Stories Collected While Living in France

French la Vie

Sweet Sixteen and piercing ears with a needle and thread

                               

1975

Around this time thirty odd years ago, at an hometown football game, my childhood friend was talking about piercing her ears…other than the boys on the field, what else do teenage girls talk about at a football game?

Being the spontaneous girl that I was, I offered my ear piercing services to her. Really, how hard was it to stick a pin through someone’s ear? The combination of desire and desperation lead Shelley to trust me.

We tipped-toe-d late that evening into my family’s house. I took two clothes pins off the line, cut a potato in half, and took a needle with a thread out of the junk drawer. Shelley found these objects curious. I explained the game plan to her: The clothes pins were to numb her ear lobes, the cut potato was to be held behind her ear to keep it firm while the needle…(no need to explain its purpose…) and the thread was to guide the earring through after it was pierced.

While we chatted about number 35 on the football team, and lip gloss, Shelley sat patiently with the two clothes pins numbing her earlobes. It hurt.

When her ears could no longer feel a thing, I took the sterilized needle and pierced her ear, the squishing sound made my stomach turn. As I went to pierce the second lobe, I felt my head spin, as if I had been hit head-on by a football player… Nevertheless, I stuck the needle into her second earlobe, the squishing sound roared, the needle was half in and half out…Shelley was cheering me on…DO IT, DO IT, JUST DO IT!! The reality of what I was doing tackled me, causing me to withdraw my courage! I CAN’T, I CAN’T I whimpered back!

What were we going to do? Her Father, our high school football coach, was going to nail us, I had fumbled, we started to laugh uncontrollably!

Gathering our wits, we went and woke up my Mother….she stared at us in disbelief, sat up, shook her head, and drove the needle home, touchdown into the potato!

Shelley had her ears pierced, my Mom went back to bed, I threw up and decided a career in body piercing wasn’t for me…

Shelley do you remember what your Dad said?

(P.S. AH HA Shelley responds:  "Corey…I’m sure My Father said…."JUST WHAT YOU NEED…ANOTHER HOLE IN YOUR HEAD!" Posted by: Shelley | September 13, 2006 at 07:20 PM")

photo: Stud earrings dazzle football players?

Comments

44 responses to “Sweet Sixteen and piercing ears with a needle and thread”

  1. Jeanne

    Your stories enchant me each and every day. This one is so precious!
    Love you Sugar Plum!
    Jeanne
    X0X0

    Reply
  2. ParisBreakfasts

    Boy! does that bring back memories. I was on the island of Nantucket, 18 and it was a very covert act back then…comparable to getting an abortion..no kidding! I went to this shack outside of town..well I did it and never looked back. My dream was to wear earrings in the bathtub!? Go figure. Now, since I noticed no one wearing earrings in Paris last trip, all my studs are gathering dust…Corey, YOU ARE A PANDORA’S BOX OF DELIGHTS!

    Reply
  3. Lee

    Umm…not a good career path, I suspect.

    Reply
  4. gracie

    My earlobes are still intact and virginal!! I like earrings, but just no wish to have holes nature did not already give me (particularly if it involves pain!! haha). I think you were incredibly brave and so was Shelley!!!

    Reply
  5. Paris Parfait

    Quelle histoire! My dad wouldn’t let me pierce my ears until I was 17, even though all my friends had theirs pierced in the 7th grade. I have some friends who pierced theirs by numbing ear lobes with ice cubes, but the potato addition is a new one! Thanks for sharing this (looking back) amusing story. xo

    Reply
  6. Lea

    Goodness me, what a story, I love it! I’m truly laughing out loud, thanks, Corey!! I think I’ll make some new earrings tonight… 🙂

    Reply
  7. naturegirl

    What a great memory even then you were pushing the boundries
    with your bravery!Oh to be young and fearless!

    Reply
  8. swampgrrl

    LOL….what a great story!
    big hugs,
    swampgrrl

    Reply
  9. cruststation

    What a great story, I have an ear piecing story too but I’ll have to share that in an email as it is possibly too gory 😛
    Tongue in Cheek begs….Babelfish to share her story here !! And yippy Skippy she agrees!! Here it is!!
    I love your story today, such a cool nostalgic story into your childhood.
    You reminded me of something that happened when I was around 9. My parents gave me this cute wooden doll of a girl and her ears were just calling out for me to pierce them (beauty is everything).
    I took a large needle, the kind that comes on the end of a screwdriver type handle and attempted to put it through the wooden dolls ears. After some struggling, I managed to scratch the surface of its ears and put the needle through my thumb!!! That was a horrific sight and I’d woken everyone with my cry by then. My mum had to take out the iodine from the medicine cabinet and pull the needle out quickly patching my thumb with plasters!
    Although I do have pierce ears myself, I won’t ever dare to pierce another doll’s ears ever again 🙂
    (Thanks for the reminder)….

    Reply
  10. Dawn

    Oh my, Corey…this reminds me of my own ear piercing in 1971..my-next-door-neighbor-friend-and-partner-in-crime…pierced mine after freezing the lobes…and used a radish that was dipped in alcohol. The first one went fine…but the second? She had to pull the needle out and do it over..and that lobe was not quite frozen. My stomach did a turn, for sure. It is amazing what one will do when one is very determined. It did make a noise you describe…in my case, a crunching rather than squishing.
    My father was not happy with me, but soon got over it.
    Loved your story..such a hoot!

    Reply
  11. constance

    Corey,
    Your story brings back memories for me too. We lived in San Francisco , it was the 60’s. I was eight. My dad (not a doctor) came home one night and asked my Mom and I if we’d like to get out ears pierced. BIG YES was the answer. The next night after consulting a Doctor my dad (with the aid of a special alcohol, sterilized needle and a large cork), pierced our ears. My brother dared me that I wouldn’t go through with it. And my New York Grandma thought it was discusting. I adored my little gold ‘posts’. I loved having pierced ears that night and I still love them today.
    Thanks for the happy memory of my dad.

    Reply
  12. Shannon

    What a funny story!! My friend and I pierced the tops of each other’s ears where it was cool to wear an earring.
    After all that trouble, my mother made me take out the earring and close up the hole.
    I miss that little hole 🙁 Goodbye coolness…..

    Reply
  13. Jos

    And such are the defining moments of someone who was born to heal, not scar!
    You are so sweet, and what a good mama you have, to finsih what you started 🙂

    Reply
  14. susanna

    Hah! I would’ve been like you, Corey. I’m pretty wimpy when it comes to bleeding body parts – even earlobes. What a memorable story!

    Reply
  15. andrea

    Ha! I love what Jos said…so true.
    Delightful story Corey.
    a.

    Reply
  16. teresa atkinson

    Corey – I am doing a tribute to my dad this month. Your question at the end of this post made me laugh. My dad took me to the jewelry store to have mine pierced and he bought most of the earrings I had at the time.
    Have a beautiful day

    Reply
  17. susan@artstream

    oooh i remember this now that you bring it all back … but we used ice cubes. i did my roomates ears in college and almost passed out. delightful stories and as paris breakfasts says you are a variable pandora’s box of delights!

    Reply
  18. pinar

    you took me.. all back to the adolescent years..
    how I argued with my mother.. to have those piercing..
    I went to a health office.. to have mine pierced.. later I learned.. the man who did it.. was a circumcision technician..
    but you were a very good planner.. all the potatoe and clothespin organization at that age ..

    Reply
  19. Linda

    My room mate in college pierced my ears. We used ice and a dull needle. I screamed into a towel as she forced the needle in. My, did it hurt. I can’t wear earrings anymore as I’ve developed an allergy to metals when I do-except for the clip ons and they hurt. Ah, the things we do for beauty.

    Reply
  20. Teresa

    It’s so funny how everyones comments are so universal on the techniques of ear piercing, even though we were spread all over the country. The ice cubes, potatoe, and the clothespin. We all went through this in the 70’s. How cool!

    Reply
  21. stephanie s

    it was summer 1976, portland oregon. having reached the mature age of 14 my mom said i could get my ears pierced. i had been asking for ages beacause it felt like i was the only person in the world that didn’t have them… on the phone that night with my father…
    ‘guess what mom and i did today?’
    ‘i don’t know, what?’
    ‘we got our ears pierced!!!’
    silence
    and, MORE silence.
    ‘let me talk to your mother’
    see, dad thought that the next step after a girl piercing her ears was a career in prostitution, which is i am sure why mom did hers at the same time. NOT so i could have a partner on the corner… but so she could take the brunt of his anger and get him to realize it really wasn’t going to spell my doom.
    thanks corey… your story is wonderful, i will be checking back to hear what shelley remembers…

    Reply
  22. Lorene Silva

    Corey,
    That story was funny! I can picture your Mother finishing what you started. Thanks for sharing the story.
    Lorene

    Reply
  23. diana

    I am laughing…laughing…laughing
    and remembering those days so fondly. Thanks again Corey !!

    Reply
  24. AnnieElf

    what laughter this elicited. I was 15 years old and sitting in the middle of the kitchen with the same method used on me. What a memory.

    Reply
  25. Amber

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahaaahahahahaaaa! I thought you were going to say you fainted!
    🙂

    Reply
  26. Shelley

    Corey…I’m sure My Father said….”JUST WHAT YOU NEED…ANOTHER HOLE IN YOUR HEAD!”

    Reply
  27. Cousin Linda

    My cousin Joan and I had our ears pierced in our 20’s by a friend using the ice cube/potato method (which seems much less painful than clothes pins). As mentioned in other posts, it was forbidden by our parents when we were younger (which makes us older than most of the other posters). The next day she put in our little 14-carat gold posts. I don’t know about Joan, but I have never had a single infection or problem and I can wear any piece of junk in my ears. I still have a clear vision of Joan and I sitting in Judy’s kitchen with ice cubes numbing our ears, laughing hysterically. Corey, thanks for resurrecting the memory.

    Reply
  28. Jeanette Mendonca

    The memories this brings! I was 12 and wanted my ears pierced in the worst way. My Dad said if God wanted more holes in your ears he would of put them there! So end of story right….no my dear Godmother (Roxanne L. your cousin) decide she would go against Uncle Ray and give me a pair of earrings and a gift cert to Spencers Jewerly to have my ears pierced and she did. Dad just shook his head when I openned the card and gift on my 13th birthday…I got my ears pierced and gave many thanks to Roxanne for being the best Godmother a girl could have. Cory thanks for the wonderful story and shared memories.
    Jeanette

    Reply
  29. Sandy

    What a great story. I had my ears pierced in the mid 60’s in high school. Everyone was watching Peyton Place at that time & Mia Farrow had these sweet little pearl earrings in her pierced ears. Ear piercing was just getting started in those days with most people. You had to go to a doctor as they didn’t have ear piercing places or devices. I remember the crunching sound which freaked me out. I felt pretty cool going back to school with my new little earrings, just like Mia.

    Reply
  30. Britt-Arnhild

    one of several favorite moments of my day – to check your blog and find a new entry. This one is perfect. When will your book be out????? I want a signed copy!

    Reply
  31. Jenny

    I’m an ear piercing virgin too…after the temptations of girlfriends in the early 70’s and watching the needles and potatoes I just couldn’t bring myself to get it done…but…there’s still time! Your post inspired in me that rebel again! What an enjoyable journey this story was…

    Reply
  32. tongue in cheek

    (P.S.S. As most of you who have been following my blog since the beginning know…I have a million cousins, in the comments there are several who have responded… noting other cousins to boot!! I didn’t realize I would strike, or pierce, such a cord with this many readers, let alone cousins! I guess we girls of the 60s and 70s, really were the first generation of “liberated women!” Burning the bra and piercing ears were just the tip of the iceberg!)

    Reply
  33. Kit

    Wonderful story! I blithely informed my parents I was going to get my ears pierced at fourteen and a resounding NO from my father was the verdict. I then wished I’d just done it without telling them. I eventually got them done at nineteen but by then it wasn’t exciting any more and all the camaraderie healing the holes and turning the sleepers was past. I enjoyed wearing funky earrings for a couple of years but then I started reacting to the metals, so no more sadly. It was the eighties by then and I went to the jeweller’s to get it done, no stories there.

    Reply
  34. la vie en rose

    oh corey, this is an absolutely fabulous story. i’m so glad you shared it. it really made my day!

    Reply
  35. meredith

    Corey, I cringed while reading this. I never could have pierced even the first ear. You’re so brave!

    Reply
  36. lala

    Oh Corey, I just started to laugh to myself when I read this, it brought back lots of memories. Yes, Roxanne and I and I think Sandra was in on it too. It’s been so long ago. It was their Aunt Gail that did ours. Clothes pins, ice cube and then the potatoe behind the ear. Oh was I scared but I wanted to have pierced ears. We laughed and giggled at each other as we all got our ears pierced. Thanks for the smile today and always 🙂

    Reply
  37. Annabelle

    Today has been a sad day for Canada with the news of the Montreal school shooting. I was glad to have glanced at your blog and got just what I needed – a good dose of laughter. Thanks Corey.

    Reply
  38. Cat

    Laughing, yes, the memories!!! I used ice and a needle on my girlfriend, no potato or clothes pins! Oh how brave we were….

    Reply
  39. annie lockhart

    oh my…what histerical memories this brought up for me too…but unlike you…i got the biggest thrill out of piercing ears…i couldn’t tell you how many i did during jr high and high school…but i would always make the girls swear not to tell their parents who did it! i used ice to numb and a cork for the “potato”…darling post…xoxo…annie…ps…a couple of months ago someone had lost an earring at security/airport…and i was working the gate…(southwest airlines) i made an announcement something like this…please check your earlobe…someone has turned in an earring to me…or you could check your tongue,nose,eyebrow,
    bellybutton, or,or,well never mind… i had better stop there…everyone cracked up…times sure have changed!

    Reply
  40. Tiffini Elektra X

    Oh my I am laughing out loud! Oh I can not even imagine pushing the needle through! I love the way you tell a story. What a cool mom you had to finish the job!! ♥

    Reply
  41. Lisa

    Oh Corey, how I laughed! My first ear piercing experience, my father took me to the mall and he passed out when the needle gun went cachunk. Second one was in my bathroom, when I put a second hole in my left earlobe. When my mother threw a fit (only fast girls had double piercings) I blamed it on a friend. I have never let that hole completely close because it was the bravest thing I’ve ever done.

    Reply
  42. Julie

    Wow! I have not as yet pierced my ears. I’ve been putting it off for years. Scary!

    Reply
  43. shelley Noble

    Hilarious. what a storyteller!

    Reply
  44. mary ann

    hi corey!
    just catching up with you {smile}…
    funny story…i had my ears pierced when i wasn’t even 1 year old by my mother…i’m sure i cried, but i have no memory of it!
    xo, mary ann

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Privacy Policy - Terms and Conditions