My now 16 year old had hers done at age 10. We just went to Claire’s, lol. That’s where everyone seemed to get them done, and of course they used a gun. The girl did a great job, holes were even, and dd had no problems whatsoever.

TBH, I really don’t think I would go to a piercing studio or tattoo place where they pierce with a needle. There aren’t any places like that in our area, and I just wouldn’t have felt comfy going to a place like that with dd. Needle piercing may be better...but the gun did just fine for us. (I had mine done with a gun at age 10 also..,still have same holes 40

years later! :)

While I've been to tattoo studios a number of times for various piercings, it's been ages since my lobe piercings were done. I found this information online, and believe it to be accurate:

"Experts recommend that parents avoid getting their child's ears pierced with a gun, a technique commonly used at stores in the mall. Why? Since guns don't actually pierce the skin, your child could be in for an unpleasant healing process. 'The stud gets placed into the gun and the gun uses blunt force to get it through the ear. It punctures it, not pierces it,' Brian Keith Thompson, owner and chief piercing officer of Body Electric Tattoo in Los Angeles, advises. 'The needle is made to pierce the skin. It heals faster. You can sterilize it.'

While a needle can be sterilized, a plastic gun can't be exposed to heat and steam for proper sanitization. That leaves the piercing more susceptible to infection later on. So rather than immediately heading to a kiosk in the mall, ask if your dermatologist or pediatrician does piercings instead. Even if they don't, they could give you a trusted recommendation. Most importantly, find a technician that follows basic safety protocol, such as cleaning your child's earlobes with an alcohol pad and using an individual sterile needle for each ear, Lisa Garner, M.D., a dermatologist in Garland, Texas told Parents magazine."

ETA: Professional tattoo studios are not scary places. Mine, for example, is a private studio with separate rooms occupied by each artist. They have a piercer and a cosmetics tattooer who each occupy these rooms as well. It's family-friendly, believe it or not.

What? The piercing gun is no longer preferred? I've had my ears pierced with a needle and with the gun, and the gun is soooo much better because the earring's in at the same time. I can't tell you how harrowing it can be trying to find the hole just freshly made by a needle through a thick lobe.

My daughter got her ears pierced at 5 with a piercing gun. When she first asked I told her it would hurt, but not for long, and to let me know when she thought she was ready. She did great.

ETA: I've had my ears pierced multiple times both ways. The piercing stud was sharp, didn't hurt any more than a needle, and healing was better because I insisted on gold piercing studs. I'm allergic to surgical steel, go figure.

A professional piercer will have no difficulty making the needle process very swift and relatively pain-free. I've had cartilage piercings, nose piercing, and navel piercing done professionally with the needle, and really -- piece of cake.

I was mostly remembering dorm room piercings. I did have a piercing done by a doctor and got a righteous infection.

Yeah ... big, BIG difference when done by a professional. I remember the days of using a needle with a piece of potato behind the lobe. Ick! I'll submit that not every doctor may know "what's what" either. Professional piercers know their stuff (of course, you have to find a good, reputable one; I wouldn't just walk into any ol' place and say, "pierce me"). ;-)

The RN next door did mine with a needle and ice.

Never forget the piercing sound.

I remember having to psych myself up every time I changed my earrings. And the smell of rubbing alcohol.

IIRC, it’s important to make sure you don’t use a metal that has nickel in it. I think some types of gold like white gold have more nickel. I think using a metal with nickel in it can trigger an allergy that they will then have for life.

My one DD had hers done at the dermatologist, and I am pretty sure he used something gun-like. (2 yrs ago or so)

DD2 eschewed that method. Mostly because she hated the idea of the same dumb studs everyone else wears for months after they get their ears done.

I took her to Maria Tash in NYC, which does piercings of all sorts. Yes, it was done in 2 steps. DD had no complaints. (6 mo.s ago) And she wore the cutest little gold and diamond hoops. They were ridiculously overpriced but they sure looked nice.

IdaClair I think you must be really neat. Good for you.

Thank you all. We checked out two tattoo parlors here and one uses only titanium backs and the other only surgical steel. I will try to see the differences.

They both say definitely no to the gun.

I asked my daughter, who is 22 and has her ears and tragus pierced. About 10 years ago, we went to the hair salon in our small town and they used a gun. She had her tragus pierced a few years ago at a tattoo parlor where they used a needle.

She said that from everything she has read, needles are much safer and prone to less infection than the guns. Good Housekeeping seems to agree,

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/beauty/anti-aging/a35208/piercing-guns-bad-dangers/

For those wanting to go high-end and have procedure done by plastic surgeon...

J Cutan Aesthet Surg. 2016 Oct-Dec;9(4):263-265.

Diode Laser Ear Piercing: A Novel Technique.

Abstract: Earlobe piercing is a common office room procedure done by a plastic surgeon. Various methods of ear piercing have been described. In this article, we describe a novel method of laser ear piercing using the diode laser. An 18-year-old female patient underwent an ear piercing using a diode laser with a power of 2.0 W in continuous mode after topical local anaesthetic and pre-cooling. The diode laser was fast, safe, easy to use and highly effective way of ear piercing. The advantages we noticed while using the diode laser over conventional methods were more precision, minimal trauma with less chances of hypertrophy and keloids, no bleeding with coagulation effect of laser, less time taken compared to conventional method and less chance of infection due to thermal heat effect of laser.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28163460

My daughter had one done with a gun at a salon, but couldn't go through with getting her second ear done. I'd recommend depending on the personality of the kid to have both done at the same time. I bought a gun off amazon (less than 15 dollars) and sterilized it just fine to do the second ear while she was sleeping. It worked great and she was super happy when she woke up with the other ear pierced too - she thinks it was the elf on the shelf that did it. We had no issues with infections until she started changing her earrings and used a silver earring. Looks like she has my allergies, so now she is wearing some gold studs and refuses to change her earrings. Before letting any kid getting their ears pierced consider their personality and how well they will take care of it and if stubborn and refusing to do anything such as removing them to clean after the initial healing time then I don't recommend letting them do it until they are older and willing.

I would recommend going to a professional piercing studio, not somewhere that uses a gun. I had my ear lobes pierced by a gun at the mall as a young teenager and later learned that guns are more likely to be un-sterilized and the method of piercing is more violent / damaging than the needles a piercing professional uses.

Alternatively, I like mdln's suggestion to consider a plastic surgeon.

I know ear piercings are pretty standard, but you definitely want them done correctly and safely!

Lyfia, when my daughter got hers pierced at 5 years old (at a Merle Norman studio), I worried that after one ear she'd refused to do the other, but she was okay. However, a woman who was shopping at the time saw a little kid up on the piercing stool and left the store.

A million years ago, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was in college, I worked at a small jewellery store in a mall. I pierced probably well over several hundred ears in my year or so at that store. I even did my own with that gun!

Most kids did fine, by the way. A lot of it seemed to depend on whether they really wanted it done, or their mother was the one who really wanted it done.

I only ever saw/heard of 1 person who ended up with an infection, and it was someone who admitted they didn't clean the piercing with the cleansing solution the store provided. I'm not saying there weren't more people with problems (hey, we were a jewellery store not a doctor's office, ha ha!) - but it seemed to be a pretty safe endeavor.

No part of the gun ever touches anyone's ear. The earrings used for piercing were special and one's hands never touched the earrings either. They came sterilized and individually-packaged, and you loaded them into the gun without ever touching them. We were told if you accidentally touched one or dropped it, throw it away and use another.

I can see why a needle would be easier on the ears too, but at least with the gun it's over in a split second.

patriceny - that may be true for most kids. I didn't want my kid do to the piercing as what happened is what I thought would happen, however she is the one who wanted it. It took a year of her asking about it and me finally saying if you learn to ride your bike without training wheels I'll let you do it. This is after 1.5 years of not riding a bike at all since she got a new one and it didn't come with training wheels. She had almost outgrown her new bike by the time she learned to ride it. Just stubborn and has to do things on her own time.

Update from OP. MY Grand daughter had them done today. My daughter brought her to a reputable tattoo shop and the used the needle method with titanium backed earrings.

My gd did say it was a bit painful but she was a trooper and managed well. She is beyond excited and couldn’t wait to get home and phone me with her news.

so so far so good. Thanks all for your advice.

Great news! Glad it all went well!