The guys I know always have both (or, less often, neither). But yeah, I never see baby boys with pierced ears.
I’m expecting that anytime now.
No, in the 80’s there was a whole “Left is right, right is wrong” thing :rolleyes: that doesn’t apply today.
My ears were pierced when I was 12, on Easter Sunday. My grandma was taking my mother and I to have it done. My mother chickened out. I never had a problem with them. I made the same rule for our daughter: it seemed like 12 was a decent age. She hasn’t asked yet, and she turned 12 in June. She wanted a basketball more.
Personally, piercing a baby’s ears is akin to scribbling on artwork, or folding down the corner of a page in a book.
Because we come out damaged?
No. Because it’s the unnecessary, performed by the unthinking.
What interest does a baby have in jewellery?
I saw a 9 month old girl at Wally*World this week with stud earrings. At least mom was smart enough to not put in hoops or dangles.
WHoever said it doesn’t hurt is full of it, it’s not like clipping a finger nail! :dubious:
No way would I pierce the soft, fuzzy, milky skin of my baby 
I waited until she bargained for permission to get it done at age 10. 
It’s a traditional thing in my daughter’s father’s Mexican culture but he decided against it because he said he couldn’t imagine hurting her like that, no matter how briefly. I didn’t want to do it anyway because I think it’s ridiculous to decorate a baby like that. It’s one thing to put them in cute clothes but putting holes in them for decoration is completely unnecessary.
His mama fussed when we sent her first birthday pictures. She said our daughter was going to suffer for it. What the hell does that even mean,* suffer for it*? I guess it’s the Mexican equivalent of the circumcision thing. Which, by the way, we also decided against when we thought our unborn daughter was a boy.
My brother and sister-in-law got both my nieces’ ears pierced right away. My sister-in-law comes from a Brazilian family. It was a little shocking to see itty bitty babies with studs and I was kind of worried that the babies would tug them, rip them out or manage to swallow a piece, but it’s apparently not an issue. At 4 and 2, they are both adorably girly girls and like their earrings. I don’t think I would do it to my newborn (my mom made me wait until I was 11) but I don’t think it’s a big deal anymore.
It was in my case, and apparently in my daughter’s as well.
No blood, no pain.
Regards,
Shodan
My MIL and her sister had their ears pierced when they were in their forties. My husband and his brother held their hands.
They were very brave. (The MIL and her sister.)
No info on whether lollipops ensued.
I didn’t think it hurt enough to mention any of the 12 times I’ve done it, but I guess I was mistaken. My daughter didn’t seem to think so either. She cried more when they drew the dots on her ears than when they did the actual piercing. But babies are wrong a lot.
We’ve talked this topic in the ground a million times.
It’s just a hole.
Yes, I am aware that some people have metal allergies.
Or that piercings can get infected.
Or a myriad of other low-risk bad things can happen.
But we are a society where a freakin’ large segment of the population thinks it’s alright to chop off the foreskin of infant penii.
Some do it for hygienic reasons. But a whole heap of 'em do it because of culture and “It’s just what we do.” Of course they won’t admit as much. No one wants to admit to doing stuff just because everyone else around them does it and they don’t want to be the odd man out.
I got my ears pierced when I was six. It was non-consensual…not the result of me asking for the procedure. One of my aunts, who I rarely got to see, took my sis and I to the mall to get it done. I think it was her way of having a special “experience” with us. I don’t remember a single thing about it except that she was happy (don’t know what my mother felt about it). I don’t even remember being afraid or feeling the pain afterwards. And you know what? My aunt has been dead for a long time, and I don’t have many memories of her. But I will always have those piercings because of her. Not too many people can say they’ve left such a “mark” on me.
I’m the last thing from a girly-girl, but I have no regrets about my piercings. Occasionally I do wear earrings and it’s nice to have the holes. If it had been left to me, I would have never gotten it done because I’m lazy like that. My life wouldn’t have been ruined, but like I said. It’s nice to be able to wear earrings. And not just those heavy-ass clip-on kind.
I think some people must believe there’s something sexual about earrings. That’s the only reason why I can think that anyone would get worked up about such a relatively harmless custom. Let them snip away at the boys, but oh noes! Leave the little girls alone!
As far as the ethnicity thing goes, it’s not an uncommon practice about black Americans either.
People (including Dopers on this very board) make that argument all the time regarding male circumcision. At least if you take the earings out the holes can close back up. Foreskin doesn’t grow back.
I went to school with a set of indentical twin boys; one of whom was circumcised & the other left intact for this very reason. By the time I met them (grade 1) their mother could easily tell them apart without pulling their pants down.
glad the wearer cant see the mispelilgn… 
In states where it’s legal for a minor to be tattooed, they require tattoo artists to have notarized consent forms from the parents. At least that’s my artist does as a professional. He also is more willing to tattoo a minor if the parent comes in with the paperwork rather than the minor coming in with notarized papers and no parents present. This isn’t always the case, though, as we can see by the tattoo done by CitizenPained’s student’s parent. (That work was most likely done by an unlicensed tattoo artist, as the work is very poorly done and looks like there may not have been a standard tattoo ink used. Blotchy, uneven and misspelled? Yikes!)
Ear piercing of infants isn’t terribly uncommon IME, but, like others have mentioned, tends to cluster around different ethnic groups as a cultural practice. I don’t see a problem with it, as it’s relatively minor as far as culturally mandated body modifications go. It’s not like we’re suggesting female genital circumcision here.
In Spain it’s standard to pierce female babies’ ears, I think if you don’t want it done you have to warn the medical team in advance. You can also ask to have a baby boy’s ears pierced, but that’s rarer and likely to lead to confusion since people will look at a baby’s ears to try and figure out its gender if the clothing doesn’t proclaim it.
The Kidlette is 3yo as of this month and her ears are pierced; one of my own baptism presents was a baby-sized set of pearls. The 9yo son of a friend got his ears pierced at 6 because he was wearing faralaes to a school party and he didn’t like any of the clip-on earrings, the ones he wanted required piercings (the dress belonged to his big cousin and he’d wanted to wear it since she’d first got it).
People have this kind of information on hand? I have several piercings in my ears, and even if somebody asked me where she could have hers pierced, I’d be like, “I dunno. Google it.”