Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for April 23, 2021

Good to see Alex trying to understand her mother.

Parents pierced the ears of Italian girls when they were very young. Especially in the South

Corny joke time!

“Have you ever had your ears pierced?”

“No, but I’ve had them bored!”

I was 39 when I finally drummed up the courage to get my ears pierced. And there were no Band-Aids, just nice gold studs.

Sharp observation there, Mike!

This is crazy. In my country girls got their ears pierced way before they are seven. What is the big deal with that?

Dad should be happy she didn’t get a tattoo!

On no! She got pierced ears at seven years old! Now she’ll probably get pregnant before graduation and live in a trailer park

Bottom line. She wanted them and Mom said she could. She’s punctured and you’re stuck dude.

Dad told my Sis she could not gets hers pierced “as long as she lived under his roof”. Different times, different places, different norms….

Some girls , I have heard have their ( kitty ) pierced , I knew one , but I never went out with her . So I never knew for sure , she told me that so I won’t ask her out I guess . ( It said something about me I guess ) . And I’m sorry that I posted this , please forgive me .

Alex always looks so worried. Too many troubles for young shoulders.

I had a friend who had a baby. Grandma took the little girl to let Mom catch up on her sleep. Grandma returned with the baby & her pierced ears…less than one years old…

At least it wasn’t that kind of needle.

I thought the expression “reaching out” didn’t come into vogue until much later.

I’d rather Pierce Brosnan

I just LOVE their father-daughter communication. Let us all learn some wisdom.

Better an ear piercing needle than a tattoo needle, or a drug needle for this seven year old.

In my world in the 60’s & 70’s every Girl had pierced ears and every Boy was cut. Later in the 70’s getting a 3rd or 4th piercing gave parents the vapors. Todays High School Girls have holes everywhere along with ink, Boys foreskins I have no clue but all the young males in my Family have been cut. Irish Catholics in Cali seemed to pierce Infant Girls I didn’t see my 1st intact Talawacker until I started going to the gym in the 80’s. I can’t imagine being “more sensitive” intact & uncut looks nasty to me but what do I know ? #noregerts

Suddenly, I feel like I’m the only woman in the world who has NEVER had her ears pierced, and I still don’t intend to. Not even my mother could convince me to pierce my ears.

Am I less of a woman for that?

At least it was just an ear-piercing needle…

As a child in the 60s and a teen in the 70s, my family wouldn’t let me get pierced ears until I was 12, and then my grandfather, a physician had to do them. No questionable mall practitioners for germaphobes in my family!

In many cultures, children have their ears pierced when they are very young. Far younger than Alex.

For a minute, he forgot that Mom is an Idiot.

I have never understood the intentional scarring of bodies, whether it is tattoos, ear piercings, scarification, brands, etc. About tattoos, I have rarely seen a tattoo that was artistic enough to consider putting in a frame and hanging on a wall. Usually, the artwork is awful—and yet people mark themselves up PERMANENTLY with art that is just junk. I don’t get it.

The summer between my sophomore and junior years in college, I had a job in a hospital. I became friendly with the head nurse on my ward, and she did me the favor of piercing my ears. Later that afternoon, I called home to tell my parents. I thought my father would get angry at me, but all he said was that he didn’t care, and I could have my nose pierced too, though he didn’t mean it, of course. It was his way of showing his disapproval. :)

Really obvis that GT has NO idea how the ear piercing process actually works (at least that, in the 90s you would have a pair of studs in to keep the piercing open and NO BAND AIDS). Band aids would just make the piercing heal and defeat the point.

But nobody has bandaids on their ears after piercing….

Young or old as long as the person is mature enough to keep them clean and free from infection.