No parent, no piercing?

02/28/2007

BY RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER
Pioneer Press


Parents, get ready to hear: Can I get my tongue pierced? Pleeaaasse?

A measure wending its way through the Minnesota Legislature would require parents or guardians' presence and permission before kids could get their bodies pierced.

At least 27 states and some Minnesota cities and counties already require minors to get permission before they get pierced. But, right now, Minnesota law doesn't require those under 18 to receive an adult OK to get cosmetic holes poked in their bodies.

"People say, 'Huh, that's not a law?' " said Sen. Rick Olseen, DFL-Harris, who sponsored the permission-required legislation that passed a Senate committee Tuesday and was on its way to the Senate floor.

His bill would require body piercers to witness a parent or guardian signing a permission slip before piercing minors. That's key, Olseen said.

Minnesota law requires permission slips from parents before the children can get a tattoo but not the parents' presence. That's a little too loose, Olseen said.

"I suspect there's an awful lot of best friends writing those notes," he said.

The measure wouldn't restrict ear piercing, but there are a lot of other spots that people are piercing these days.

"It's the tongue, the lips, the belly buttons," Olseen said.

On Monday, normally straight-laced Sen. John Marty modeled the various spots one might get pierced for the Senate Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee. The Roseville DFLer pinned huge faux rings to his lip, ear and nose.

"Sen. Marty, thank you for that little demonstration," said committee chairwoman Sen. Linda Scheid, DFL-Brooklyn Park. "And hopefully, we are not on television."

"I checked. We're not," said Marty, before uttering "ouch" and removing his piercings.

Derek Lowe, general manager at Saint Sabrina's Parlor in Purgatory in Minneapolis, has been piercing people's flesh for more than a decade. He has been asked to pierce an awful lot of ears, but customers also want nostril piercings and "navels are still quite popular."

He's all for the statewide piercing measure.

"I think, for the most part, most people who call us or come in realize that they are not going to get it done without permission or I.D.," Lowe said.

Minneapolis requires a parent or guardian's permission before a minor can get pierced; St. Paul doesn't have any city code restricting minors from getting pierced.

While visiting the Capitol on Tuesday, 17-year-old Erick Flores said he wouldn't mind having to ask his parents before getting any body piercings.

"If they think it's bad for me, they will tell me," said Flores, of Minneapolis.