PIERCING A HOLE IN THE SITUATION (Body Piercing)

Member Name: chrissypops

Product:	Body Piercing
Date:	28/11/01 (5301 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Umm is there any for young children and babies?

Disadvantages: Takes away the childs right to have a choice.

Did you know that some peoples opinions on ear piercing are quite dramatic? Some people don't batter an eye lid when they see a 5 month old with gold studs in, while others put it in the same category as child abuse. Well hopefully in this opinion which is about baby and children having piercing, I would like to give my view.

I trained several years ago as a Beauty Therapist with Ear piercing as part of the extra within my Diploma. I have 3 ear piercings myself, the last one funnily enough I had done to help one of my mates pass her assessment. Most people think that ear piercing is easy, nothing to it and are easy to care for. Well, to a child, it isn't and even to some adults the risk of infection is high. Why? Most infections come down to basic hygiene but others can be caused by allergies and accidental injury.

Most ear piercings that are done professionally are done with a ear piercing gun. This gun is the most sterile way to pierce ears. So 99.9% cases of infection are from the recipient and their handling of their ear rings. Lets face it, the gun has to be sterile because we have a lot more than basic infections to worry about which are HIV and Hepatitis

HIV....... the risk of contracting HIV through ear piercing is small because the virus dies after a few seconds once it has come into contact with oxygen.

Hepatitis - studies have shown that hepatitis can be transmitted through ear piercing. Hepatitis can survive for more than a week on an unsterilised ear piercing instrument, it is not even necessary to have any traces of blood on the instrument for hepatitis to be present


With an ear piercing gun this has been minimized by the fact that the ear is pierced not by a needle but by the stud stem itself. The studs also come in blistered packaging which is only opened when the studs are going to be used. They are within a plastic container which makes it possible to load the gun with the stud and the
back without handling the stud at all. Most professionals also wear gloves during this procedure again to minimize the risk of infection. The gun has to be cleaned EVERY time it is used. Either by through an autoclave, with uses UV rays to kill bacteria or is scrubbed using an anti bacterial spray

Normally the ears wiped over with an antiseptic swab and are marked with a small dot so the client can see where the stud is going. If the client is ok with the mark, the gun is lined up with the mark and then the trigger is released. It doesn't even take a second and your stud with the back securely on is in your ear. Like I said before it looks easy but it isn't. You have to make sure the gun is at right angles so the stud goes into the ear straight and not at an angle. The other big problem with ear piercing is whether the stud goes through the ear lobe. I have seem many clients with fat and thin ear lobes and you have to make sure that the stud is properly placed in the gun. Once I had a stud which had only gone ¾ of the way through the ear. I did ask my client whether she wanted to wait till the hole had healed and I would redo it or to push it through. She said it would be ok to push it through. Now has anyone tried to do their own ears with a needle or anything? Well I did when I was 11 and it was really painful. Goodness knows what this young lady felt but she insisted she was ok throughout.
Usually you are given a care leaflet and some anti bacterial spray to help the healing process. Most places include the anti bacterial spray within the price, some don't, so remember to ask. You are asked to just turn your studs 2 x daily for 6 weeks and wipe the back over with the lotion of stray. No more or less, just twice a day and this is wear people go wrong. Young children and many adults fiddle and play with their new fangled jewelry which leads to infection. Also if you or your child has long hair as it needs to be tired back as it will get
twisted in the back of the stud and again cause infection.

Now having run through the basic procedure of ear piercing and boring you silly. I want to tackle the issue of children and baby ear piercings. At this current time, the government hasn't got an legislation on and age for piercings, including body piercings, providing the child has parental consent. This means even a baby of 4 months old can be taken into a salon and have their ears done. Keep in mind that that consent can come from a 14 year old brother, sister, friend or anyone!

Ear piercing has continually been the subject of controversy. Should you be able to make the decision of having your child's ears pierced? Or should your child make their own decision when they get older?
Those who believe that parents can make the decision to have their child's ears pierced feel that it is better to perform this particular piercing at a young age. They believe that as the child gets older, the piercing will hurt that much more. If it is performed at a young age, then the child will forget the pain relatively quickly. A few parents can remember getting their ears pierced and they want to spare their child the pain of having it done when they get older and can remember more. Some parents also believe the ear piercing will forever end the problem of gender identity when a child is young. A baby girl with her ears pierced will no longer be mistaken for a baby boy.
Those who are against piercing a child's ears until they can make the decision for themselves believe that the pain caused by the piercing should be a definite argument against piercing the ears at a young age. When an infant or young child has their ears pierced, the people performing the piercing each take one ear and pierce them at the same time. They believe that if they performed the piercing with one ear at a time, then after the first ear was done, the child would never sit still for the second ear. Hav
ing both ears done at the same time causes even more pain then if one was done at a time. Those against young piercing believe that the pain of the piercing can cause a baby to go into shock. They feel it is a barbaric ritual that is forced upon a child because the parents feel the baby will look cute.
The piercing of a little boy's ears is also becoming more and more common. Though not usually seen as a baby, it is not out of the ordinary to see a young boy with one or both ears pierced. Did this boy make the decision to have his ears pierced? Or did his parents decide it was in fashion?

Now with the decision making out of the way how about hygiene? Basic hygiene. You know wash hands before and after toilet, before eating and if you play in the mud. Tell me, honestly, can anyone tell me that their toddlers hygiene is over 90%? Of course is isn't and to be honest most adults hygiene is much to be desired. So toddlers and even children to about 9 or 10 years of age, will twiddle with their studs with dirty hands, microbes are transferred and next think you know you have a pus filled, sore, bleeding ear in which your child is yelling "get it out! " Children also can't clean their own piercings, which leave you do it . Twice daily. The trouble is that the piercing will be for at least 6 weeks while the wound is fresh, so your child is hardly wanting you to sit and clean it are they?
Back when I had my ears first pierced ( I was about 5), the studs were not safety studs. This means that most stubs have a small groove at the back which stops you from pressing the butterfly back to far onto the ear. As with all children, and its the adults fault really, once they have their new stubs, they are petrified that they will lose them. Mainly because they have been told that they were expensive. So what does that child do? Presses the back in really tight to the ear. Now although most stubs are safely studs now, I can remember about
7 years ago, my step mum had to go into hospital for a minor operation on her ear. My dad had brought her a set of Tigers eye studs from a jewelers. Over a period of 6 months, she had pressed the back on so tight, she had forced it over the grove and it had imbedded into her lobe. They had to cut her ear from the hole straight down to get the stud out and then stitch her lobe back together. What you like your young child to go through that?
If you do choose to have your child's ears pierced, whether they are a boy or a girl, there are certain important things to remember. Look for a place that specializes in infant piercing and uses sterilized equipment. It usually is better to have your child's ears done at the same time to avoid problems. Buy earrings that are specially made for infants so that the back of the earrings will not injure your baby's head. Always follow the directions that you are given regarding the cleaning of your child's ears and earrings.

What about choking? If I child can get an ear ring or stud off who knows what they could do with it. There's is a risk of choking, sticking it up their nose or in the ear canal. This might sound over the top but when all things are said and done, its these things that you expect you toddler or young child not to do, and they go and do it. Hey, I was playing with my nanny's wedding ring as she pasted over when I was 11. Was messing about with it one day tried to get it off my finger. put my finger in my mouth and "pop" down my throat it went!! Luckily is was 22 carat gold and GP said that I was lucky I had a big gullet???!!! and it would pass through the system. With earrings and studs, the ends are blunt, just think what damage it could do if swallowed, or stuck somewhere were it shouldn't be.

Allergies are quite a common complaint with any piercings. Its not usually linked to the studs which are used for ear piercing but due to the cheap earrings whi
ch replace them. Ear piercings have to be done with gold plated studs, which are strong enough to cope with the force in which the stud is sent through the lobe. If a piercing was done with pure gold studs, they would bend or break. The most common allergy is cheap costume earrings which contain nickel. You might think that an allergic reaction can be detected right away but sometimes it can take years of wearing these cheap earrings before all of a sudden you start to get a reaction. This reaction might be just a minor itch to a complete rash down the side of your neck. If you find a certain pair of earrings or studs brings a reaction on DON'T WEAR THEM. If they are drop earrings you can ask you jewelers to change the post that goes through the ear. The EC is introducing regulations to restrict the amount of nickel in jewelry which can get in contact with your skin. From January 1996 all wholesalers' supplies must meet these regulations so nickel allergy has calmed down a lot in these resent years. If your child gets a reaction to any stubs , again remove them and try and buy hypo allergic studs. On rare occasions some children and adults are allergic to gold or silver and again can make wearing earrings uncomfortable. So again switch to hypo allergic studs and earrings. They might be slightly more expensive but it saves the money in the long run, and of course your ears.

So explaining all that I will put forward that for the last 6 years, when I have been working within a salon or outside ( you have to have authorization by local authority to do mobile ear piercing). I refuse to pierce any child's ears under the age of 6 years. Some salons and jewelers will do toddlers and young babies but I feel that apart from the health and safety aspect, you could damage the development of the ear lobe. To pierce a young babies ears is taken away their right to make their own choice about ear piercing later in life. I know some cultures have their children
ears or nose done but this is mainly out of tradition not religion. I feel although that the parents in general might think their child looks " sweet, cute " and "girlie" I feel that a child under the age of 6 is just too young to understand the implications of hygiene, safety and looking after them. I have even witnessed a few days ago in Claire's Accessories, a mum pinning her child down while the lady attempted the pierce the young girls ears. If that were me, any sign of squirming and I would of refused to do it. As it determents health and safety. What would of happened if the lady slipped and it had gone through the upper part of the lobe? Yes you guessed it, the mother would of blamed her and Claire's would be in a court in next to no time.

I know some children do ask for their ears pierced but I would still be inclined to wait until they were at least 6 or 7 years old. At least they have a fairly sensible attitude were hygiene is concerned as well as looking after them. The choice is yours but remember just because your 3 yr old has asked for her ears to be pierced doesnt mean you have to jump to it, it is ok to say no afterall.After saying all this when it comes to ear piercing the choice is down the parent and child.

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