Amara has been asking for a second ear piercing for about two years. We give her the same answer every time; "When you are sixteen." It seemed like a good number, although I got one second piercing when I went to Israel the summer of my ninth grade of high school.
When we were in Tahiti, Amara brought up the subject again. Especially after she learned that I was getting a tattoo. She’s been asking for one of those too! I repeated the same answer I had for two years, she had to wait. I really wasn’t too fixed on her not getting her ears pierced I just felt like she had to hear no. Sometimes kids can’t get everything that they want and waiting is an important virtue.
Fast forward several days, we had left the beautiful island of Mo’orea and were back on Tahiti. There, we found ourselves in the marketplace trying to do some last-minute shopping. As we headed back towards our transportation, we saw a sign that said Tahitian piercing and tattoo. We stopped and took a look. A bit impulsively, I asked the guy if he could pierce Amara's second hole. She looked at me with a look of shock and asked "Are you serious?" I calmly replied "Sure." I felt intuitively in that moment, that having piercing in such a special place would prove more meaningful. It would be a lifelong souvenir filled with incredible memories.
It also seemed a wise, practical decision to have done it right then and there versus waiting. My reason being is that if you give Amara's time to think about things, dramatic stories start forming in her head that cause anxiety. I knew that if we did it in the moment, without giving her much time to think, would be a better outcome. There would be no time to ruminate on the worse case scenarios, even though she very much wanted this. Even still, I saw some thoughts flying about. This was confirmed when looked e again with confused eyes and asked if I was sure. I said I was and encouraged her to go inside. So inside we went and within five minutes Amara had her second ear piercings. Amara being Amara did almost stopped the lady. With a bit of fear in her eyes, she said, "Maybe I shouldn’t do this." But the lady who going to do the piecing only spoke French and Polynesian. The spontaneity made a big difference and now Amara has ears pierced, again.
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