose an earring everyday!
we said she could at 9. Still hard work getting her to look after them, as is most things with a ND child, and we do have a few lost earrings but generally it’s been ok.

My dd was asking from age 6 and I always said she could if she still wanted them done at age 10. In the end I took her at the beginning of the summer holidays when she was 8.