Child's Lobe Piercings (8-12 years old)

Children’s lobe piercings are a service that we love being able to offer at Bink’s. We appreciate that clients are more educated than ever on the benefits of visiting a professional piercing studio instead of a retail store that offers ear piercing. In order to continue offering this service at the level we provide, we have some guidelines in place based not only on the Florida Department of Health’s legal requirements, but also on our own personal ethics and standards as members of the Association of Professional Piercers. This blog post exists to give a detailed overview of these guidelines and provide some clarity on what to expect when booking for children's lobe piercings.

Establishing informed consent is essential with any service we provide, and it gets a little more complicated in the case of a child’s piercing. In order to respect your child’s bodily autonomy, we want to be certain that they fully understand the process of receiving and caring for their lobe piercings, and we want the person performing the piercings to feel comfortable and confident that they have established informed consent.

There are also several documentation requirements set out by the Florida Department of Health to verify legal consent, including a notarized consent form paired with photo identification (for guardian and child) and proof of guardianship.
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In order to ensure that we can meet these guidelines, we have a minimum age requirement of 8 years old for lobe piercings at our studio. We also require an initial consultation appointment separate from the piercing appointment. We know it can be a little inconvenient to plan two trips to our studio, but this is the best way we’ve found to ensure things run as smoothly as possible on the day of your child’s piercing. It gives you and your child a chance to familiarize yourselves with our studio, meet your piercer, and ask as many questions about the process as you’d like.
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Scheduling

In order to schedule a child’s lobe piercing consultation, go to our booking website and select the option titled “Consultation for Child’s Earlobe Piercing (8-12 years old)”, found at this link under the “Jewelry Changes and Browsing, Consultations and Check Ups, and Curations” category.

This consultation typically lasts 15-30 minutes and involves discussing the piercing procedure and aftercare guidelines with both guardian and child, going over required documentation, and selecting jewelry. We will not book the piercing appointment for the same day as the consultation, and booking a consultation does not ensure that we will be able to book a piercing appointment at all - if the piercer feels that the child is not prepared to receive and take care of their lobe piercings, we might ask to postpone scheduling the procedure. Most often this happens due to conflicts with school sports or swimming-related activities.

After the consultation, if the child, parent, and piercer are all on board, we can go ahead and book the piercing appointment while you are in the studio. Since this is a specialized service that not all of our piercers offer, we might have to book a week or two out depending on current appointment wait times. When coming in for your consultation appointment, we request that you help us set the expectation with your child that they won’t be getting pierced on the same day. Some kids might be overly anxious during the consultation if they think they’re coming in to get pierced, and some kids might be upset once they realize they won’t be leaving with a new pair of lobe piercings.
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Documentation Requirements

In addition to the piercing consultation, we have a couple of other requirements for children’s lobe piercings. These are set forth by the FL Department of Health and are required for every piercing done on a minor in a body piercing studio (we are not regulated under the same statutes as retail stores that use piercing guns). Per Florida statutes, we must have written notarized consent (you can download the form here) from the child’s legal guardian and that same legal guardian must be present at the time of piercing. In order to prove that legal consent was obtained, we keep a copy of both the parent and child’s legal photo ID and proof of relationship on file for our yearly health department audits.

Here are some examples of the different types of documentation we can accept:

Photo Identification	Proof of Guardianship
State ID	Birth Certificate
Public School ID	Guardianship Paperwork
School Yearbook	Custody Agreement
School Portal Screenshot (must have photo & name)
Passport

If you are having trouble with this step or have questions about whether we accept a specific type of documentation, feel free to reach out via e-mail or phone.

Pricing

The price of any piercing service provided at Bink’s is dependent on two factors: a service fee to cover our set-up materials and labor, and the cost of the jewelry chosen. Our service fee for a pair of lobe piercings is $55 - this is actually the service fee we charge for any other single piercing, but in order to make safe lobe piercings more accessible, we waive the second piercing fee.

Jewelry options for lobe piercings start at $64.39 for the pair, after tax. This price is for our basic jewelry option, which is a high quality implant grade titanium post with a simple high polish disk or ball on the front and back. We most commonly use a threadless press-fit design for initial lobe piercings, and your piercer can show you how this jewelry works in-person.

We also offer a variety of options for the front piece of your jewelry, and pricing varies greatly. During your consultation appointment we’ll have time to look at jewelry and give pricing for any piece that catches your eye.

Minor piercing clients are also required to purchase sterile saline aftercare solution at the time of piercing, which costs $10. If you’re unable to get your paperwork notarized ahead of time, we offer notary services onsite for a $5 fee.

​In total, a pair of child’s lobe piercings with basic, high quality jewelry, aftercare solution, and notary fees would cost approximately $135.
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Lifestyle Considerations

We want your child to have the best chance of healing their new piercings without any issues, and whenever anyone gets a new piercing, there are certain things that we suggest avoiding. Most notably for children, this includes removal of the jewelry and submerging in unhygienic bodies of water (lakes, pools, oceans, etc.)

If your child plays a sport that requires removal of jewelry from their new lobe piercings, we strongly suggest waiting until the off-season. Lobe piercings can take upwards of 4-6 months to fully heal, and removing jewelry in an unhygienic environment during that time period can introduce bacteria to their healing wound. It’s also worth noting that piercings heal from the outside-in, and during that initial healing phase their body will create a loosely-formed channel of tissue that isn’t fully attached to the surrounding skin. Even if the piercings appear healed from the outside, removing and reinserting jewelry can disrupt this channel from adhering to the surrounding tissue and virtually restart the healing process. Piercings that aren’t fully healed are also prone to shrinking/closing, and this can happen much quicker than you might think! Leaving your child’s lobe piercings empty for any amount of time during the initial healing phase could lead to them closing up and needing to be pierced again.

Similarly, if your child has any activities planned in the next six months that involve swimming or submerging in any bodies of water, we advise postponing getting a new piercing. During that initial healing phase, your child’s lobe piercings are susceptible to the risk of infection, even if their piercings appear healed and proper aftercare is followed. If your child’s lobe piercings ever appear excessively irritated and you’re concerned about the possibility of infection, don’t hesitate to reach out and schedule a free check-up appointment with us.
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If you have any other questions pertaining to children's lobe piercings, please reach out! We're happy to answer any questions you may have via phone, e-mail, or social media.

Hayley Bush

Piercer/APP Member