A mother has shared her horror after her 11-year-old daughter came home from a day with friends sporting multiple new piercings.
The girl had reportedly spent the day with her neighbor's 13-year-old daughter and her teenage friends when the alleged incident occurred.
The mom was left outraged after the teenagers spent the day piercing one another - which raises some concerns about the cleanliness and hygiene of the procedure - and her daughter came home with more jewelry than she had left with.
She opened up about the incident on Reddit, admitting she had been a "little reluctant" to let her little girl hang out with the 13-year-old next door and her two pals - who were aged 14 and 15 - but went against her better judgment.
The mom revealed that the 11-year-old had had her ears pierced in the past but claims the girl had never expressed an interest in getting more piercings.
She added that "it is very uncharacteristic for my daughter to do such a thing," and said her fears about letting her hang out next door were "proven correct".
Her daughter had gone all-out with her new piercings - having seven in one ear and three in the other - which her mother suspects was "likely influenced by peer pressure".
She wrote: "I have many concerns around hygiene, removing the piercings but mainly how easily my daughter was influenced by the older girls to do something so stupid.
"She is also too young to make what I consider a permanent decision and she may also regret the piercings later."
The mother said in her now-deleted post that she was considering banning her daughter from seeing the girl next door but is "not sure if that is a good idea when they are close friends".
While teenagers are known for experimenting with their looks and trying to push the boundaries, many users were shocked at the amount of piercings the 11-year-old ended up with.
One Redditor wrote: "She went in with 2 piercings and came back with 10??? Done by teens? Not ok at all."
Another added: "Right! I literally gasped out loud when I got to the part about 7 on one ear lobe. I had assumed this was a zero to 2 hole (1 in each ear) situation. You obviously need to talk to your daughter about peer pressure, but I would actually be talking to the other parents as well. This was unacceptable, there are so many issues here and I would hope they would want to address with their daughter as well."
One advised: "Definitely not ok and very concerning because I doubt they had the proper equipment. Best case scenario is they bought a diy piercing kit or that they are least bought new earrings they shoved through daughters ears. OP needs to take them out and make a Drs appointment/call a nurse line to figure out what to do to keep the piercings from getting infected," while another added: "Wouldn't be OK if she did just one. It's unsanitary and stupid."
