Body piercings are all the rage these days among teenagers. They want to be poked, punctured, and bejeweled. People pierce everything above, below, and along the belt line. They can keep their undercover locations to themselves. 

Any piercing not in plain sight is off limits to my imagination and to our daughter.

She has two ears to adorn. She is welcome to line studs up and down her lobes like cloves on a ham. It will have to satisfy her, until she is legally responsible for her own body. As long as her body lives under our roof, we have a say over what stays whole and what she may make holey.  

For her 16th birthday present, she asked for an ear cartilage piercing. She had her heart set on piercing in P-town, and we just happened to be on the Cape staying with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law last weekend.  If you can’t find a piercing parlor in Provincetown, you must be too distracted by the throngs of folks with nose rings, ear gauges, and tramp stamps milling in the streets.    

For years my brother-in-law, the Pied Piper of our family, teased us that he’d take his niece to P-town and get her pierced and tattooed to her heart’s desire. My sister-in-law kept her snuggly under her wing and waited for our approval. Although my husband had to miss the event, our daughter had three chaperones for her piercing party: her aunt, uncle and her mom.   

Googling for listings, we found Piercings By The Bearded Lady. “Not that one,” we all said in unison. It sounded like a circus sideshow. We wanted spanking clean, not sawdust and mud. We pulled up another listing and drove to the address on Commercial Street. Google had sent us by mistake to Piercings By The Bearded Lady, anyway. The store was having a special sale that day and we stepped inside. 

The saleswoman presented clinical information about the procedure with the manner of a nurse in Pre-Op.

I inspected the piercing room and the licenses up and down the walls of the shop. One use needle per client. Check. Sterilized equipment and spotless conditions. Check. Parental permission required for kids under age 18. Check. A double-sided page of detailed aftercare instructions, including a cell phone contact number. Check. We were in the right place, after all. 

When we first met Amiee Joy Ross (pronounced Ah-may) piercer extraordinaire, we zeroed in on the scraggly beard, her rotund shape, and the numerous facial piercings and tattoos on her arms. As she went about her work, the exterior receded. She was a professional, down to earth, charmingly funny person who was good at her job, regardless of her gender bender facade.        

I watched from the doorway of the piercing room as Amiee Joy Ross poked a needle into the ridge of my daughter’s ear and replaced it with jewelry. Briefly, there was a twinge of pain and then joy, when my daughter saw her reflection in the mirror. Our feelings aligned in a moment of mother-daughter bonding, as the star stud aligned with the tender crook of her ear.

While embellishing our daughter's already beautiful face, the bearded lady sparked a teachable moment. She taught us to look beyond the face of our prejudices about appearance and see the person behind the beard.

The discounted price on the piercing was a bargain. Two memorable moments for the price of one was a bonus.