You want to pierce your WHAT?!

[101driver]

Eeee gads! My daughter wants to get her belly button pierced. Actually, she has a great belly for it and it would be quite cute. But all I can think of is, wouldn't that be awful when partnering??!! Does anyone out there have any experience with pierced belly buttons and whether or not they get in the way of the working ballet dancer?

[Mel Johnson]

Let's just say it's not one of the Great Ideas of Western Civilization.

[Victoria Leigh]

I would certainly not want to perform a pas de deux with an earring in that place!

[kdbugs mine]

I know of two older students in my daughters studio who had their bellies pierced.......both of them regret it. One says that because it gets in the way that she has to put a band aid on it for class. She dances 5 or 6 days of the week, so needless to say, it stays taped up most of the time.

[Treefrog]

There was a dancer who pierced her belly-button mid-Nutcracker. This was the children's cast for the Joffrey Ballet. She was not able to wear the required white leo under her costome, her role involved a tumbling routine, her costume shifted and revealed a bare belly and sports bra .... needless to say, the ballet masters and mistresses -- who had not been consulted -- were NOT pleased.

[shulie]

Well.. at least it was not like a girl in my former studio who one week before Nut decided to cut her hair short, get a nose piercing and dye her hair flaming red.... she was supposed to dance in the Snow corps with me...

Needless to say ballet mistress was furious- the girl had to take her piercing out, dye her hair to a more suitable color and wear a "donut" in her hair.

[BW]

For your reading pleasure: Tattoos and Piercings.

[pinkpointes101]

my friend from ballet got her bellybutton peirced and so far nothing bad happened because of her peircing.

[Mel Johnson]

And I repeat: Ever heard of Murphy's Law?

[gogators]

101driver, would your dd consider instead a smallish tattoo?

 

(Sort of kidding, but actually maybe a tattoo is less hazardous for partnering??)

[Mel Johnson]

A friend of mine had a Kwakiutl Indian representation of an Orca tattooed right up the middle of his belly. Thank heaven he's an archaeologist. I would hate to have to try to cover THAT with makeup!

[101driver]

gogators - yikes! what's a mother to do?! That would be even worse, I think. She's still in the "thinking it over" stage. I've decided not to make a peep about it. You know these 14-year-olds...you say boo about something and they run 90 mph in the opposite direction. Hey...that give me an idea...maybe I should tell her I think it's a great idea!

[SeaMonkey]

Ok, I've posted about this before. I had my belly button pierced several years ago. That area of the body is very difficult to heal, and if she did it, would really need to do it at a time where she won't be in class for 3 weeks. To get it to heal properly, one needs 3 weeks of minimal sweating and movement, and NO SWIMMING. Also, since she would be doing partner work, a curved barbell rather than a ring would be best, and she would have to tape it for partner working. They don't look attractive under white leotards.

 

My navel piercing is no longer there. I had a curved barbell in and my ex boyfriend tried to pick me up and throw me in a pool and his pinky caught on the lower ball. It ripped half of the way out and healed crooked. It began to migrate out, so I took it out before it migrated out completely. This was about 5-6 years ago and I still have the scar. My piercer told me of a girl who let hers migrate out totally and had 2 flaps of skin over her navel.

 

Surface piercings, like belly button and eyebrows are prone to migrating out because they're in areas that have a lot on contact with fabrics (your pants and tights and your pillow) so they tend to snag on things, heal crookedly, or migrate out.

 

Also, keep in mind what sort of career your daughter might want in dance. I have 2 tattoos and my ears are gauged up. I do have to cover them up for performances, except when I was in a modern company, though the director said if it was a "traditional show" I would have to cover it up. I've had them long enough to know how to cover them, but honestly, the first 2 years of performing with them, I'd be dancing and wondering "did I cover it up enough??".

[dancetaxi]

She could always get her tongue pierced, then it wouldn't get in the way of partnering! She might have trouble eating for a week when her tongue swells to double its size, though!! (just kidding, really! )

[Shanynrose]

***First of all, what about aFake Belly Button Ring? I googled and found this first, but I'm sure you could also find them on eBay. ***

 

Slightly off-topic balletwise, but an important consideration all the same:

My Non-Dancing Daughter is fourteen but can easily look five years older. She does have a belly that would do a piercing justice. I also thought maybe a belly ring would be enough motivation for her to KEEP her abs looking nice.

 

So NDD and I were at an open audition - TV show, not ballet - talking about the possibility of a belly button piercing when one of the guys in the waiting area joined in the discussion.

"How old did you say she is?"

"Almost fourteen."

"Fourteen?!?! Do you WANT adult males hitting on her?"

 

He then explained that many guys assume a girl with body piercings is at least eighteen as most mothers would not sign for their underage daughters to pierce anything but ears. Another guy in line said "He's right. We do." Needless to say I backpedaled on the belly issue.

 

Later NDD and I talked about a small and discreet stud for her nose, but my husband put his foot down.

 

My husband says piercings and tattoos are "life decisions" and young teens are not equipped to weigh the benefits (aesthetic) against the risks (infection, difficulty obtaining mainstream employment, et cetera.) I wasn't so concerned about infection as I would be around to help her care for the site. But when he said "She'll have trouble getting a job if she has facial piercings," I realized he was right. There are relatively few jobs (music store, Hot Topic, certain makeup counters) where any type of facial piercing would be acceptable.

 

I know my NDD would look great with "body art," - she's somewhere between goth and punk and they style works well for her - but she can do the temporary stuff until she's 18 or so. She's been known to glue tiny rhinestones on her nose where a piercing would be. Sometimes she gets airbrush tattoos. I wouldn't even be averse to henna, which eventually wears off. Because she's in JROTC any body art must be completely concealed when she's in uniform. And I do not mean covered with makeup. Covered by clothing. When I went to take photos of NDD and her unit buddies before a parade the pierced ones were hurriedly removing all their metal. Piercings are NOT regulation.

 

But back to the ballet-specific issue:

 

I was shocked the first time I saw two female company members (not where DD currently dances) sporting large tattoos. I was only watching a rehearsal, but I was certainly distracted trying to figure out who had what on her shoulder blade. Evidently both women know how to cover the tattoos as nothing showed during the actual performance. My husband says one of these ladies also has a belly ring, but it doesn't show under her leotard. Our guess is, she removes it for ballet.

 

The guys with pierced ears also remove their earrings.

 

Personal opinion here but I think this makes sense - if you and your DD decide she can have the belly piercing, it should happen when she has enough downtime to let it heal completely (as in, be able to take the hardware out for several hours) before going back to ballet. It doesn't take a partner for the thing to catch on a leotard or the waistband of the tights.

 

If she must have some kind of "alternative" piercing, nose piercings aren't too hard to conceal if you're in front of a live audience, but I couldn't begin to tell you how to cover them for film or video with close-up potential. I know people who cover the tiny studs with the adhesive part of a fabric band-aid for class, but I'm sure many teachers would still find nose jewelry unacceptable. Still, a nasal piercing seems less likely to cause injury while dancing. Of course if the "piercee" is sensitive to metal, the tissue around the site can recede, leaving a large hole that is definitely visible. Again, it would ideally be done a couple months in advance of any performance.

 

And earlobe stretching? Fuhgeddaboutit! I don't know where that fad came from, but I hope it disappears soon.

 

My kids are incredibly different. DD does not want to make waves with her appearance at all. She's even careful with the size of her scrunchies - if she wears one at all, which is pretty rare. She does not want to create any kind of distraction. Right now her big self-expression thing is clothes with logos and writing. When she used to go on acting auditions she had to wear solid color clothes without logos. Now that she's all ballet, all the time, many of her school clothes have writing, prints, and logos. She's also thinking of lopping about eight inches off her hair, but that would still leave plenty to put in a bun. Any new hairstyle must pass The Bun Test.

 

I guess I should count myself lucky that I only have one who wants ink and holes.

I tend to be pretty liberal with my kids, probably because I had an extremely strict upbringing (thank you, Dr. Freud!) But this time I'm glad I listened to my husband's voice of reason. Oh, AND those guys at the audition.

 

Good luck.