Ear Piercing: Long hollow needle vs. Earring Gun

If you are a parent interested in finding the best options for your child’s ear piercing, you are not alone. There is so much information out there and it can be overwhelming to consider all aspects of the piercing. We completely understand your frustration and would like to give you more information about our process and why it may be beneficial to you and your family.

Long hollow-point needles are great for tattoo artists and other beauty professionals. We have outlined the hollow-point long needle piercing process below:

1. The hollow-point process involves your child receiving a local anesthetic (I.e. multiple shots of a local anesthetic to numb the area).

2. Once the area is numbed, the ear lobe is held in place while a large hollow point needle is forced through the lobe.

3. The needle stays in the ear while the earring is attached to the end of the needle and “threaded” through the lobe.

4. A backing to the earring is then put in place.

While you can flip through the many social media videos and see the ease that the hollow-point needles have, having a small child undergoing this procedure can be difficult in a small child since babies squirm.

Because of this, You want a professional who is able to let your child move freely during the procedure without having to have them keep still at so many points during the procedure.

There is also a period after the needle is placed in the lobe when it must stay in the lobe while the earring is placed… again, you know your child best. However, if the thought of a long sharp needle so close to your young child’s face may bring you pause, we understand.

Finally, in order for the earring to be placed on the hollow point needle, it must be separated initially from its backing. You want to make sure that the earring and its backing are sterile and not touched before going directly into the ear. With the hollow-point method, the earring can’t remain sterile since the professional would have to separate the earring from its backing during the procedure.

Our procedure is straightforward.

1. Our ear-piercing patients sit in their parents' laps so that they are comfortable.

2. We clean the ears on both sides with an alcohol swab

3. We then mark the potential area for piercing with a skin-friendly marker and have the area checked by the parent to their satisfaction.

4. We numb the area with our numbing wipes

5. We have the patient held gently by their parent

6. We align the needle of the punch gun up to the potential ear-piercing site

7. Once the gun is punched, it locks the sterile earring and the backing in place as well, completely hands-free.

Our “piercing guns” only focus on punching the earring and backing into the ear, there are no other compression points to the skin.

While some of our patients do experience crying after the procedure, it is generally babies that are more frightened by the click of the gun. By the time we are finished, the earring and its backing are already in place.

We give a care kit for ear care to be used for the following several weeks after the ears have been pierced.

We have a follow-up visit to re-check the ears should parents request. This visit occurs two weeks after the initial ear piercing.

We invite you to contact us with further questions and look forward to seeing you and servicing you for your child's ear pierrcing needs.