Early piercings led to hang-ups
MY FRIENDS and I often go back to our childhood experiences.
We find our mothers were very similar in their childrearing antics.
Some of the things we did when we were little leave us in stitches, while other stories make us feel nostalgic.
Either way, we’ve made it to our thirties, so our mothers were quite successful in their child-rearing if you ask me.
Anyway, one of the things we recently spoke about was “what was the correct age to pierce a child’s ears?”
Or is it even correct to pierce someone’s ears and what is the purpose, other than to beautify the said child?
Either way, I was one of those children who had my ears pierced before I could be properly toilet-trained.
I remember the absolute terror of going to the jewellery store, being placed on that high chair and being asked to be still as the perfect pair of surgical earrings was being sought.
The actuality of me being still was slim to none and I ended up with two piercings that were differently located.
I cried, was given a sweet and it was all over.
But the drama did not end there.
You still had to sleep that evening and God forbid your T-shirt got caught on your freshly pierced ears. That was it. Your mother would apply coconut oil using earbuds and she would say: “It’s finished.”
What’s finished, I would think… because I was still in intense pain.
But it actually meant “coconut oil has melted away your pain child, so go play”.
Either way, I was obsessive and spent hours looking at my piercings in the mirror and recall feeling the pain from the ordeal.
I was one of those children whose ears had become rotten from the piercing. Yes, rottenly sore. That’s it, my mother would say. She would remove the earring and put in a broom stick (yes the coconut, or grass, broom that was used to sweep the floor), use purple medicine to decorate the ear and wait for it to heal.
I am surprised we never picked up septicaemia from all the purple and red medicine.
Even if you felt like you had a fever, sugar water and a good nap sorted you out.
There was no Ponstan in those days.
Either way, I spent my schooldays with the coconut stick in my ear, not the diamonds one envisions.
And as soon as I plucked up the courage, I decided to close the holes in my ears. I was done. I was done trying to be pretty with earrings.
Either way, in high school I had a friend who never had her ears pierced during early childhood and at the age of 15 we decided the time was now. It was a choice. I don’t recall the pain and even though the piercings are still high and low, I wear earrings with caution on some days, and other days I leave them bare.
But either way, I think that piercings should be a person’s own choice.
Bush Knife.