Heh heh. This was my plan, too. It seems like a good thing to let them do for a “special” birthday–like 10 or 13.
My father really didn’t want me to get my ears pierced at all. He just thinks it’s amazingly gross. But when I was 11 or 12 or so, I started asking him “Can I get my ears pierced?” every single day. I asked him only once per day, but I did it every day. One day he jokingly said yes. So my mom took me to get it done.
I don’t know who was more tired of my campaign, my mom or my dad, but it did work–eventually. I think it took me 6 months, but I finally got what I wanted.
He still thinks pierced ears are amazingly gross. So I make sure to do things like take out my earrings at the dinner table and tell him about my ear infections.
If it’s a cultural thing, I don’t really think there’s anything wrong.
But I would say no just for cosmetic reasons. Those ear gun thingies HURT! I got my ears double pierced and tried a cartiliage piercing-I had to let the cartiliage piercing close because it would not heal, and my 2nd holes closed up.
I had mine pierced when I was six. I remember my aunt took me to the mall, and we went to the Piercing Pagoda, a VERY nice jewelry place, and I picked out a pair of forty dollar pink stone studs. (My aunt was teasing me about how much they cost!). It stung a bit, but that was back in, oh, 1985, and I think they used a gun with a needle, rather than shooting the earrings straight into your ears. Then we went and had sundaes at the food court. It was a fun day for me, so I think if I have a little girl, I’ll wait until she wants them.
Ear piercing with those guns is bloody painful. Your ears get all hot and itchy and they burn…ugh.
I mean, why bother doing it? Just wait until the kid is old enough. If it’s a religious or cultural practice, that’s different. But if it’s just to make Baby look cute, that’s silly.
I got my daughter’s ears pierced when she was six months old. She slept through the whole thing and she had much less trouble with her than I did with mine, which were pierced when I was 11.
I don’t think anyone is shallow, I just think it’s silly.
I once saw a little girl getting her ears pierced while waiting at a portrait studio in the mall-the little girl was maybe about 18 months? She was screaming bloody murder.
JFTR, I, too, have ear piercings that have not healed (despite the fact that I haven’t worn an earring in the uppermost one (not quite in the cartilage) for 15 years), and that occasionally get infections.
I found a site here which actually advocates banning the use of piercing guns, because of comfort and sterility concerns. I got my ears double pierced when I was 15 (which was, curiously enough, my mom’s idea), and they used a piercing gun. And yes, it sucked. When we had my ears pierced as a baby, they used a piece of ultra-fine pure silver wire that had a needle point. After piercing, the sharp point was cut off, and the wire itself kind of looped around the bottom of the earlobe, but held flush to the skin so I couldn’t pull it off.
I asked my parents about my brother’s testimonial of my not being a happy baby during the piercing. According to my mother, I only screamed when they did the first ear, not because it hurt (and in this case, I’m assuming she could tell the difference, since parents can apparenlty distinguish between the causes of their babies’ cries from tone, pitch, etc.), but because my dad was holding me. I guess she held me when the priest pierced my other ear, and there was no problem. YMMV.
I guess my final questions here are that, for everyone who wants to wait until the child is “old enough,” what’s the right age? Until the kid can give consent?
My parent’s decision to send me to a private, rather than a public school held many more ramifications for the course of my life than their decision to get my ears pierced. Why isn’t that decision considered reprehensible, as they didn’t ask my consent (leaving all questions about culture and religion, and my posting before a shower and coffee aside)? If they don’t need my consent for something that has enormous consequences, and can in effect determine not only my future, but my personality and beliefs, why on earth do they need it for a superficial adornment?
I guess I’m just accustomed to my family, where I ask for my parents’ consent rather than the other way around.
Does piercing ears hurt in children? Mom says I cried, I don’t remember anything about it, the only thing left are the holes.
Zette, that is the reason why girl babies get their ears pierced, so that the people can distinguish it is a girl and not a boy without having the baby wrapped in pink clothing all the time.
Hmmm…well, I wish they could import something like that over here!
The only thing I would worry about with babies too might be getting the earring caught in things. It bloody KILLS. Getting my hair caught in my earings hurt like fucking hell.
Like I said, the first time I had it done, they used a gun, but it had a needle in it, and it kind of slid the needle into your ear…or something like that. Now they use these pointy studs and bam!
Define “part of a culture,” then. Everything’s part of a culture. McDonald’s is part of a culture.
If Western civilization seems to contain a belief that girls get to have earrings, does that count as “part of a culture” for you?
This is the sort of orientalist fallacy which I find either amusing or frustrating, depending on my mood: everyone’s got a culture except us, and anything they do that we don’t must be full of spooky mystical meaning. What proof would it take for you to think that pierced ears for girls is part of Western culture as well?
Thank you, matt, for articulating what my brain was too fried to. (Ahh, finals week.) I don’t have any numbers, but even from personal observation, I would think that a large portion, if not a majority of the female population of the US (and a growing percentage of the male population) have piercings, whether in their ears or elsewhere. So why is that ridculous when in my case it’s “deeper” somehow? Because parents don’t take their children to a religious figure to get their ears pierced? That, I think, would bring cries of “abuse.” So why’s it ok if a Hindu priest does it?
Maybe it’s because I’m tired, maybe I’m not making my questions clear, but I just cannot understand why the two cases are different.
I must be another freak. my ears haven’t closed since I stopped wearing pierced earrings 12 years ago. By the way some people have allergys to metals. That can cause a adult or baby alot of pain.
My mother is 66 and has never had pierced ears. The few times she wears earrings, they are clip-ons. It’s not unheard of for a woman to not have her ears pierced.
I pierced my ear myself when I was 15. I haven’t worn an earring in about 4 years and I still have the hole, though I bet it’s partially healed over.
I think the comparison to routine male circumcision in the USA is valid on some levels, as it is usually done for cosmetic reasons and before the child can give consent. Circumcision is a bigger deal, though, as you are actually removing a significant portion of a person’s anatomy, and modifying them in a way that effects the basics of how said anatomy functions.
I guess she held me when the priest pierced my other ear, and there was no problem. YMMV.