tangental

[brightbluegirl]

Great god damn.

A person here got her child's ears pierced at 5 months. With a gun, of course.

I will NEVER do something like that to my child without their informed consent. NEVER. And never with a gun, either.

D and her man (who are both trained piercers) pierced their daughter's ears when she was old enough to ask for the earings, and old enough to care for them. They did it together, each piercing one ear at the same time. No fucking gun.

I have ALWAYS thought how sweet and beautiful that is.

Way better than getting some stranger to pierce your 5 month old's ears with a gun. Yuck.

---

Tonight Andrew is going out for dinner, and then to see The Corporation, leaving me to my own devices until 10:30. Hurray for alone time!

I don't know what I'm going to do - well, I know I'm going to work out (legs today!), but I may not do anything interesting - instead I might do some work from home so I can add a few extra hours on to my logged time, so I can leave work early on the 23rd, for Andrew's birthday.

I still have to finish getting his presents. Since I couldn't find him a new tacky elvis bust to replace the one that broke on the way to Albuquerque, I have two OTHER ideas. I'm running out of time!

Either way, I'm sure I'll have a nice evening. I already miss him, though. :( I'm such a wuss.

---

Last night we ordered a case of organic fair trade mangos from our organic delivery service.

yum!

---

The invitations have been sent out. The nearest people should be getting them soon.

We decided not to put any information about our Amazon wishlist, OR our registry at the Bay into the cards. If people want to know more, they'll ask us, or ask our family.

---

Two of Andrew's friends broke up. I am sad for them. :(

Comments

[plinko.livejournal.com]

My stepmother had my sister's ears pierced at something like 6 weeks. Maybe it was 6 months, but for some reason I'm thinking six weeks. Ludicrous, IMHO, either way.

As a side note, my sister's holes later closed up, and she's never been able to keep her ears pierced.

I, on the other hand, had mine pierced when I was 6. And, since then, I can go for YEARS without earrings and still have no hole-close-ness.

[freakykitten.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was still pretty young too... 8 or so? But at least I was old enough to ask for them. My ears never closed up either, although now I'm stretching them, so they always have captive jewelry in them, so the hole-close-ness isn't an issue now.

Of course, I SAY I'm stretching them, but I haven't put anything lower than a 10 gauge in there for 3 or 4 years! I'm lazy. Or cheap. Or something.

[sinndar.livejournal.com]

I know! I get so mad when I see a baby with pierced ears. Like they don't have enough pain to go through between shots and illnesses, let's inflict more for beauty's sake! Argh.

Enjoy your evening alone. Those are nice sometimes. :)

[freakykitten.livejournal.com]

yeah! since my couple of weeks of upset, we've instituted a rule, once a week I get alone time. I'm looking forward to it, even if I do fill it with work and such.

[malaka.livejournal.com]

I got mine yesterday! I really wish I could come :(

[freakykitten.livejournal.com]

already?? that is so quick, I'm so impressed!

Yeah, I know. I wish you could too, but I know it's a crazy year for such things. We decided to send you one anyway, just cuz we wanted you to have one. Does that make sense?

[malaka.livejournal.com]

Yes, it does.. and I appreciate it :) By the way, they are adorable!

[pheloniusfriar.livejournal.com]

I will NEVER do something like that to my child without their informed consent. NEVER. And never with a gun, either.

I would not let Beep get her ears pierced until she had had her first period... I figure at that point it's reasonable for an individual to start making decisions about their own bodies. Until then, I've got two words: "permanent acupuncture"... the nerves in the ear are complex and have a tremendous effect on a person...

[pfloide.livejournal.com]

I got my invite today. Don't have my plans worked out in detail yet, but everyone I'm visiting this summer knows I intend to go to your ceremony, and we're planning around it... Therefore, it should happen, less'n I get abducted by some sort of flying machine populated by sensory homunculi.

[dextra.livejournal.com]

it bothers me when people subject their sense of beauty upon their children in a non-consentual, painful and dangerous way.

in other news, got the invite yesterday, thank you very much!

[ihlathi.livejournal.com]

I don't feel so strongly that piercing a baby's ears is such an awful thing.
I wonder about ear piercing being entirely about beauty - I'm not sure that it is. I mean, wearing jewlery and pretty clothes is about beauty (although you could even say that both can be used for ritualistic or symbolic purposes), but actually piercing something ... that's different.

It's like - tribes in Africa that practice scarification when a child hits puberty. An enourmous amount of cultures in the world do something similiar and various ages. Piercing a baby's ears is sort of a way for the aspect of our culture the baby's family is connected to to claim that child as a part of it.
Sort of like baptising.

For so many cultures, a ritual (often involving pain), has to take place for the child to be accepted as a fully integrated member of the society.

Ear piercing is sort of a ... I don't know - is it a remnant? Acculturation? Either way - it's sort of our own, toned down version of that.

If it were about beauty, you could just as easily wear clip-ons. They're certainly less maintenance, and no pain for the child.

Piercing the ears with a gun is pretty awful, I totally agree with that. But most people are unaware of the dangers involved with using a gun - the mother should have looked into this before having it done, but if she and everyone around her has had it done that way, and she doesn't know any piercers, then she'd have no reason to think there's anything wrong with it.

I'd personally wait until my child is old enough to ask for earrings, but I don't really think there's anything wrong with what she did.

[freakykitten.livejournal.com]

well, I hear what you're saying, and I definitely respect you, what you're saying, and how you're saying it, but I disagree. The example you give still suggests consent - scarification at puberty, as opposed to piercing at 3 months. Rituals that occur at puberty at least have the implicit understanding that you understand that there will be pain, WHY there will be pain, and that going through the ordeal allows you to move from child to adult, or from non-person to person, for example.

The other issue I have is that just because something is ritual, doesn't make it ok. For example, many tribes have rituals where a woman's clitoris is cut off with a dirty knife, or her vagina SEWN UP with only a small hole for pee, to ensure that she is not promiscuous before marriage, for example, that I strongly disagree with.

[(Anonymous)]

What's wrong with piercing with a gun? I don't know the difference. . .

I got my invite yesterday! They're so pretty, thank you so much. I wish I could come, but I really really doubt I could. Tc: ~ Youmna

[a-narchist.livejournal.com]

Gun needles are usually dull, so they rip the skin and make a very rough-edged cut, which is harder to heal. One-time-use needles make a much cleaner hole, which is much easier to heal. Also, guns can't be sterilized with an autoclave, which protects against things like hepatitus. As well, the jewelry that is used in those sorts of places tends to have a high nickle content, which can leech in the bloodstream (especially after the gold/whatever plating has worn off), whereas a piercer uses high-grade surgical steel.

And of course, the person doing the piercing is not a professional piercer, so they don't know what to do is something goes wrong, or if there are any difficulties.

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you! ~ Youmna

Gimme

[(Anonymous)]

Your gift list thingies.

Cam >B)