Sunday, March 4, 2012

Adventures in a Piercing Shop

It had come time for me to take my oldest daughter in for the obligatory rite of passage for many young girls - that of getting her ears pierced. Being the strict parents that we are, we made her wait until turning 12.

The day of tortuous waiting finally arrived for Kimberly last Saturday. I did my homework to determine the best place to get the procedure done, so I did what I do best and made a list of the options.

1) The obvious jewelry store in the mall.
2) Um, .... I guess I'll go with the jewelry store as I can't think of any other ----
3) WAIT - I wonder if a pediatric doctor would do it?
4) Nope. Just got off the phone with the dr. office. Of course they didn't come right out and say it, but I know what they're thinking. I'm one of those mothers.
5) Okay, so that brings me back to option one (and 2), though I seemed to recollect reading somewhere that piercing shops will pierce ears - and they're better at it than the jewelry shop, so I heard.

Three tattoo/piercing shop phone calls later, I was directed to 'the pros' in Salt Lake at the Koi Piercing Studio- apparently the oldest piercing shop in the area with the finest piercers around. Music to my daughters un-pierced ears.

After packing up all forms of id, birth certificates, and notarized forms of consent (okay, maybe not that one, but we did need the other two), we were off to one of the more interesting sides of town in Salt Lake City.

Okay, at this point, especially for those of you who know we're Mormon, where tattooing and piercings other than one on each ear is not really up our alley, why the heck (yes, I do use Mormon slang at times) didn't I just take her to the jewelry store in the mall - wouldn't that have been much easier?

I know, i know. When we set foot in the shop, I was wondering the same thing too, but only for about a second because I had some very good reasons for having her ears pierced at this particular place. Mind you, my ears aren't pierced, so I have nothing to compare it to, but over the years, I have heard horror stories of inexperienced jewelry shop employees getting the piercings crooked, and the plethora of infections that have come from said piercings, not to mention the extreme pain of a piercing gun. Now why in the world would I expose my daughter to that?

I was sold the moment I found out this piercing studio doesn't even come close to using a piercing gun. Just the thought of it makes my ears tingle. Instead, they use a far less painful version: razor sharp needles they sterilize right in the room. They also use implant-grade titanium, leading to far less infections over the ones used at jewelry shops. I would expect they know a thing or two about, um, piercings in a wide variety of places, right?

The moment had arrived.

Wa-La! Finally, Kimberly has the pierced ears she has been dying to have over the years.
I would go back to this place in a heart-beat.
If you need your ears pierced, I know just the place...

6 comments:

James and Katrina said...

Wow! That is cool! I love the guy's tatoos. :) Julia just had her ears pierced two weeks ago at Claire's in the mall. We wanted her to wait until she was 12 and she was super excited.

Anonymous said...

Very smart thinking on your part to go to a tattoo piercing shop. I got mine done at one of those shops in the mall and gotta say...I like your idea better. I'll think of doing that when my girl gets it done at 14ish. =)

Nelson Nine said...

hahahahaha! I have go to admit--I never even thought of a piercing shop. I probably would have been too scared to go in.

The Heki Family said...

That is so cool! I would have been scared to go in also.

Delores said...

Okay Dana, at first I thought, "oh my, just go to the jewelery shop and get it done and she'll be fine. It's not that big of a deal and the guns are not that painful."

Then I remembered the stories I've heard of infections and reconsidered. I'm sure you were treated much better at this shop too. I'm glad it worked out and now you've got my brain turning as to what to do when the inevitable day comes that Abigail want's to put holes into her ears. sigh.

JRim said...

I distinctly remember the serious infection Tammy got when her ears were pierced. I would have never thought of a piercing shop, though. I'm impressed.