For some girls, getting your ears pierced is a special milestone that you beg for before Mom or Dad says yes. Others have zero interest in these dainty accessories, and for many it doesn't matter what they think because they had their ears pierced shortly after they were born. Although this topic can get parents heated about whether it's ethical to pierce children's ears before they are old enough to decide if they want it, there's another important factor to consider: how and where you have it done seriously matters.
Zack Watson is a dad as well as a professional piercer and body modification specialist who is anti–piercing guns.
As both a dad and a professional piercer, Watson tries to raise awareness for piercing kids' ears safely. The talented artist from Pennsylvania is vocal online about his opinion that parents should never allow their kids' ears to be pierced with a gun in the hopes that friends and family will think twice before stopping by a mall kiosk.
Unfortunately, a client's family member ignored his advice and her baby suffered the consequences.
Watson shared on Facebook what happened. "She went to a local place in the mall and the untrained teenager used a device originally designed for tagging cattle to shove cheap foreign made jewelry into the baby's ears," Watson tells CafeMom. "The procedure obviously was botched due to a number of different reasons: 1. Piercing guns can't be properly sterilized; 2. They are not sharp enough to cut tissue but rather pulverized tissue using blunt force trauma leading to a plethora of complications during healing; 3. The jewelry is not ASTM [American Society for Testing and Materials] rated implant grade for long internal wear."
Fortunately, Watson says the baby's ear has healed, and despite scarring, she can get her ear re-pierced again later in life is she chooses. "The whole thing was pretty traumatic," he says. "They used different unclean objects to pry the cartridge off of the ear. The parents did learn a valuable lesson the hardest way imaginable."
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Watson shared the story as a reminder for why he refuses to pierce babies' ears at his shop -- only consenting kids.
"As a father as well as a recognized and respected piercing and body modification artist, we refuse to pierce babies for a few different reasons. Body autonomy is a big one," he says. "Your child is not your accessory, they are a person who will be forming opinions on how they would like to look as they grow and ethically I don't believe it's up to us to force our views upon them."
Watson also doesn't believe in piercing infants' skin when their immune system is still developing. "Immune systems are generally weaker in infants, so compromising the skin — which is the first line of defense — for purely aesthetic reasons seems silly. The risk isn't worth the reward," he says. "Also, your ears grow until the day you die. Where you pierce as an infant can shift and look terrible or prevent future stretching."
According to the Association of Professional Piercers (APP), piercing guns can't be sterilized between clients in a medically sufficient way to keep contamination, like the hepatitis virus, from being passed from one person to the next. "We consider unsafe any procedure that places vulnerable tissue in contact with either non-sterile equipment or jewelry that is not considered medically safe for long-term internal wear. Such procedures place the health of recipients at an unacceptable risk," it says on the APP's website. "While piercing guns may seem to be a quick, easy and convenient way of creating holes, they have major drawbacks in terms of sterility, tissue damage and inappropriate jewelry design."
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So if you or a loved one takes a child to get her ears pierced, don't forget Watson's golden rule: Avoid piercing guns at all costs.
If you decide to get your child's ears pierced, Watson recommends that you go to Safepiercing.org first. "Find a reputable artist such as myself that utilizes American made implant grade jewelry such as ASTM F136 titanium as well as safe designs from companies such as Neometal, Anatometal, industrial strength, or BVLA which will prevent having sharp edges which can harm the child," he says.
Watson's wife is currently pregnant with their second baby girl. Although he may not know what life with four kids is like, there's one thing he knows for sure: "She will not have her ears pierced until she is old enough to ask for them herself and have a understanding about what the procedure will entail," he says.
