A black-and-white photo of a person mid-air in a Superman-style body suspension pose, supported by multiple hooks in their back and legs, smiling joyfully toward the camera. They are suspended horizontally in a large indoor space with high ceilings and visible rigging. A group of onlookers—some seated, some standing—watch with expressions of admiration, amusement, and support. The atmosphere is lively and communal, capturing a moment of shared experience and transformation.

These pictures upset me…

I’m sure that Nenita is perfectly able to consent to a piercing and I don’t really have a problem with it, but pictures of little kids in pain always upset me… This was done by Martin at Tattoos by Tito in Bahia Blanca, Argentina.

Comments

77 responses to “These pictures upset me…”

  1. Preston Avatar
    Preston

    Well, at least they are using a needle

  2. TeeCee Avatar
    TeeCee

    Start em young!

  3. hhrvt Avatar

    thats the same look I get on my face when I get pierced

  4. Dave Avatar

    the question is, did she stick around for the other ear?

  5. Dead_Inside7 Avatar
    Dead_Inside7

    God, Shannon you would have been horrified the other day then, i went into claires accessories and saw a lady having her less than one year old baby’s ears pierced with a gun and the poor baby was screaming >_

  6. Shannon Larratt Avatar

    Ack! Like I said, a kid as young as this one can obviously consent to the piercer, but I don’t think that as a piercer I could handle piercing a baby, it would just fuck with my head too badly…

  7. JessicaLea Avatar
    JessicaLea

    When I was five I annoyed the hell out of my mom by crying and begging for weeks until she took me to get my ears pierced. I’ve seen grown men take it worse than this kid!

  8. sarah Avatar
    sarah

    She may be crying, but i’d still rather see this than see it done with a piercing gun.

  9. rebecca Avatar

    at least she will be able to stretch her ears without scar tissue!

  10. derkaiser Avatar

    rebecca, thats what i thought 🙂

  11. moddoctor Avatar

    Guns are worse than that. The never ending oozies so often seen in ear piercings are the direct result of a gun pushing oil glands down into the piercing. That’s both people with gun piercings often have one “problem” ear that gets irritated or infected from time to time.

    Using a beveled need avoids this since there is no surface skin pushed down into the hole. I also don’t see anything in this picture that’s unexpected. I also don’t so much see pain as in agony as pain as in surprise in this picture. But then doing the doctor thing I’ve done far more uncomfortable things to children.

  12. Venusimpelz Avatar
    Venusimpelz

    I’m also glad to see someone getting pierced the right way for the first time! At a local children’s hair salon, they’ve started to offer ear piercing…obviously with a gun…is there anywhere I can print out pamphlets or sheets demonstrating the MONSTROSITY that is the piercing gun?

  13. Shannon Larratt Avatar

    To be really clear I don’t see anything wrong with this photo!

  14. Pol Avatar
    Pol

    piercing little kids/babies is sick (not in a good way that is)

  15. AmyL Avatar
    AmyL

    I probably made a worse face than that when I had my ears pierced for the first time…mind you it was with a gun and did really hurt, despite my Mum telling me it wouldn’t :S

  16. Dave Avatar

    On the other hand… the kid is famous now.

    Go you!

  17. santimo Avatar
    santimo

    so young and already famous in the body modification community.
    She’s surely very happy now with her new earrings.
    it’s nice to see argentina that often here

  18. blackandblue Avatar
    blackandblue

    shes okay… i make faces like that just doing up my shoes.. but then again, im kinda retarded

  19. golden_eternity Avatar

    When I was 18 I got my ear pierced with a gun in the mall. A mother was bringing her daughter in to get pierced and they saw me on display (they sat me on a stool just outside the store to do it) and the mother said “see, look, I bet you he won’t cry”.

    I told her “don’t count on it”.

  20. Sara Bee Avatar
    Sara Bee

    I probably make a similar face the moment I realize there’s a needle being pushed through my ear or whatever, but as the needle is not pushing for very long, the face doesn’t last very long, either.

  21. Max Brand Avatar

    kids cry about anything…..I never have a problem if they cry when I pierce their ears…..and yeah, some adults over-react even more…..

  22. Lori Avatar

    I pierce kid’s earlobes at my studio – to be clear, kids old enough to ask for it and sit still for it, not babies or toddlers – and while some do react a little to the actual piercing, they cheer up seconds later when it’s all over with. The parents usually freak out more than the child!

  23. annabelleohyeah Avatar

    i wish i had gotten my ears pierced with a needle instead of a gun.

    lucky kid.

  24. AmyL Avatar
    AmyL

    #23 AGREED!!!

  25. feathers Avatar
    feathers

    its better than seeing it done with a gun. I had mine done with a gun when i was 9, at a department store.. i think i’ve been fairly lucky i’ve had no problems with them, or even stretching them with all kinds of crap before i found this site, haha..

  26. bettiebondage Avatar

    I got my ears gunned when I was 6, after my mother thought the haircut I chose was too boyish. I really didn’t want to do it, and I cried before, during, and after. It sucked to be forced into it. Even the hair stylist that did it was saying I had to or “i’d look like a boy.” In retrospect…that’s a fucking awful thing to make a 6 year old do.

  27. penski Avatar

    This seems as good a place as any to post this but reading Shannon’s Hospital stories reminded me of getting lots of blood tests and allergy tests done when I was around 15…

    I have no defense. She was a cute nurse and she was using sharp things on me…and hospital gowns don’t hide tenting very well 🙁

    *n

  28. eatyrspleens Avatar
    eatyrspleens

    it could be worst! she could be and infant and it could be a piercing gun! shudder.

  29. Trix4theRabbits Avatar
    Trix4theRabbits

    i made faces worse than that when i got my ears done with a gun around that age. i bet the needle is a hell of a lot smoother

  30. just me Avatar
    just me

    the youngest ive pierced was 4 years old with a needle yes she cried butshe made a lot less fuss than many of the older drama queens …. she also smiled lots when she saw her pierced ears afterwards, she looked after her piercings and came back to see me at the shop a couple of times afterwards just to say hello….ive said it before….. responsible piercers should pierce children….. and yes it is hard for the piercer to do it takes patience and maybe a little cold heartedness to ignore the crying and just do the job right….the second ear is harder….. i did have an 8 year old boy who smiled as the needle went through his ear….. that was worrying

  31. kate Avatar
    kate

    my parents got my ears pierced at 2 months old, their thought was to get it done before i knew that i had ears to they didnt have to worry about them getting infected or having me mess with them. im not sure i’d do the same for my kids.

  32. lindsey Avatar
    lindsey

    goddamn i wish i had been able to get my ears pierced with a gun when i was a wee one. i might have kept them.

  33. Alice White Avatar

    This is a great picture ^_^
    Being a parent, of course it sucks to see kids in pain. It’s so much better seeing them in pain getting a proper procedure than sitting in some Claire’s while an inexperienced kid punches holes in the ears.
    Good to know people do it the right way ^_^

  34. John Osborne Avatar
    John Osborne

    You know, I agree with #30.
    Good piercers should pierce kids, obviously I wont do a 13 year old girls nipples, (before you laugh, I actually DID have a clients mom ask if I would), but if they can request it, Ill do kids ears. I would rather do it than have some douchebag do it with a gun and scar the fucking child for life.
    Piercing is a responsibility to not only the piercee but the piercer. We all have to look out for the dumb kids that will be turned away by us and have it done by some hack in a garage, or the misinformed parents that will crush some cheap crap into a babies ear. Parents, just leave your kids alone until they decide they want a piercing, then take care of it in a RESPONSIBLE manner.

  35. Maria Avatar

    Before I found the piercing world at large, I thought all little girls were like me and my family friends.. I got my ears pierced sometime before I was 6 months old. Everyone I know did it, and we still do it now. My sister in law took my nieces to a doctor to have their ears pierced when they were 10 months old. The only negative thing is that guns are mostly used, so to see this kid going to a professional piercer is better then taking her to a mall, salon, or any gun-using establishment.

  36. melsgam Avatar

    i have 3 holes in each ear and one cartledge- all gun pierced.

    :-/

    i was really young when i got them tho, so i didn’t know better and my parents don’t comprehend the difference between gun and needle, like why it matters.

    i will have my kids pierced with a needle
    i just will need to wait till they’re a bit older i guess

    i got pierced when i was 3 months old
    will a piercer actually do that on a 3 month old?

  37. Mercedes Avatar
    Mercedes

    Gun piercings are just BAD period. And now a days you can buy them (I don’t think it’s legal, but seeing as I live in Mississippi I really don’t think anyone cares. They cost about 15.00). I would NEVER allow my child to get gun pierced.

    I remember being very little when my parents were into DIY piercing and my mom piercing her nose with one. I definitly made a face like that just watching. =/

  38. greendayfan333 Avatar

    In Gibraltar when babies are born the doctors ask the parents there and then if they want them to pierce the baby’s ears. I don’t know whether it is with a gun or a needle but it’s standard practice there!

  39. eric Avatar
    eric

    I’d be more worried about this if she was actually crying. Just looks like she’s making a face to me. Acting the way she thinks she should be because she thinks it should hurt really bad. Is there an after picture?

  40. T Avatar
    T

    i’ve always felt uncomfortable when I see parents with a baby girl and she has her ears pierced. I remember once at work (I work at Toys R Us), this mother came in with her daughter and HER mother, and they had just gotten the girl’s ears pierced. I always wonder if the child will chose to take them out at a later date, since it wasn’t really their choice. I know both my mother and aunt took their ear piercings out because they didn’t like them. My grandma got them pierced when they were kids because she liked the look.

    As for the picture…at least they’re using a needle!

  41. Maiden Avatar
    Maiden

    Some hair salons now have disposable piercing guns, their packaged with the stud right in the gun, that way they can only be used once.

    Poor girl, it might hurt but I think she will be happy with them when they are healed.

  42. Christy Avatar
    Christy

    I had my ears gun pierced when I was 6 and 12, then had them pierced a 3rd time in both lobes with needles at 14. The gun sets healed fine but one needle piercing formed a keloid and I finally removed the ring. I purposely didn’t have them pierced a third time with the gun because I thought it’d be worse than the needle… now I’m done with piercings for good but just like to look at everyone else’s!

  43. Sara Avatar
    Sara

    Rather that than a gun.

  44. Core Avatar
    Core

    Ehh…as I see it, at least she’s old enough to decide if she wanted it done or not, and there isn’t one of those horrible guns involved.

    Pain is just weakness leaving the body.

  45. RubySoHo Avatar
    RubySoHo

    I think that peircing a child when they can’t aleast ask for the peircing is not O.K. a gun is ever worse and i have several times said something to people in claires for having their childs ears peirced in such an unsanitary way. I know tons of people who have had their ears peirced with a gun, Had an bad problem with them and think they can’t get peirced at all because of it. I AM: hehaditcomin went to beauty school and they teach you how to peirce with a gun at school. She of course was upset by it as well. I read an article on here a few years back and cannot recall where i found it but the girl made a very valid point saying that As a society most people won’t think twice about putting braces on their child or peircing their ears as an infant but then look at indiginous (Spelling error?) tribes and consider them primitive and what they do as wrong.

  46. elnois Avatar
    elnois

    my little sister had her ears pierced with a gun and they went dodgy, so she let them heal up. when they had healed i took her to a piercer and asked him to re-pierce them with needles. he basically told me not to be a dick and that guns are perfectly safe. so we left. we went to quite a few after that and they all had the same attitude. luckily i found a really good guy to do it and her ears are fine now. i know its only her lobes but i got mine gunned when i was her age and i thought that it was normal so a year later when i was 13 i went and got some cartilage pierced with a gun because i didn’t know any better…never again…the word ‘infection’ would be an understatement.

  47. erin Avatar
    erin

    i had my ears pierced when i was 10 weeks old with a gun in a jewellers. i wish my parents has asked me! but ive never haqd a problem with thwm healing over even when i didnt wear earings for several years.

  48. sheldo Avatar

    aw, this reminds me when I was 9 and getting my ears gunned in a hair dressers… I made the same kind of face!! (and I still do when I think about the gun)

    But yes, at least she can say no if she doesn’t want it. I also agree with peircing kids who are too young to understand or even agree with it. They must think “argh what are you doing to me!?”. But surely it’s a choking hazard piercing young kids and babies? What if it came out and the kid swallowed it?

  49. rubysoho Avatar
    rubysoho

    I think parents peirce little girls ears so people know she is a girl. I won’t even go into my opinion on gender roles. My sister peirced my newphews ear when he was a few months old and he just kept ripping it out. Same with my neice and then they got mad when she lost the diamond earrings they put in DUH?! little kids are going to do that. I was friends with a kid who wanted his cartildge peirced and i kept telling him to go to a shop. He ended up getting it done at wal-mart i think. He now has half an ear. The scar tissue/infection ended up being the size of a golfball and he had to have it removed.

  50. Giles Wallwork Avatar

    I bet she shows this off to everyones she meets from now on, including the pictures.

    As for consent this remains a VERY grey area but the law allows ear piercing at such an age (in the UK) despite its lack of regulation so nothing wrong going on here at all.

    Solaris has a decent piece written on his IAM about this.

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