Children and Body Modification

I made the same decision as PonyPotato. Before having my first child, my feeling was that it was barbaric to pierce an infants ears. After having my first child I realized that with feedings, diaper changes, worries about rash, food allergies, teething and everything else on plate that was only baby related I wouldn't want the added stress of caring for a piercing on a newborn or infant. Consider also that allergic reactions on someone with a weak immune system, like an infant, can be disastrous if the parent can not translate one of the numerous different cries into "my ears hurt so bad I can't eat or sleep".
In the end I decided that if my children waited until they could decide for themselves it would be more meaningful for them and they would take better care of something they had thought hard about and worked for.

 

This is what amazes me! Between feeding and cleaning up all the poop and whatnot, these people have time for salt water soaks and such.

My father was rather insistent that I would wait until 16 to have my ears pierced but presumably the oppression of being the only girl without pierced ears at age 7 became too much for my parents to witness me bearing and my mother took me to have my ears pierced. I've no regrets about it now of course; in fact I wear my piercings (very) mildly stretched, but I pretty much disagree with the idea of being allowed to make that decision at such a young age.

I guess I can only speak of my own experience but after the procedure and the healing process I failed to wear anything in my ears for years anyway, so it was just some sense of peer pressure and a desire to not be the 'odd one out' that made me want it done, which are pretty poor reasons. I was still able to insert earrings later (forcibly and with mild pain, but the holes never truly disappeared). I could have had them pierced at 16 like my father would have preferred and surely life wouldn't have been much different for me in real terms, but there we are.

My parents took me to get a tattoo at 15 too and fortunately that didn't happen. I don't like to write off the emotions of my 15 year old self but I prefer my body without those feelings being visually represented.

 

My own feelings are that children should be old enough to decide for themselves before piercing or tattooing. The question then is, what age should that be?

I can't honestly get too energised our outraged about people who have their children's ears pierced. I look down on it, but don't think I'd go out of my way to stop it (nor would I object if it was outlawed).

Other piercings (facial, genital, tongue) should not be permitted until much later, in my opinion. Here, people can have any piercing that they consent to except for genital and (for women) nipple piercing at any age. For genitals and nipples, they have to be over 16 (or it's considered sexual assault). I think that is too young and I think there should be a minimum age for any piercing.

For tattoos, you need to be 18. I guess this is OK. Given that most people I know who have tattoos come to regret it at some point in their lives, I wish it was not so prevalent. But it is, and I feel much the same way about it as I do about piercing children's ears.

I think it would be helpful to have a waiting time before the planned tattoo can be made permanent. Maybe a week. Being able to get one on a whim, as some do, seems foolish to me. However, introducing that regulation isn't high on my list of priorities and I do acknowledge that it is a bit of a "nanny state" idea.

In this case, I'm glad the mother is to be prosecuted.

 

That is more or less my feeling on the subject overall.
Age is in some cases inconsequential, it is a numerical representation of the years a person has been alive. A lot can happen to a person in a short amount of time which could cause the need for critical decision making early in life.
There are 30 year olds who do not have the life experience that would qualify them to make a decision about hair color let alone a tattoo.
I frown on a lot of the interactions I see between parents and children these days; the friendship mentality being one of them. In the article mom says,"She told me to do it."
The only reason children's services was notified was because the mom had a beef with one of her in-laws and filed charges against them. The retaliated with, 'well yea, she tattoos her daughter'(paraphrased because I don't know what they actually said.)
Under those circumstances it should never have been investigated.
Of course that in itself is a whole other topic.

 

Tats? No. That's simply speaking - stupid. Hell, I have tats that are going to be covered up and I got those when I was over 18.

Piercings? Well... it depends. If it's ear piercings then I have no issues with parents getting them for their children as long as they are conscious and responsible about it. With my daughter, we waited until she was 5. Why? Because we wanted to see how her personality and demeanor would be before just following some sort of social structure. She started asking for ear piercings at age 4, but we still waited until she was 5. During that year preceding, we made sure she understood what all was involved (including being truthful that it could hurt etc) in a way she could understand. When the day arrived to get her ears pierced, we repeated everything again, and made sure it was something she really wanted. We weren't so stupid to think she understood all aspects of it, but I've raised my children to be free in their own skins as well as independent so she helped take care of them.

I think most parents are guilty of piercings just because it's "what everyone does" and they fail to let the child understand what all is involved. Naturally, this is taken out of the equation if ears are pierced as infants so it falls solely to the parents in that situation. I think that if more parents would take time to actually explain shit to their kids and allow them time to process all sides of information, we'd have more independent thinkers along with more free spirits.

This is something that is up to the parents and the children simply based on the fact that every child is different and has unique needs and mental capabilities. Simply placing an age (as others have already mentioned) on it doesn't solve anything. I'm not going to fault a parent for getting an infants ears pierced, but I can wish that more would wait and allow children to develop some and allow them to think critically before following a status quo.

 

I do not understand how any parent would let there kid get a tattoo before they are 18. Almost everyone I know that has them and got them at a young age covers them up. I am fine with ear piercing once they are old enough to take care of them. Single piercing in each ear. Now these crazy big hole things kids are putting in there ears WTF. What kind of parent would let there kid put a 1/2" hole in there ear that will never close up. My kids can go crazy and get 100 tattoo's and piercings once they are over 18.