Earring front stud went into my dad's ear. Can I claim this is a faulty product and request a larger replacement?

[Tiddlywinkly]

Hi. I'm open minded and happy to be told I have to pay up if need be.

DD had her ears pierced in early April. We had to pick jewellery supplied by the piercing place. She chose small studs as they were all very pricey. She is due a downsizing (of the backings) at the weekend.

Unfortunately, she woke up this morning and the front stud in one ear had disappeared into the ear lobe. We had to go to A and E to have it removed. She's distraught as she's been told she has to wait 6 months to get that ear pierced again.

I don't want this to happen again with her other ear so she needs a new earring set to replace the studs she has. One to be used for her healthy ear and another to be used when she gets the other ear re pierced.

As the earring caused an injury, could it be described as faulty/not fit for purpose under the Consumer Act and the piercing place needs to provide suitable replacements or is it something I need to replace out of my pocket?

Many thanks in advance. Poor dd 😔

DD not dad 🙄

Had you been monitoring the piercing for swelling? A decent piercer will tell you to come back and get the bar upsized if there is swelling. If there was no room left and the earring was in danger of embedding, it's on you to go back and get a longer bar.

There is nothing inherently unfit about an earring that ends up embedding. Earring lengths are adjusted to need and there isn't one length that's good for everything. A good piercer would have lengthened the bar without charging more anyway. It sounds more like a failure in your aftercare and monitoring.

Please say you went to a decent piercer who used a needle and not some high street idiot with a gun.

I had this happen with the butterfly at the back when I had my ears pierced. I think it was infected and just swallowed it, we were camping so my mother retrieved it with some tweezers, cleaned it and and the lobe then put it back in.

Personally I would just buy the next set myself and move on. It's not that big of a deal.

@ChandrilanDiscoDroid We went three weeks ago and was told one ear wasn't ready/swollen (I can't remember which one) and to return in 3 weeks (which is Saturday)

To add it's a highly reputable piercing establishment. They use needles not guns.

It's still on you to monitor though and take action if there's further swelling.

Any earring can embed if the ear swells enough. A larger earring would just hurt more, do more damage, and be harder to extract.

No. Stuff like this can happen with earrings. I got bad scar tissue from my first piecing (Claire’s lol) but that’s always a risk with a piercing gun. I got an infection when I got them reported by a professional with needles, but that can happen.

if there is swelling you should’ve asked to upsize, although again this isn’t usually free. Piercers have to make a living.

@ChandrilanDiscoDroid I didn't notice any swelling, but I'm not an expert.

Returning on Saturday so will just have a chat with them. As I said, I'm open to paying. I've just not encountered this before.

You should have been paying more attention to your daughter’s ears surely.

Unfortunately even if you’d gone back explaining swelling and asked to upsize, this wouldn’t have been free. Piercing places have to make a living. It’s just a risk you take on when you get a piercing- that you might have to pay out again for longer bars. So on Saturday if you want a new set you will (rightly) have to pay. Was your daughter spraying with saline twice a day?

You seem bizarrely focused on the piddling cost of a single piercing earring and not on the fact that you or your DD didn't do basic monitoring and aftercare (depending how old your DD is). You don't have to be an expert to see that an earring is on the brink of embedding and apparently you haven't talked to the piercer yet anyway.

The piercer would probably have upsized the bars without charge anyway if you'd just gone back like the aftercare instructions probably told you to. It's at their discretion whether they charge to repierce, but I probably would if I were them because they haven't done anything wrong.

We bought the saline spray from the place and used it every day

Anyway, thanks for those who were helpful

In future I'd return to the piercer, not A&E. They would usually just put a larger stud in (yes perhaps an additional cost). Seems a shame to let the hole close up at this point.

No I don’t think you can do anything about it. Piercing holes can stretch over time and cause that to happen or it can happen from swelling.

The exact same thing happened to my DD some years ago. Her ear wasn't swollen but I think she was leaning awkwardly on something and the earring just disappeared into the lobe. A&E nurse who hoiked it out said it was a fairly common issue and that she wished the studs used for piercing kids ears were bigger. DD were done by a reputable piercer but with a disposable gun-type device. I couldn't find anyone reputable who would pierce with a needle on a child under 16 (DD was 11 at the time). We let it calm down for a couple of days, put the earring back in and she then took extra care with it. I wouldn't have gone back to the piercer with a complaint though. There was a limited choice of earrings and we went for a smaller pair because we thought they'd be better for school.

Oh and imo children shouldn’t have pierced ears until they are old enough to look after them themselves ie 16.

What would you hope to get from the piercer, bigger studs? From their angle, giving you bigger ones could be an admission that the originals were too small for the piercing.
How would they know that armed with that, you wouldn't take it further.
Just one bad review could be damaging.

For all you know, your daughter may have squeezed it into the lobe in her sleep, especially if it was irritating a bit.

You say it caused an injury, I'd say it happened as I described.
If you're looking for compensation, I can't see any evidence of negligence.

You're going to keep the old studs anyway, so just pay for a bigger pair. You'll hardly need to raise a loan for them
How old is your daughter?

Mountain out of a molehill, no one needs to be distraught.

Stick a longer bar in the hole and keep washing it with saline.

it doesn’t need to close up

Op I would also suggest a piercing pillow for your child next time, swelling can happen during sleep

I used to sell piercing equipment to pierces, which required a volunteer to be pierced.
Company policy was no one under 16, not for care reasons, but for any future abuse claim against their parent.
In other words, the child had to be old enough to make their own choice.

DD were done by a reputable piercer but with a disposable gun-type device.

No reputable piercer uses a gun. Some piercing places will do lobes with consent (properly, with sterile needles) from early teens. But generally you should be old enough to give informed consent AND to do your own aftercare if you're going to get pierced.

did you sign anything? Would imagine they have a disclaimer about aftercare being your responsibility?

Are you certain about the repiercing?

DSD had this happen before I lived with them., The ear got infected and swelled, A&E earring removal, dressing, antibiotics and then I was informed that after a week or so, when the dressing came off, I could put her earring back in.

It was nerve wracking but it went in fairly easily. I used a small, fine 9ct gold hoop smothered in sudocrem. I can't remember if I got it in from the back or the front.

The earring was definitely out for several days, slightly over or under a week and there was definitely a dressing and antibiotics, so it sounds worse than your scenario but didn't require repiercing.

Yes, fair point. Reputable wasn't the right word there. I suppose meant the piercing/tattoo place in our nearest town/city with the best reputation. And the choice was pretty limited. All of them used the gun/cartridge things on U16s lobe piercings. Now that DD is practically an adult, we have found a brilliant, genuinely reputable piercer now, although have to travel a lot further.