dd2 (14 yo) has just had a piercing without my consent [shock] . Is this legal?

[CoffeeCrazedMama]

To my I have just noticed that she was sporting a gold stud in the top of her ear. I was hoping she would say 'keep your wig on its only a magnetic one' but its not.

She told me she had it done in a local jewellers. She knows the trouble I went to to find somewhere hygenic when she had her earlobes done at 13, and yet she waltzes into this place (its really grubby too) and gets them done. While in her school uniform. They didn't ask her name, nor give her any surgical spirit (which the lovely place we chose for her lobes did do).

I am absolutely that they did them without asking her age or insisting on an adult accompanying her. Dd1 (who is 16) says Claires (about whom I've always been a bit snippy) wouldn't do her friend because they didn't believe she was 16. I'm so upset, I don't know where to take it. Trading standards? Anyone know?

Apparently there is no legal age limit

See here

It is all down to the salon's policy

orry, apparently parent conset in required
'
If the customer is under 16 then the parent/guardian must sign the consent form in your
presence before the procedure takes place.'

Actually Kama's link states that if under 16 the parent should sign the consent form.

This thread from a chat room is interesting and gives quite a lot of info about best practice

Thanks for that Ming. It still says under 16s should be accompanied, though. Clearly just a protocol, not the law. I'm . Makes me worried that they are so negligent there is not an under age policy (and no surgical spirit). I am always so careful about these sorts of things and she knows that.

She's taken it out, saying she regrets it now. Well done dd - that's why these things should be conditional on adult consent, and not the whims of hormonal teenagers!

Thanks for the thread link too.

Illegal, if she is under 16. I'd go to the jewellers and read them the riot act

I don't think many places follow the rules even if it were illegal.

I had my first tattoo at 16. The guy asked if I was 18. I said yes but didn't have any id. He asked me to sign a form to say that he had seen my passport and I was 18

The tattooists I went to was the most reputable in our town

Make a complaint against them to your local council and be glad it was just an earring

It could have been a lot worse.

I think I will ring local trading standards on Monday. Got to at least rattle their chain. I know it sounds melodramatic, but this has made be feel really sick - I thought it was bad when she bleached her hair. (And when she was sick of it I had to pay to have it dyed back.) As you might have guessed, she is my rebel. And spoilt

Have spoken to the centralised consumer advice place that all councils have outsourced their trading standards enquiries too.

They are going to refer it on to the trading standards dept, who will apparently visit the shop. When, I wonder? They won't be able to contact me to let me know the outcome, due to lack of resources.

The guy I spoke to agreed with me that it was assault and that I should speak to the police. I am a bit nervous about doing that and dh is sceptical as to what good it will do. So at dd for creating this situation.

The thing is, 14 yos are not very sensible creatures,and prone to rash actions, and that is why parental permission is needed for anything important. FHS, I have to sign a permission slip for her to attend school sports day, yet some twit in a grotty shop can pierce her ear without my say so.