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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To let DD get her eyebrow pierced for her 15th birthday?

137 replies

Sparrow7 · 05/02/2025 10:44

DD is insistent that this is the only present she wants. My local piercer won't do it until she's 16 but she's found another in town that will do it as long as we both take ID. She says she knows the risks that it could grow out or get ripped out but I don't really think that she believes anything bad could happen. What are peoples experiences? I don't really like piercings (I don't even have my ears pierced) but I am bringing her up that it is her body, her choice, so torn on what to do? In case it makes any difference she is a great kid who is trustworthy and doing well at school. None of her friends have any piercings other than ears.

OP posts:
Rescueremy · 05/02/2025 11:00

I've still got the scars from the piercing over 20 years later

fingerbobz · 05/02/2025 11:00

Piercings like this can grow out of a young person

It's called migrating

Google it

Catza · 05/02/2025 11:00

Wouldn't bother me, personally. I had multiple piercings before the age of 18 and many more beyond that. I took them all out in my mid 30s but I have zero regrets in having them.
Besides my ears, I think my first one was a nose piercing at 14 or 15. Back in a day you could do it with a nurse in a local polyclinic. My mum was supportive if not exactly happy about it.

BunnyLake · 05/02/2025 11:02

Sparrow7 · 05/02/2025 10:51

They are quite relaxed compared to some schools, bright hair dye etc is allowed.

More lax than relaxed.

I wouldn’t allow it no.

user593 · 05/02/2025 11:02

My mother let me get my tongue pierced at 15. Piercings aren’t permanent, eyebrow piercings even less so as it will grow out. If she’s prepared to put up with the resulting scar, I’d let her do it.

Halycon · 05/02/2025 11:04

Would be a no from me.

Apart from getting pulled out, they can just migrate out of the skin (it a foreign object your body will naturally try and expel). If that happens she’ll be left with a noticeable scar that’s like a dent in her eyebrow.

I’d also be cautious of any piercer willing to do it at her age. I’m not sure of the law on this but from an ethical POV, most won’t touch a child.

Sparrow7 · 05/02/2025 11:08

Thanks for all your replies. I've googled some migration and some scar pictures I'll be showing her later!

OP posts:
Devilsmommy · 05/02/2025 11:12

Sparrow7 · 05/02/2025 10:55

Does anyone has experience of it going wrong? (Maybe I can put her off with some horror stories 😂)

My sister had hers for a few years and it was ripped out by my nephew. She now has a permanent scar on her eyebrow. It was painful as hell she said 😬

moose62 · 05/02/2025 11:19

I had one done - I now have a scar.

its2025 · 05/02/2025 11:29

My daughter is a big fan of piercings. You are right that at 16 she can go off and get it done anyway without your knowledge so personally I think I'd rather agree now so that you can have some say over where you get it done and check the salons credentials etc.

I said to my daughter that she could have a piercing after her GCSE's if she'd done well.Perhaps you can do similar as an incentive.

Later (after she was 18) she had an eyebrow piercing - unfortunately her body rejected the piercing and it eventually fell out. There is a tiny (and I mean tiny) scar but no infection - so if it does go badly it's not necessarily the end of the world if it doesn't "take"

Theflopside · 05/02/2025 11:32

Slightly different, but my daughter wanted her nose pierced at about the same age. I was against it and her attitude was very much, 'I'm going to do it anyway and there's nothing you can do to stop me.'
As it happened, I worked with a very cool young woman who my daughter really liked and - thinking that my colleague would back her up - daughter told her how mean I was being about it. The colleague pointed to a hole in her nostril and said she'd had it pierced as a teenager and deeply regretted because she no longer wanted to wear jewellery in it and it just looked like a huge blackhead! Put my daughter right off.

Nanny0gg · 05/02/2025 11:32

Sparrow7 · 05/02/2025 10:51

They are quite relaxed compared to some schools, bright hair dye etc is allowed.

Still worth checking?

But no, not before 16.

Nanny0gg · 05/02/2025 11:34

Sparrow7 · 05/02/2025 11:08

Thanks for all your replies. I've googled some migration and some scar pictures I'll be showing her later!

And if you don't like it/don't agree with it, you can just say No!

Pinkdreams · 05/02/2025 11:34

If she decides when she's older she doesn't like it, she'll be left with a scar hole all her life. I got the bottom of my lip done when I was 16, I only kept it in 2 months before I realised it was silly and still have the horrible hole now. When she is 18 and able to do it without an adult present is when she is old enough to decide this

MissScarletInTheBallroom · 05/02/2025 11:35

No, I would refuse consent until she is 18 when hopefully she will have grown up a bit.

its2025 · 05/02/2025 11:36

its2025 · 05/02/2025 11:29

My daughter is a big fan of piercings. You are right that at 16 she can go off and get it done anyway without your knowledge so personally I think I'd rather agree now so that you can have some say over where you get it done and check the salons credentials etc.

I said to my daughter that she could have a piercing after her GCSE's if she'd done well.Perhaps you can do similar as an incentive.

Later (after she was 18) she had an eyebrow piercing - unfortunately her body rejected the piercing and it eventually fell out. There is a tiny (and I mean tiny) scar but no infection - so if it does go badly it's not necessarily the end of the world if it doesn't "take"

Just to add - the first piercing at age 15 was a septum. that all went well and daughter still loves it. I've grown used to it!

Triselly · 05/02/2025 11:37

Surface piercings like eyebrows etc will grow out after a few months/years and she will be left with a scar on her face. This is not a permanent piercing but it will probably leave a mark.

(I have worked within this industry for many years and would recommend a nose piercing as the only facial piercing that is going to heal nicely and age well).

ItGhoul · 05/02/2025 11:38

The piercer who is willing to pierce a 15-year-old's eyebrow is almost certainly a less reputable and less conscientious piercer than the one who won't do facial piercings before 16.

I like piercings; I have my belly button pierced and 10 different ear piercings and would have more if it was practical for me. But I wouldn't let a 15-year-old get anything pierced other than ears and most decent piercers won't either. I'd make her wait until she's 16.

cheeseandcoleslaw · 05/02/2025 11:39

I've seen eyebrow piercings are coming back into fashion! Move in the middle though rather than on the end.
I think let her op, it's a teenage thing, finding your own identity. Aslong as she looks after it and keeps it clean what's the harm?

cheeseandcoleslaw · 05/02/2025 11:40

also I've still got a scar from my lip piercing, all piercings can scar

NeedthatFridayfeeling · 05/02/2025 11:40

If/when she takes it out it'll scar, a few teens at my school had it done and now in their 30's they really hate the scar.
I had my bellybutton pierced at 15 which has scarred but it's fine as it's hidden.
I think nose can also scar.

latetothefisting · 05/02/2025 11:41

not exactly the same, but I still have holes in my belly button and ears from piercings I took out twenty years ago, so I can only assume that an eyebrow one will be the same i.e. won't ever fully heal if/when she decides to take it out. And as it's on her face that's even more noticeable.

I also wouldn't, just because anywhere that's willing to go against the '16' age for the tiny bit of extra cash that they'll make from the small number of 15 year olds with parents willing for them to get a piercing sounds dodgy.

One year isn't that long to wait, and at least then she can't complain in 20 years when she regrets having a noticeable scar on her face that you shouldn't have allowed her to do it.

SpringBunnyHopHop · 05/02/2025 11:41

School won’t allow it and it leaves an ugly scar.

Whattodo1610 · 05/02/2025 11:45

YOU are the adult OP! Your daughter will be 15, therefore your decision! You don’t need horror stories to put her off … just exercise your parental rights and responsibilities! 🤷‍♀️

ItGhoul · 05/02/2025 11:45

MissScarletInTheBallroom · 05/02/2025 11:35

No, I would refuse consent until she is 18 when hopefully she will have grown up a bit.

She can give her own consent for a facial piercing at 16 if she has a valid ID.

Legally, there is no age restriction on facial piercings. It's not illegal to pierce a child's eyebrow, lip, nose, tongue or whatever. But most local authorities will only license piercing studios who don't perform any non-ear piercings on under-16s. But a 16-year-old wouldn't generally need parental consent for that, just their own ID to prove they're 16.

Genital and nipple piercings on under 16s are different, for obvious reasons, but it would usually be prosecuted as a sexual offence rather than under any legislation relating to actual piercing.

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