What is your Body Piercing Policy?

[Anonymous]

I'm particularly interested in hearing about facial piercings besides earlobes (nose, ear cartilage, eyebrow, lip) and navel piercings.

My teen says that it's her body and that the scar would be minimal if she ever changed her mind. I have said no so far, but I have to agree that she has a point.

Have you let your teen get body piercings and, if so, any lessons learned? Or, if you have said no, what was your rationale?

[Anonymous]

My 14 (soon to be 15) yo has three earrings in each ear - has for years. This summer I let her her her nose pierced with a small stud. Looks great. She’s working toward getting the bar in her upper ear, but will hold off on that for a little while.
Piercings aren’t permanent, so they’re NBD to me. Tattoos would be another story. She’ll have to wait until she’s 18 if she wants one of those.

[Anonymous]

Wait until 18. Or until they earn their own money to pay for it.

[Anonymous]

When our DD was pushing for a nose piercing we said no for over a year. The day she got her first college acceptance, we took her to a tattoo shop. She's had a tiny stud for about 8 years now.

I don't love it, but it's REALLY tiny and don't hate it.

[Anonymous]

Make them pay.

I would make them wait til age 18 for anything but ears. Boy or girl.

Hair on the other hand have at it, any color is fine by me.

[Anonymous]

Regular ear piercings but anything else has to wait until they're 18 and pay for it themselves. We've gone over extensively the piercings that can be more problematic like tongue piercings.

[Anonymous]

She can get as many as she wants on her ear and if she wanted her navel or nose pierced I'd allow it at 16. Other than that she has to wait until she's 18. I personally think all other facial piercings like lip, eyebrow, tongue, etc, are trashy-looking so really the only reason is I wouldn't want to look at it so I'm not giving permission. Not sure what I'd do if she skirted parental consent laws for one of those but I probably wouldn't turn it into a huge deal or punish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She can get as many as she wants on her ear and if she wanted her navel or nose pierced I'd allow it at 16. Other than that she has to wait until she's 18. I personally think all other facial piercings like lip, eyebrow, tongue, etc, are trashy-looking so really the only reason is I wouldn't want to look at it so I'm not giving permission. Not sure what I'd do if she skirted parental consent laws for one of those but I probably wouldn't turn it into a huge deal or punish.

Oh and of course-she pays for it. I paid for her lobes at age 11 but she paid for her second lobes at 13 and a "tragus" piercing at 15.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When our DD was pushing for a nose piercing we said no for over a year. The day she got her first college acceptance, we took her to a tattoo shop. She's had a tiny stud for about 8 years now.

I don't love it, but it's REALLY tiny and don't hate it.

I like this idea. My sophomore is interested in a nose piercing. It has not been a good time with sports the times it has come up, so I've only said I would consider it. I am not sure what the answer will be if she gets really serious about it again soon, I'd like to keep waiting and I like this "reward".

She has 3 per ear, and will probably get a cartilage sooner than her nose.

I would let her get her naval any time now, but she doesn't really have enough skin right now (very thin with serious abs!).

[Anonymous]

“Make them pay” and then they lifeguard at age 15. I wouldn’t use that as the excuse to hold off. I did the basic ears, and anything else she can do at 18 on her own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When our DD was pushing for a nose piercing we said no for over a year. The day she got her first college acceptance, we took her to a tattoo shop. She's had a tiny stud for about 8 years now.

I don't love it, but it's REALLY tiny and don't hate it.

I like this idea. My sophomore is interested in a nose piercing. It has not been a good time with sports the times it has come up, so I've only said I would consider it. I am not sure what the answer will be if she gets really serious about it again soon, I'd like to keep waiting and I like this "reward".

She has 3 per ear, and will probably get a cartilage sooner than her nose.

I would let her get her naval any time now, but she doesn't really have enough skin right now (very thin with serious abs!).

We like the idea of rewarding our kids for big academic accomplishments. That's why we did it that way. We paid for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 14 (soon to be 15) yo has three earrings in each ear - has for years. This summer I let her her her nose pierced with a small stud. Looks great. She’s working toward getting the bar in her upper ear, but will hold off on that for a little while.
Piercings aren’t permanent, so they’re NBD to me. Tattoos would be another story. She’ll have to wait until she’s 18 if she wants one of those.

That's the actual law, regardless of your stance.

[Anonymous]

Nose piercing = boogers

[Anonymous]

Kid is not a teen yet...but I would okay it with kids own money for any piercing except tongue. I am not paying all this money to fix teeth that are just going to get damaged by a piercing.

[Anonymous]

My kids would have a heart attack if they knew about my piercing that they can't see.

My policy is make a case, I will listen, we can discuss pros and cons, then go from there.