I suppose I should be thankful. I’ll be thrilled — once I stop wincing.
The daughter who has given me zero trouble called from college. She talked about her flight home in June. She talked about her two summer jobs, fall classes and a visit at school from her best friend.
This rambling chat ended with an alarming, "Mom, you’re going to be really mad."
Given her track record, I was stumped. She wasn’t flunking out, she wasn’t getting married. What could make me "really mad"? A sky-high phone bill?
It never occurred to me that my smart 19-year-old would waltz into a place called Body Exotic in San Jose, Calif., and have her navel pierced.
My kids — knock on wood — play by the rules. I was hard-pressed to imagine her transgression, and for that I’m thankful. The bellybutton? Haven’t seen it.
I’m less than thrilled, but nowhere near "really mad." Mine is an emotional stew surely shared by a legion of parents whose kids surprise them with piercings or — heaven forbid — tattoos.
These badges of rebellion are as customary today as shoulder-length hair was on guys in the ’60s. Hear that, baby-boomer dads?
A week ago, I would have said no child of mine will ever sport a ring in a navel, nose, eyebrow or the cartilage of an ear.
That was then. This week, here’s my thought: With all the wrong paths young people can take, the path to a piercing parlor just isn’t "really mad" territory.
At Lynnwood Tattoo &Body Piercing Tuesday, Jason Millione said the bellybutton is the most requested piercing among young women. "I think every girl out there is doing it," he said.
My 19-year-old’s rationale is that it can be hidden, or she’ll take it out. "I’m not going to a job with my bellybutton showing," she said.
Young men favor eyebrow rings and pierced tongues, Millione said. Then there are pierced places I’m too polite to mention, also part of Millione’s business.
The day my daughter’s navel was done, a woman with "weird hair" had her nipple pierced. Ouch.
Teens under 18 can get ears or navels pierced with parents present, but Millione’s clients must be adults for "genitals, nipples or anything in the mouth." Ouch, ouch, ouch.
In 2001, the Legislature passed a bill establishing sterilization standards for tattooing and electrolysis.
"Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot of regulation for piercing in Washington state," said Hannah Brownlee, who works at Painless Steel Tattoo &Body Piercing in Everett.
A dermatologist pierced my ears when I was a teen, but doctors I contacted generally don’t do piercings now. Staffs of Dr. Frank Fleming, a Mill Creek cosmetic surgeon, and Everett plastic surgeon Dr. David Pratt said their offices neither do piercings nor see the problems they cause.
"They’re not coming in here," said Kathy Lemmon, Fleming’s office manager.
She tells "every young person I meet" that they should look into piercing businesses to make sure they dispose of needles after each use and have spore-tested autoclaves for cleaning equipment.
"At least there are enough of these places that kids don’t try to pierce themselves anymore," Lemmon said. "Five or six years ago, you’d see people slamming the needle through."
Lemmon, of Bothell, said her daughter came home from college with a rosebud tattoo on her shoulder, telling her mother "don’t get your knickers all in a bunch."
"My own nephew has a pierced tongue. They do it to fit in," she said.
As for infections, "I don’t think there’s that big a problem," Lemmon added.
"Consistency is the key. They need to keep it clean and not touch it while it’s healing," Brownlee said. For navels, Millione recommends medicated lotion soap and a sea-salt soak twice a day. The Body Exotic gave my girl the same advice — what a relief.
"Body modification," Brownlee said, is a form of self-expression that’s been around thousands of years. "It’s part of culture everywhere in the world."
At Millione’s shop, a woman in her 50s recently had her navel pierced. Brownlee did a "below the belt" piercing on a 78-year-old man. "We see a lot of older people," she said. "It’s good to know people are keeping their minds open."
My mind is still adjusting to my daughter’s navel, adorned by a tiny barbell.
For me, a single hole in each ear is quite enough. My diamonds could be larger, so I might better express myself.
Contact Julie Muhlstein via e-mail at muhlsteinjulie@heraldnet.com, write to her at The Herald, P.O. Box 930, Everett, WA 98206, or call 425-339-3460.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
