Anyone recommend needle ear piercer in Kingston (or London) for 8 YO?

[Ragusa]

Just that really, DD has been mithering for ages to get her ears pierced but I don't want her to have them done with a gun and am having real problems with finding someone to do them with a needle.

Does anyone know of a licenced piercing place that might be willing to pierce an 8 year old's ears in this way?

Failing that, a decent salon that's not Claire's and not likely to fire big thick studs through her ears causing worse tissue damage than necessary.

We're in Surbiton, can travel to anywhere within train/ tube reach, or car if other direction out Surrey way.

TIA for any pointers.

I've tried a couple of tattoo/ licenced piercing places and they both told me the child needed to be around 12 YO. Even I was younger than that when I had mine done, I was still in vests and underskirts :)

We've just had 10 year olds done in Chichester, but a bit of a way from you. Look up tattoo and piercing places and phone round.

Beachy, thanks: that gives me hope we'll find somewhere. I've got the register from the council website, will ring round tomorrow.

Got to be done at the start of the school holidays due to overweening school rule that says all earrings have to be completely removed for PE. no tape over allowed.

Someone will be along shortly to tell me that tape over earlobes for PE is a bad idea ;)

Just had a look on the MetalMorphosis website - they use Studex on 8yo but from Googling , thats still a gun.

I asked in there a couple of years ago , IIRC the minimum age for needle-ear piercing was 14yo (but not 100% sure)

I couldn't find anywhere local to me that did ears with a needle. In the end, my dd had hers done in the jewellers, F.Hinds.

They did it with a gun. The lady was very thorough and explained everything. It was also a lot more private than Claire's.

Blue Banana do body piercing but not sure if they will pierce ears with a needle. Worth asking.

As far as I'm aware it's illegal to needle pierce under a certain age.

My 9 year old just had her ears pierced in Claire's which I was wary about due to posts like this one and it went perfectly well.

The earrings used have a thin point, it didn't hurt her at all, they positioned them well and sterilised everything. I couldn't fault the service at all tbh.
Can't see what all the fuss is about using Claire's. Plus the girl who did it was super friendly and put my daughter totally at ease.

Old London Road tattoo (on Old London Road!). My goddaughter had needle ear piercing done there and would recommend - says aftercare was very good, v friendly, clean and v knowledgable.

Both me and dd got our ears pierced recently at The Grasshopper piercing/tattoo studio in Harrow.

I also wanted a needle piercing but even though ours were done by a proper piercer, he recommended a gun for standard lobe piercing. Earrings were titanium.

The earrings used have a thin point

Yes but this is still blunt compared to a super sharp needle that makes a cleaner hole.

Sorry, I am of no help here at all, but why would one method be considered superior to the other?
Genuine question.

Ah. Sharpness of point. Got it.

Only on Mumsnet do I repeatedly hear fretting about piercing children's ears with a gun!!
I have lots of piercings so am on good terms with my local tattoo parlour / piercer. When my daughter was 8, she wanted her ears pierced. The tattoo parlour told me guns are absolutely safe for ear lobes. It's other piercings a gun should not be used for - e.g. nose.
My daughter had them done locally, with a gun, and experienced no soreness and they heeled really well.

My DD has 5 piercings (done over a period of 3 years) the only one she's had any issue with is the one furthest away from her face, more fibrous/cartilage area.

Though the little pest did take it out before the 6/52 healing time (not ages before , a few days) she ended up with a blood blister next to the piercing not on it. She wears a tiny hoop in that one and has no problems now, blister has gone.

If she got more done (more cartilage area) she'd have to have a needle piercing but all hers have been done at Claires, no problems.

Guns can't be sterilised afaik.

Hepatitis C.

Thank you, everyone, for your replies. In the end we found a place local to us that would do it - it isn't illegal. The piercist just has to have a licence and not contravene the terms of their insurance.

DD was properly brave. She elected not to look at the needle and coped remarkably well with the merry whirring of tattooists around her.

I EMLA-creamed her ears an hour before, and she says she felt absolutely nothing.

Anyway I would definitely recommend the needle piercing. And even if you're getting them done with a gun, EMLA cream. Amazing stuff. Just make sure you wipe it off before any breaking of skin, and very important , make sure it's covered with an appropriate dressing when you've applied it - don't want to get it in your mouth/ eyes/ anywhere really.

Now just weeks and weeks of salt water cleansing to ensure they heal properly... zzzz