Booking Your Child’s Piercing
Your child’s piercing experience is something we are honoured to be a part of! If this is their first piercing, it is one of the first decisions that they make about their own body and this is very exciting. Our experience with children’s piercings has brought us to develop a plan for a fun and successful piercing and a good experience for everyone involved. Put your faith in us and our system!
Age
We do not pierce children younger than 5 years old.
Consultations Required
Our policy for piercing children aged 5 – 9 years old is that we have a mandatory free consultation with the parent(s) and child. If everything goes well during the consultation, we have a mandatory waiting period of 24 hours before we will perform the piercing as we want to ensure the child is certain. It is mandatory that you make an appointment for the consultation and only after the consultation will we book an appointment for the piercing. We do not book consultations until the child is 5 years old.
Other Family Members
The consultation must be held with the parent(s) and the child. If a relative such as an aunt, uncle, or a grandparent will be bringing the child the day of the piercing without the parent(s), they must attend the day of the consult with the parent(s) and child. On the day of the consult, all adults must bring their governmental photo IDs (it would be best to bring the child’s ID on this day too) so that a copy can be made and an “authorization of transfer of responsibility” document signed. If not, we will not be able to perform the piercing for the child on that day and deposits will be forfeited as we require parental consent and pre-authorization.
Ready or Not?
Please note that regardless of age that sometimes children are just not ready for the piercing whether they say they are to you or not. We have several indicators that we will observe during the time of the consultation to determine if your child is ready. It is important to understand that if it is decided that your child is not ready, we are not “refusing your child” nor is anything intended to be offensive. We have both your child’s and our piercer’s best interests in mind and we want it to be a positive experience for all of us.
If the piercer feels the child is ready we will go ahead with booking the appointment.
Plan for the Day
When booking the piercing, we suggest that you choose a day that there are no activities planned before and after the piercing and you can just return home and relax. Be certain that you are not planning the piercing the same day as a birthday party, gathering of any sort, or when there are a lot of errands to do.
Night before the piercing
A good meal and a good night’s sleep is very important! No slumber parties or sleepovers.
Day of the piercing
If naps are still happening, make sure the nap is taken before the appointment. No sugar, candy, or caffeine before the piercing. A good nutritious meal within two hours of the start of the appointment.
Freezing/Numbing Cream
For younger children, we recommend that you use a numbing product like Emla. You must ensure that you apply this correctly and use the Tegaderm bandage with it so that you seal off the area in order for the cream to work properly. You will apply this one hour before the appointment and we will remove the bandage in the piercing room.
Coach Your Child
Make sure that you speak with your child about the piercing in a positive and uplifting tone. Use phrases like “It’s going to be fun”, “It will look so beautiful”, “It will look so cool”, “You are making a big girl/boy decision”. Avoid saying things like “It will hurt, but only for a second” as kids tend to only remember the first part and may fixate on the pain factor.
Only One Parent in the Room
We want to have as peaceful of an environment as possible in the piercing room and to promote this we only allow one parent in the room with the child.
Your Behaviour in the Room
As a parent, sometimes it is difficult to release control and we need you to take a step back and play a supporting role instead of a primary one. When you are in the piercing room, the piercer will be in charge of the flow and speaking with your child. Kids will be distracted if you are continually repeating what the piercer is saying, if you try to coach your child’s breathing during the piercing procedure, or if you interrupt conversations between the piercer and child. We know you think you are just trying to help, but this will distract the piercer and we need to focus to do our jobs.
Please respect our workspace as you would a trip to the dentist. You have put your trust in us and our environment is set up to do our best work for our clients not to turn everything upside down because you may want it a certain way.
Leave other family members at home
We prefer that you do not have other family members or friends waiting in the reception area as we are not equipped to accommodate more than one person accompanying clients to their appointment. As well, this tends to be distracting for all involved. There are many places in the neighbourhood to visit during the appointment if people are coming with you.
Photos and Videos
Photos and videos are not allowed during the piercing process. However, photos before and after are encouraged!
Nervous and Refusal
Sometimes kids are nervous and decide on the day of the piercing that they are not ready. This is why we have our free consultation requirement before the piercing appointment. This helps your child become familiar with the environment and the piercer. As well, you must do the work to ensure it is a positive and uplifting experience for your child in the days before the appointment.
In the rare case that your child decides they are not ready on this day, our standard deposit forfeit policy applies.
Don’t Touch the Pierced Area
One of the biggest causes of problems with body piercing healing is people touching new piercings. Please talk with your child about this and even practice with them to not touch their ears in the days leading up to the appointment. This will help prepare them for after the piercing.
No Gifts of Jewelry
Young immune systems could be susceptible to developing permanent lifelong sensitivities or allergies to low-quality metals or materials not intended for long term wear in the human body. You are making this health choice for your child so we recommend that you act responsibly. Many commercial retailers and jewelry stores sell very low-quality metals and cheaply alloyed gold that can be mixed with nickel and cadmium which could create problems.
It is important to know that sometimes a person does not have an immediate reaction to jewelry like they would to an allergy, but they can develop sensitivity over time due to prolonged exposure. This happens a lot in the medical industry with latex gloves and is one of the reasons they are not used as widely as they were before.
See this article from the Mayo Clinic ( Click Here )
Our best recommendation is to convince anyone who wants to purchase your child gifts of jewelry to instead purchase a gift certificate from our studio.
Jewelry Quality is Extremely Important
Please see our Jewelry Quality section to familiarize yourself with what we sell at the studio.
Swimming, Sports, and Other Activities
Our aftercare sheets recommend avoiding soaking the newly pierced area in bathtubs, jacuzzis, swimming pools, lakes, rivers, and oceans during the healing period. This is really the best precaution and we understand that people will eventually swim before the healing period is over or even early on during this time. Our best recommendation is that you ensure you are vigilant with all of the instructions detailed in our aftercare section. No slacking off on your aftercare!
Other sports may require that jewelry is removed. During the long term healing period of 9 months to a year, the jewelry should not be removed as you risk tearing the inside of the piercing channel and introducing bacteria and risking infection. Using sterile non-stick bandages like Tegaderm over top of the ear lobes during a soccer game, for example, is the best solution for this.
Lifestyle Changes
Hygiene is critical during the initial healing period. No touching the area around the piercing, not going to bed with wet hair, and changing bedding sheets often are some examples of lifestyle considerations covered in our aftercare recommendations that you should be prepared to accommodate before having the piercing performed.