Instinct Adornment

How old does my child need to be?

We don't pierce people who aren't into getting pierced, for us that includes infants.

We find at about four years old a child can be excited, follow simple instructions and have developed enough ear lobe to support a piercing that will be less likely to shift as they grow.

Both at once? Yes!

We prefer to book ear lobe piercings with two trained professional piercers at the same time. This way we can pierce and insert the jewelry in the same moment. This helps keep the actual piercing experience quick and easy. Most children describe the feeling as "hot" rather than "painful".

We never use "guns" for piercing, as they cannot be properly sterilized and cause a lot more harm than good. All of our tools are sterilized at point of use and are fully disposable. Nothing is ever used from client to client.

Our implant grade jewelry is custom fit to leave an appropriate amount of room for cleaning and healing. If unforeseen extra swelling occurs after piercing or downsizing, please contact us immediately so we can help you out!

Should we use numbing creams?

No. When numbing products are applied to numb an area it create swelling and when the swelling goes down, you'll have crooked piercings! And no-one likes crooked piercings.

Can we still take baths? What about swimming?

Areas like pools, hot tubs, water parks, rivers and lakes are filled with germs, chemicals and other peoples bodies. Yuck! We want to keep away from bodies of water for a minimum of 10 days (preferably 6 weeks) After that 10 days you are safe to go swimming.

Baths are okay since it is fresh clean water. However, we suggest not submerging your fresh piercings in the tub for at least 10 days as well.

And of course with any new piercing, keep it dry!! That means anytime we are getting our piercings wet, either swimming, bathing or sweating, we want to dry them well using a clean dry Q-tip. We also want to keep wet hair away from sitting on our piercings, especially before going to bed!

How long do kids piercings take to heal?

We generally find kids take about 3-6 months to fully heal their piercings. Since they are a little more active then adults they can sometimes take a little more time. However, everyone is different! Some kids heal fast, some kids heal slow.

Its important for your child to listen to their body and let us know right away if they are experiencing any issues. Always feel free to reach out to us via phone, email or Facebook Messenger if you think something is wrong! We are here to help you through your entire healing experience.

On Piercing our Daughter

So a really wonderful thing happened today: we got to pierce our daughter.

Ella has been talking about getting her ears pierced for a year and a half, whenever the conversation came up we let her know that she could if she was ready. We spoke at length about needing to not touch them and how long it would be until they would heal, how we would help her with cleaning and that the actual piercings would feel hot.

Last night she decided it was time. Arlo jumped in and said he was ready too. Arlo, at three, is still having some accidents with using the potty, so he and I decided it would be a reward for using the potty confidently for two weeks straight.

This morning Ella asked again and we made plans to do it at the end of the day.

She and her dad picked out jewellery together. Pink titanium hoops. We sterilized them and went over the aftercare and then had her sign the paperwork promising she'd follow the instructions.

When it came time to do the actual procedure I didn't know how I, as a mother, would treat her, as a client. Would I do anything differently with my own child? I was surprised to find myself following the familiar routine of conversation and layout and marking I would with any other client. In that moment I realized that I have been doing this right my whole career, I treated this person, who happened to be my four year old daughter, with the same care and attention I do with all my clients.

It was beautiful, her father and I pierced her in tandem (as we do with all children's piercings). She listened to our instructions around breathing and had a moment when the tears might have come, but was quickly reassured by the words, actions and confidence we, her piercers, offered her. (Nennen holding her hand surely helped as well!)

She rocked!

Thank you Ella for trusting us with this big decision