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PIERCING

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CHILDREN

Ear Piercings for Children

Studio policy:

For children of 15 years old or younger, we only pierce ears. Also please note that a parental authorisation is required. It is filled apon arrival to the appointment. We ask for a piece of ID for both the child and the parent. We refuse to pierce if the parent is not present (mother or father, or legal tutor).

We pierce when children are old enough to ask for the piercings by themselves (usually around 5 years old).

We take appointments for piercings when the child is under 10 years old. Please call to make an appointment.

A full month (4 weeks) without swimming is recommended for the piercings to heal. Please keep swimming lessons in mind when making an appointment.

We pierce with a brand-new and sterilized needle. No guns! For more informations on guns, please read the following texts.

Ear Piercings for Babies

As a professional studio, the Zen Tattoo Studio does not pierce baby’s ear lobes. We accept to do this body modification as soon as the child is in age to ask for the piercings by themselves. We understand that, in Quebec, it is something that is done frequently and is often commoditized when it really shouldn’t be. We have decided to take a stand just like multiple European countries, which implies us not to pierce babies: «Piercing a hole in an ear is, in our eyes, a body injury and undermining the child’s integrity in the same way as circumcision» says Wolfam Hartmann, president of the Federation of pediatricians’ organization in Germany.

Our main goal with the following wording is simply to educate the parents or the parents-to-be who will come to think about piercing their babies’ ears: What is the point of making this modification to their bodies while they never asked for it? Is it because it looks pretty? Is it because the parents are tired of getting asked if it’s a boy or a girl? Is it because our society wants us to impose a gender to the children at a very young age?

Most parents will think it’s the best time to do it while they are still very young and won’t remember the pain, but they don’t realize that ear lobe piercings don’t hurt that much: it’s less painful than hurting your pinky toe!
Piercing a baby’s ears creates a moment of panic for the child as they’re screaming and scared, because they don’t understand what is going on. So why not make this experience pleasant and make it a great memory instead? When the children come in our studio, they get to choose the jewelry they want, they take a look at the piercings’ placement and get pierced. It’s all these decisions they make by themselves that makes it a positive and rewarding experience. It is also much easier to pierce children when they are aware of the procedure. Most of the time, they don’t even cry! They usually come out the studio with a big smile and a candy!

Greater risks for their health!

It is important not to forget that a freshly done piercing is an open wound. Even if the risks are low, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t any. Babies will tend to touch their ears with their «dirty» hands because of the itchiness caused by the piercing. This can possibly complicate the healing process if the piercings aren’t cleaned multiple times a day by the parents.

Asymmetrical piercings!

Your ear piercings are asymmetrical and uneven? It is often the result of piercings done at a too young age!
Needless to say that the skin moves as you grow up, well it is the same for the ears! A baby is at the beginning of their growth and their body will change a lot throughout the years. It is therefore possible that the two ear piercings grow out to be uneven and asymmetrical. Therefore, if your child ever wants a second ear lobe piercing, the emplacement of the first ones might complicate the process.
Moreover, during the piercing process, the baby will want to move as they’re held in an uncomfortable position by their parents as well as panicking as they don’t know what is going on. The chances for the piercings to be uneven are even greater at that moment, and as they’ll grow older, it might get worse for the reasons we mentioned before.

Say no to piercing guns!

Most of the time, piercing of baby ear lobes will be done in a jewelry store and the used instrument will be the infamous piercing gun. Unlike the piercing needle, the piercing gun is not an instrument that meets the standards of safety; it can’t be sterilized completely as it is mainly composed of plastic and non-sterilizable metal. It couldn’t pass an autoclave cycle without melting or breaking. Also, places where they used the piercing gun mostly clean it with rubbing alcohol (rubbing alcohol does NOT sterilize!). This means you’re exposing your child to blood-borne diseases.
Infants have a weak immune system, you would not want to risk putting your child's health at risk for a body decoration that they did not ask to have. Moreover, the piercing gun does no holes in the skin, but tears it and pushes the excess to the back of the ear lobe, which makes it harder to heal than if you get the piercing done with a needle.
As a professional studio, we pierce with needles only! As mentioned in the millions of articles there is on the Internet, piercings done with a needle remove a piece of skin, which allows it to heal properly around the jewelry instead of having excess skin in the back of your lobe. That excess skin can become a sort of scar tissue commonly known as keloids. Please remember that a piercing done with a needle is also less painful and heals much better and faster than a piercing done with a piercing gun.
Finally, it is important to understand that the famous piercing "gun" was originally created to put a plastic tag on the ears of cows and cattle. This is not a tool designed for piercings, whether it is for a baby, a kid or an adult.
To conclude, we hope that the arguments we elaborated will make you think twice about piercing your baby’s ears. It is not something urgent, you can wait until your child is old enough to ask you to get pierced. If they never ask, at least you did not inflict them permanent scars.