Last weekend my daughters experienced an important rite of passage: ear piercing. They were determined to get their ears pierced after watching the 1998 version of “The Parent Trap,” where Lindsay Lohan, playing a pair of twins, plunges a needle into her sister’s ear at summer camp. The girls wondered if they would scream like Lohan did in the movie. We were about to find out.
Different families have different rules or traditions around ear piercing. Some cultures give newborns earrings. Some families make them wait until they are teenagers. For us, ages five and eight were good enough. Especially after months of begging.
I did what any millennial mother would do and booked an appointment at the closest Claire’s — the one in Lake George, just under an hour away. But when we arrived, the woman at the register told us that piercing wasn’t available: their usual person hadn’t come to work that day. So I pivoted and took my daughters to a nearby tattoo and piercing parlor instead. This, it turns out, was a better choice: besides keeping all the equipment meticulously sterilized, professional piercers know how to properly measure a young ear to account for future growth. While it may feel funny taking your baby to a tattoo parlor, earrings are a form of body alteration and need to be treated with respect and care.
If you are wondering how your child will handle a piercing, I would say it’s similar to how they respond to yearly shots, which are a good indicator of pain tolerance. At least that’s how it went with my family — and my girls couldn’t have been more different.
My youngest daughter went first. The whole experience took less than two minutes. She didn’t even flinch when the needle went in. The piercer we were working with said she did better than most adults. But my older daughter was completely petrified. She didn’t scream like Lindsay Lohan, but she did cry. I told her she didn’t have to do it if she didn’t want to, and at one point I thought we would have to leave, but she was determined. After lots of calm words and hand holding, we got both ears done. She was very proud of herself and said it was worth it to be able to have earrings.
— Karina Jutzi is a poet and playwright. She lives in Benson with her family.