The nurse at my daughter’s school phoned me today. She is extremely concerned about her infected ear. She could not believe that I hadn’t gone with her to check the hygiene of the place or that they had pierced her ear without asking her age and pointed out that she did in fact have a cartilage piercing, rather than a lobe piercing (although it is very low rather than at the top of the ear).
Apparently in England and Wales there is no statutory age limit for cosmetic piercing although some local councils have used licensing powers to impose licence conditions relating to the age of the client. For example our local council only allows ear, nose and navel piercings in people under 18.
People between 16 and 18 need to show proof of ID or an adult’s consent and children under 16 must by law, have a parent or a guardian with them. “Complications were reported in more than a quarter of all piercings” she told me.
She said that according to my daughter when she asked her a list of questions;
He did not use a clean pair of disposable surgical gloves
He did not wash his hands
The shop was not clean
His instruments weren’t in a steriliser
The earring wasn’t taken from an unopened box
She wasn’t asked if she had any medical conditions such as HIV/AIDS or hepatitis.
She wasn’t asked her age
She wasn’t asked where her parents were
..and so on until I was feeling like the worst mother in the world. She made me worry that she might have a bacterial infection or an abscess which might develop into septicaemia or toxic shock syndrome which can be very serious or even fatal. I told her that I thought it was just a localised infection around the hole, but decided not to mention the fact that I was hoping it was just enough to put her off poking holes all over the rest of her body. “I’ve told her to come in every day to see me”, she said, “so that I can monitor it and I suggest you find out the name of the establishment and speak to them. They are breaking the law”.
Good grief. I didn’t like to tell her that at the age of 14 my friend pierced my ear with a safety pin after anaesthetising my earlobe between two “popsies” which was our term in Hong Kong for ice lollies and I decided against telling her about how my son pierced her ear last New Year’s Eve in a similar manner.
She came back from school with lots of highlighted information, including:
“Ear cartilage piercings are riskier than ear lobe piercings. If the site becomes infected, the complications are much more serious. The main risk is a painful abscess, following a bacterial infection. It happens because the skin is very close to the underlying cartilage and pus can become trapped. Antibiotics are not successful in treating this problem and surgery is usually required to remove the affected cartilage”.
At least under English law “people under 16 cannot have their genitals pierced, as this is regarded as indecent assault to which the customer cannot legally consent” (phew). The same applies to female breast piercings. But boys under 16 can have their nipples pierced.
She seems fine anyway. No temperature or anything. She’s just finished using my computer to do her homework. I have had to close several tabs: “answers.com” and “google translate” where she has typed a whole paragraph in French into a “translate into English” box. This is not good. Is that actually cheating do you think? Or don’t they mind these days? Do they actually have to work anything out for themselves anymore? I tried to tell her that I had to walk 12 miles to the nearest house to borrow the full set of Encyclopedia Britannica and carry them back barefoot with them all on my back if I wanted to find out any information, but she wasn’t interested.
Chic Mama
January 12, 2010Ouch…hope it gets better soon.
I absolutely love your attitude. :0)
Jon Storey
January 12, 2010Why young girls and it appears, young boys want to disfigure themselves is beyond me. Ok, I am a boring old fart I know, but why?
Expat Mum
January 12, 2010Ooh nasty. BTW, my kids get bollocked if they’re caught using those translatey web sites – by the school, that is.
allie
January 13, 2010Flip – the place she went to sounds like a dive!
But if there’s no temp, its probably going to heal quickly.
Had to laugh at your final sentence – DH used to tell our kids that he had to stand on a chair
and wash mountains of dishes when he was a toddler.
They weren’t impressed either –
Eclipse
January 13, 2010Hehe if the google translate for english to french is as bad as the english to finnish version then it will be blatantly obvious that she has used a translation machine to do her french homework.
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