piercing and boys

[pierced mom]

piercing for boys or girls is fine if they choose it, my problem is when children are forced to pierced as babies. every person should have the right to choose for themseleves when they are at an age to understand whats involved.

[Guest]

I'd always secretly wanted to have my ears pierced.

After reading all the postings last night i decided to come clean and confessed to my wife that i wanted to have my ears done. To my surprise my wife was very supportive and we went down to the local Claires store today. After a couple of minutues i left the store with two new cubic zirconia studs one in each ear.

i wish i'd had it done years ago and to the rest of you boys that want to have it done, just go for it.

[Helen2]

Pierced Mom,
Totally agree with you, I think the desire to wear earrings has to come from the individual however I see nothing wrong in suggesting the possibility of wearing earrings to somebody as i did with Brian. I do not agree with having babies ears pierced male or female, James is 8 years old and totally understood what he was having done. I think it would be nice if it became the norm for boys to have their ears pierced as children as girls do now. Since James had his ears done last Sunday I have been thinking that perhaps I should have suggested it to him earlier, maybe before he started school. I say this because yesterday he came home from school saying that his PE teacher had told him to remove his earrings before his PE lesson, James told the teacher that he was not allowed to remove them so the teacher did not allow him to partake in the lesson. Obviously once the six weeks healing period is over it will be OK but now I cannot help wondering whether I should have said no to him having his ears pierced at all or whether I should have had him pierced at 4 / 5 years old before he started school.
I asked James whether he wanted me to remove his studs and let his ears heal but he said no.
Does anyone know whether 6 weeks is always necessary, I have heard of some people only keeping their piercing studs in for 3 or 4 weeks, its 25 years since I had my ears pierced so I cannot remember how long I kept my studs in.
Any help on this one would be appreciated.
Thanks!!!

[Hargrave]

Helen2,
Hmm, this is a bit of a tricky one. Six weeks is the usually recommended healing period and I think it would be sensible not to unduly rush the process along. Schools these days tend to be pretty hot on "health & safety" where PE is concerned, hence the requirement to remove jewellery. It looks like James will have to sit out his PE classes for the next 6 weeks. Alternatively will the school let James put some sticking plasters over his lobes for PE ? I think other schools allow this ? The trouble is that James will look a bit daft and he might not be keen on it.

Usually schools recommend that pupils get their ears pierced at the start of the summer holidays, so that by the beginning of the autumn term the ears have healed up nicely and earrings can be taken out safely. Prehaps James could take his studs out now and let his lobes heal up, to keep the PE teacher happy, and then at the start of the holidays you can take him to have his ears pierced again ?

[Pierced Mom]

Helen 2,

I totally agree with you regarding James, most eight year olds can understand the process and choose for themselves. I also see nothing wrong with suggestion as it can always be refused, still giving the individual the choice.
As for the school thing, my sons school allows boys/girls to wear a small plain stud/s. My advice is either let him use a plaster or sit out PE for the next 6 weeks, letting him heal now only to be re-done in the sumer hols would be unfair to James plus I would be concerned about keloid scarring as I am sure there is an increased risk if one is re-pierced

[Helen2]

Thanks Hargrave,
I understand the reasons why the school do not like pupils to wear earrings while doing PE. I feel really stupid now that I did not think of this problem on Sunday, I just got carried away with the situation at the time. I am sure James will not want to give up his earrings now even if I say he can have them re-pierced at the start of the summer holidays. I think his best friend is having his ears pierced this weekend because his mother was asking me where I had James done. She ended the conversation by saying that she would take Jack down to Claires at the weekend. If that happens then i think James will feel happier not sitting out PE on his own.
We shall see.

[Helen2]

Thanks Pierced Mom,
James is home from school now and I have just spoken to him and he is determined that his ear lobes remain pierced. James's school insists on the earrings being removed for PE, tape covering them up is not allowed.
James said he likes PE but its worth missing 6 lessons to make sure my ears heal properly.
I gave him a hug and told him that his ears looked great and the 6 weeks would over before he knows it

[WILL]

hey my names will im 14 and about 3 months ago i got mny ear pierced, tomorrow i am going to get the same ear pierced again beside the white gold stud in my earlobe anyway yeah it was kind of wierd getting them done because it was at peoples and its a really girly store it kinda felt uncomfortable but its worth it BE YOURSELF!

[exRocker]

Why would you let your young sons get their ears pierced, it's stupid and it looks horrible when they go for job interviews. Take it from me, i am a male with 5 total earring holes and 3 tattoos, teach them right, tell them no.

[Guest]

I am a 35 year old male and I wear 3 earrings in each lobe and one earring in the top of each ear. I change my earrings every day and I must have about 40 pairs of various style studs and small and medium sized hoops, I have been wearing earrings for over 20 years now (started with just my left ear done and gradually got more over the years)

I think earrings look good on anyone, male or female and if you like earrings then go for it, who cares what anyone else thinks, its you body and you may do with it whatever you like.

[linda s]

Helen 2,
You shoud be careful not to take out James's studs too early, my daughter had her ears pierced at a similar age to James. Everything was OK with her ears but when she went back to Claires to have them checked after six weeks the ears were not quite healed. We had to be careful to make sure she wore earrings nearly all the time. She left them out one time for a day after doing PE at school and we had real problems getting the studs back in.
We have found the best solution is to put the piercing studs back in at bedtime for the first 6 months after piercing. She has not had any problems since she has being doing this. Although i think for boys this is maybe not so much of a problem because i think boys are happy to wear the piercing studs most of time anyway. My husband even prefers to wear piercing studs because he says they are more comfortable especially when in bed.

[Guest]

Thanks Pierced Mom,
James is home from school now and I have just spoken to him and he is determined that his ear lobes remain pierced. James's school insists on the earrings being removed for PE, tape covering them up is not allowed.
James said he likes PE but its worth missing 6 lessons to make sure my ears heal properly.
I gave him a hug and told him that his ears looked great and the 6 weeks would over before he knows it

Helen:

A nice hug! I'm sure he thinks it's worth missing a few PE lessons!
Lovely, isn't it? Take care.

[Helen2]

James best friend Jack had his ears pierced at Claires last Saturday so James and Jack will sit out PE together for the next few weeks. I spoke to Jack's mother yesterday when I picked up James from school, she said Jack had a few tears as the studs went in but the two girls doing the piercing were really good with him so he soon started smiling again.
Jack has had little diamond style studs put in, James also asked for these studs but i wanted him to be pierced with the gold ball studs because i think they look better for all occasions. I have promised to buy James some diamond studs for when he takes out his piercing studs. I will take linda's advise and make sure he wears his piercing studs at bedtime. Its amazing he has had pierced ears for 9 days and he says he hardly knows he is wearing them and Brian says the same.

[Hargrave]

Helen2,
I know just what James and Brian mean when they say that they can hardly feel that they are wearing studs. It's a weird sensation because you know that the studs are there but you can't "feel" them. I found that I was taking every opportunity I could to catch my reflection to see them. I also had to exercise a great deal of willpower not to touch them unnecessarily - fiddling with the studs is a big no-no during the healing process.
I glad to learn that everything went all right with Jack - James now has some company on that PE bench. You never know, James may have started a trend at school and that bench could fill up !

[Guest]

James best friend Jack had his ears pierced at Claires last Saturday so James and Jack will sit out PE together for the next few weeks. I spoke to Jack's mother yesterday when I picked up James from school, she said Jack had a few tears as the studs went in but the two girls doing the piercing were really good with him so he soon started smiling again.
Jack has had little diamond style studs put in, James also asked for these studs but i wanted him to be pierced with the gold ball studs because i think they look better for all occasions. I have promised to buy James some diamond studs for when he takes out his piercing studs. I will take linda's advise and make sure he wears his piercing studs at bedtime. Its amazing he has had pierced ears for 9 days and he says he hardly knows he is wearing them and Brian says the same.

Helen2:

It's very catching, isn't it?

One boy gets them done, another boy wants them done as well.

In no time their friends want them done also.

It's ever so nice, isn't it Helen?