Professional & Safe Ear-Piercing
We are located in Midtown Toronto in the Bathurst-Lawrence neighborhood and we have been offering our professional ear-piercing service for over 10 years. We specialize in piercings for children and babies and our ear-piercing specialist Malkie has pierced hundreds of children’s ears. We are by appointment only and offer privacy in a clean, sterile environment. Malkie is extremely professional and tries her best to accommodate all her clients needs. She has tremendous patience and will create a calm and relaxed atmosphere for the ear-piercing session.
OUR EAR- PIERCING PROCESS
Let us walk you through our ear-piercing process so that you know what to expect when you come in for your ear-piercing appointment. You will be presented with a selection of piercing earrings to choose from. These earrings are compatible to the inverness piercing system. Once you choose the earrings, we will clean your earlobe with an alcohol swab/ cloth. Then we go ahead and mark the spot with a pen and show you the mark in the mirror. Once you confirm that you are happy with the spot and ready to go ahead, we proceed by placing the sterile and enclosed earrings into the special piercing device and match the piercer with the spot on your ear and ‘click’ you are all done.
OUR EAR-PIERCING PRICING
The price for our ear-piercing service is $99.00 CND plus tax (HST) which includes 14k gold inverness ear-piercing earrings.
THE INVERNESS PIERCING SYSTEM
We choose to use exclusively the inverness piercing system. The inverness piercing system is a technologically advanced hand-pressured ear-piercing instrument which is reliable, gentle and sterile. The hypoallergenic piercing earrings come in fully enclosed sterile capsules which are loaded into the device. We use the inverness piercing system because we believe that is the safest and least painful system on the market.
HOW LONG DOES THE ENTIRE PROCESS TAKE?
Once you choose your earrings the entire piercing process should take no more than 2 minutes. You can expect be in and out in less than 5 minutes. Children have a hard time sitting straight so the process takes a little longer. Additionally, we find that children may need some time between piercing each ear and for this reason you should expect the piercing process for children to take approximately 10-15 minutes.
DOES THE PIERCING HURT?
Think about the piercing like a needle injection or a shot. You feel a bit of pain for a second and that’s it. There is no blood and it does not hurt after the piercing.
There an over the counter topical numbing cream called EMLA (lidocaine/prilocaine) available in Canada at local pharmacies. Some recommend this cream for children if the child is sensitive to pain. Be sure to consult your Dr. or pharmacist prior to using this cream.
When using EMLA cream be sure to apply the cream approximately 1 hour prior to your ear-piercing appointment. It takes about 1 hour for the numbing to set in and wares off after 2-3 hours.
EAR-PIERCING CARE
While a freshly pierced opening is healing it is important to keep the piercing area clean in order to avoid possible rash or infections. Additionally, you would want to keep the entire area exposed to have proper air circulation in order to heal. It is recommended to clean the area especially after a shower or bath by applying saline solution or alcohol to the front and back of the piercing with a clean Q-Tip. Avoid beauty and personal care products on or around the piercing. Continue this care for about six weeks after your piercing.
If you notice the piercing area is red and feels hot or you see that the area is inflamed or has pus you can try to heal the area by applying antiseptic cream such as Polysporin (Canada) or Bacitracin (USA) three times a day and should heal within three days. If the issue persists you may want to contact your physician.
Be sure to keep earrings in your ear for the first six months in order to keep the piercing hole from closing.
CAN YOU RE-OPEN A CLOSED EAR PIERCING?
If for some reason you haven't worn earrings in a while, and it seems to you that the holes in your earlobes have closed. You may be wondering if you can re-pierce your ears to open up the original hole. Our experience shows that in many cases with the help of a professional, you can open up your pre-existing ear piercings without getting them re-pierced.
FIRST EARRINGS
Your original piercing earrings should be kept in your ear for 6 weeks. Once you are ready to take out your piercing earrings, you are ready to look for new earrings of your choice. Going cheap on your earrings may also mean going cheap on your skin health since many cheap earrings include skin allergens or skin sensitive materials such as nickel. We strongly recommend you look for fine gold or silver earring, preferably made in Italy. We have tested earrings from many Italian jewelry manufacturers and found Italian earrings to be the most skin safe. If the earrings are guaranteed nickel free it should not make a difference if they are 10k, 14k or 18k gold.
HOW DO I KNOW WHEN MY CHILD IS READY FOR EAR-PIERCING?
If your child displays a strong desire to have her ears pierced while being aware of the short light pain associated with the piercing and the minimal aftercare needed, then she is showing she is ready to handle and accept the pain as well as the responsibility of properly caring for her ears to keep them healthy. It would be unfair to push a child to have her ears pierced if she is not ready for it. Every child needs to know that they are beautiful even without earrings.
If you choose to pierce your newborn child’s ears as a baby, there is no suggested minimal age. You can pierce a newborns ears safely even when the baby is just a few days old.
The optimal ages for piercing children’s ears are before nine months or after three years old. Once a child reaches the age of 9 months, they develop an understanding of their surroundings and become suspicious of strangers and therefore may give the parent and/or the piercing professional a very hard time.
HOW TO PREPARE FOR CHILDREN’S EAR-PIERCING APPOINTMENT
There is always a degree of anxiety when it comes to ear-piercing for a child. To ensure a positive overall ear-piercing experience we suggest that you allow your child to choose a special treat before coming in and have them hold it in their hand throughout the process. This allows them to shift their attention to the treat rather than the piercing and gives them something to look forward to once the piercing is completed.
For newborns and infants, we suggest that you bring them in well fed and preferably after their nap so that they are more relaxed. We have seen babies sleep through the entire process. Some babies don’t cry at all during the piercing process. However, other babies do cry a bit and usually a pacifier will sooth them and relax them again.
FAQ
The following are our most frequently asked questions and they are answered in the article above.
How do I know if my child is ready?
Does the piercing hurt?
How much does the piercing cost?
How long does the piercing take?