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Your child’s first piercing is a special milestone — a memory that should be treasured for years to come.

Emma still remembers her own first piercing at the age of eight. Unfortunately, the experience was far from memorable for the right reasons. Performed in a busy town-centre shop in full view of passing customers, it felt rushed, impersonal and lacking the care and reassurance that such an important moment deserves.

That experience helped shape the way we approach children’s piercings at Isha today — providing a calm, private and welcoming environment where both children and parents can feel comfortable, informed and supported throughout the experience.

Making the Piercing Appointment Fun

At Isha, we pride ourselves on creating a private, relaxed and positive experience. We offer a safe and inclusive environment with calming lighting and music (unless requested otherwise!), along with fidget toys for distraction. Emma is a friendly and accommodating piercer who takes time with each child, helping to make their first piercing experience a happy and memorable one.

Your Child’s Consent

Informed consent is essential to us at Isha. We want to make sure your child understands what to expect, appreciates the importance of looking after their new piercings and, most importantly, is happy and comfortable with having their ears pierced.

For this reason, our minimum age for earlobe piercing is 8 years old, and first and second lobes are the only piercings we offer to children under 16.

For children aged 8–15, a parent or legal guardian must attend the appointment and complete our Consent Form. We also require physical photographic identification for the parent or guardian, such as a Driving Licence or Passport, and ideally a Passport for the child. If your child does not have a Passport, we can accept their Birth Certificate. Unfortunately, photographs of identification stored on a phone cannot be accepted.

Please remember to bring the required identification with you, as without it we will be unable to proceed with the appointment.

The Process

On the day of the appointment, we’ll begin by completing the consent process and helping you and your child choose their jewellery. Your child and one parent or guardian will then be welcomed into our private piercing studio.

All equipment is prepared discreetly, with sterile items opened from their pouches as required and the jewellery prepared through our autoclave sterilisation process.

We do not use piercing guns or cartridge systems. We use professional, sterile, single-use piercing needles and equipment designed specifically for body piercing, allowing us to perform the piercing with precision and care.

The Jewellery

Traditional earring posts and butterfly backs can be uncomfortable and are not our choice for initial piercing jewellery. Many traditional earrings are also simply too large or unsuitable for smaller children’s lobes.

Instead, we favour professionally fitted flat-back labrets. These mirror-polished implant-grade titanium studs are fitted from the back of the lobe, leaving a smooth flat disc behind the ear rather than a traditional butterfly back.

They can be paired with a wonderful choice of removable fronts, from classic shapes and faux opals to cubic zirconia sparkles and precious gemstones, so choosing the jewellery can become part of the fun.

You can view our recommended Kids Ear Studs here.

Once the piercing is fully healed, our Ear Lobe Jewellery Insertion video demonstrates how this style of jewellery is fitted and removed.

Aftercare & Healing

Within professional piercing practice, and through decades of experience caring for and reviewing healing piercings, we work to a minimum healing period of approximately 12 weeks / three months for soft-tissue piercings such as the earlobe.

It is important to understand that 12 weeks is a minimum, rather than a guarantee that every piercing will be completely healed at exactly three months. Healing varies between individuals and can be influenced by general health, hygiene and aftercare, pressure, snagging or trauma, sleeping on the piercing, swimming and other everyday activities.

A piercing can also look beautifully settled on the outside while the newly forming piercing channel within the ear remains delicate. This is why we ask that the initial jewellery remains continuously in place throughout the healing period.

You can read our full Piercing Aftercare Guidelines here. We also offer a discounted Aftercare Pack at each appointment and all clients are offered a complimentary Piercing Review following their appointment.

We strongly recommend reading our Booking FAQs and Policies before booking so that you and your child know exactly what to expect.

Holidays & Swimming

There isn’t always a perfect time to have a child’s ears pierced, and holidays and swimming are an important part of deciding when to book.

We strongly recommend waiting for the minimum 12-week healing period before allowing children to swim in shared pools or open water. Healing piercings are vulnerable to irritation and contamination, so submerging them in swimming pools, the sea, lakes, hot tubs or other shared water should be avoided while they heal.

Please consider regular swimming lessons as well as summer holidays, water parks, diving and snorkelling when deciding when to arrange your child’s piercing.

Traditionally, lots of children had their ears pierced at the beginning of the six-week summer holiday in the belief that they would be healed by the time they returned to school. Our professional advice is that six weeks is not sufficient for the minimum healing period we work to.

School, PE & the Twelve-Week Healing Period

Waiting until after the summer holidays can avoid many of the difficulties surrounding swimming, but it brings another important consideration — school and PE.

We are increasingly hearing from parents whose children are being asked to remove newly pierced earrings for PE, sometimes at around six weeks because the piercings are considered to be healed.

At Isha, our professional advice is that initial flat-back jewellery remains continuously in place for a minimum of 12 weeks while an earlobe piercing heals. We do not recommend routinely removing and reinserting jewellery from a healing piercing for individual PE lessons or sporting activities.

Removing jewellery prematurely can allow the healing channel to shrink or begin closing surprisingly quickly. Trying to reinsert jewellery afterwards can cause pain, irritation, bleeding or further trauma to the delicate healing tissue and can disrupt an otherwise well-healing piercing.

We completely appreciate that schools and sporting organisations have their own health and safety responsibilities, and certain sports may require jewellery to be removed completely. Some schools permit appropriately fitted flat-back jewellery to be covered during PE, while others require all jewellery to be removed.

For this reason, we strongly recommend checking your child’s school and sporting policies before booking their piercing.

Rather than simply asking whether earrings are permitted at school, we suggest asking:

“My child will need to keep their initial flat-back piercing jewellery continuously in place for a minimum of 12 weeks while their ears heal. What is your policy for PE and sport during this healing period?”

If your school requires complete removal and does not permit healing jewellery to be appropriately covered, this is something you will need to consider when deciding when to arrange your child’s piercing.

For some children, particularly those with additional sensory or communication needs, removing and attempting to reinsert jewellery into a tender healing piercing can also cause considerable and unnecessary distress. We would always encourage parents to discuss any additional needs with both us and their child’s school beforehand.

Our aim is not to challenge individual school policies, but to help parents, schools and professional piercers work together so that children aren’t caught between their professional aftercare advice and the requirements of their school.

Has your child already had their ears pierced and their school has asked for the jewellery to be removed?

Download our Newly Pierced Earlobes – School & Sports Provider Letter to print or email directly to your child’s school, PE department or sports provider. It explains our professional 12-week healing guidance, why we advise against removing and reinserting healing jewellery, and asks that covering the jewellery is considered where their policy and activity allow.

Booking an Appointment or Walking In?

We offer walk-in appointments at our Dorchester studio, subject to availability. If you’d prefer to guarantee a time, we recommend booking an appointment online.

Before booking, please take a moment to consider your child’s school and PE requirements, swimming, holidays and sporting commitments during the following 12 weeks.

For more information about what to bring to the appointment and what to expect, please see our Booking FAQs.