Ear Piercing

Last year Ryann stopped sucking her thumb when she turned 5. I told her that she could get her ears pierced when she stopped. She was excited for awhile and then told me that she didn't think she was ready yet. She wanted to wait until she turned 6.

About a month ago we started talking about it again. I asked her if she wanted to do it and she said yes. Then I asked on facebook for some recommendations on how and where it should be done. I had quite a few people suggest a place called HTC in tempe. It is a body piercing shop. 

I am sure that claires and icing and all the little mall stores are just fine to get your ears pierced, but I have seen a number of infected piercings (including mine when I was a little girl!!) and I decided to do some research. I called this place and looked online. They don't pierce under the age of 8, but I decided to call them and talk with them for awhile.

They said they would consider under 8 if they felt that the child was mature enough to understand what was going on and if they really wanted to have it done. I brought Ryann in the afternoon before her birthday for her interview. It went really well. Kevin said that it was a go.

Ryann picked out some cute pink earrings that Kevin assured me were a good kind with titanium blah bah blah stuff. He also told us how to take care of them, to not twist them, touch them (unless cleaning with soap and water once or twice a day), etc. He didn't try to sell me anything extra special and he was so much fun with Ryann. Ryann did think he looked "a little weird", so afterwards I talked to her a lot about people with tattoos and piercings and how some people do things like that to their bodies, but we still like them etc. (good teaching moment award!).

During the procedure it was fun to see how he used sterilized equipment, how he scrubbed up before the piercing, scrubbed Ryann's ears, talked her through it, and he even explained everything that would happen before it happened. NO TEARS were shed at all. Ryann was brave and nothing scared her as she was well prepared for it all. She said it hurt a little, but she never even flinched as it was happening. After it was over I whispered in her ear that it would be okay to cry, but instead she ran to the mirror and looked at her pretty new self. 

 A little nervous

Let the piercing begin

 One side is done

One Happy (almost) 6 Year Old!!