What do you do if your teen approaches you one day expressing their desire to pierce their nose? Many parents who find themselves facing this request are at least a little taken aback when their teen first expresses their wishes to have their nose pierced. Whether you decide to discourage or support them in their endeavor for this not-so-uncommon body piercing is entirely up to you. But knowing the basic facts might help you identify exactly how you feel about your teen having their nose pierced.
First of all, you will need to know what the procedure entails, what aftercare is required, and, if you’ve never actually seen somebody with a nose piercing, it might also help to see some images of people who do have them. These bits of knowledge and exposure will work together to help you decide exactly where you stand on the possibility of your teen having their nose pierced.
When my daughter presented her request to have her nose pierced, at the age of fourteen and a half, I was surprised at myself when I found that the idea didn’t bother me. She has no other piercings, aside from her ears, and only wanted to wear a small nose stud bearing a tiny gem. My husband and I talked about it, and decided we would allow her to go forward with having her nose pierced. Once the decision was made to allow our teenage daughter to have her nose pierced, we needed several pieces of information to move forward. After some research on the Internet, I felt I had a good portion of the information I would need.
We then contacted a Tattoo and Body Piercing Studio in our community. We explained to the person at the studio that we had a teenager who wanted to have her nose pierced. We were informed that we would need to bring in her birth certificate, her school identification card (a license or state identification card would have been acceptable, too), along with our identification to show that we were in fact, her parents. We also were told that when we arrived at the studio, we would be required to sign some forms giving our consent for our daughter to have her nose pierced.
When we arrived at the piercing studio, we produced the paperwork and identification we had been asked to bring along, and then signed the required consent form. My daughter was shown a variety of nose studs of different sizes and prices. We all agreed on one, and the piercing technician asked my daughter to come back to the piercing area with her. My husband walked back with her, as my daughter was quite nervous. Personally, I couldn’t bear the anxiety of waiting for the event to take place, certain that my daughter would soon be screaming out in tremendous pain as her nose was pierced, so I actually left the studio and sat in the car!
Less than ten minutes later, my husband and daughter emerged from the studio. Instead of big, fat tears rolling down her cheeks, my daughter was smiling and excitedly talking with her Dad. She explained to me that having her nose pierced had not been at all painful. As she clutched her Dad’s hand waiting for the pain to arrive, after a few seconds she asked the piercing technician how much longer it would be. To her surprise, the piercing technician informed her that she was already done, her nose was pierced.
Although there was some initial swelling and redness, it was minimal. After reading multiple articles online for the aftercare of a nose piercing, as well as reading hundreds of posts left in Nose Piercing discussion forums, we decided to buy Dial anti-bacterial soap in a pump, as surprisingly, we found it to be frequently recommended. We had very good success with the Dial anti-bacterial soap. My daughter washed her nose thoroughly but gently, twice each day for about a month. The directions we read concerning cleaning the nose after having it pierced, explained that a popular technique after lathering with the soap, was to rinse by pouring water out of a cup onto the nose, allowing the water to run the soap and water through the pierced hole in the nose. This is the technique that my daughter used for rinsing after cleaning her newly pierced nose. However, you will want to do your own research on the subject of aftercare, as well as discuss it with the staff at the studio where your teen has their nose pierced. We chose not to go with the suggestions of the studio, after much online research led me to discover multiple articles, as well as suggestions on the sites of other body piercing studios, to strongly contradict the directions we had been given by the studio we had gone to. According to what we read, we learned that the product that our studio was recommending was actually commonly thought of to increase the amount of scar tissue around a nose piercing. Learn all that you can, and make an informed choice regarding aftercare.
Allowing your teen to have their nose pierced is a big deal, and not a decision that you will want to take lightly. The potential for subsequent infection exists, so you will need to educate yourself as much as possible before making a decision. If possible, visit several different studios, so that you have the opportunity to choose the location that you feel most comfortable with. Just like restaurants, tattoo and body piercing studios vary greatly in hygiene practices, staff knowledge and skill, price, and reputation. If you do decide to allow your teen to have their nose pierced, you will want to entrust them to the most competent piercing staff available to you.
