Piercing Tongues and ‘Intimate’ Parts Is Banned in Wales for Those Under 18

LONDON — People measure adulthood by an ever-shifting set of age limits for rights like driving, drinking, voting, having sex, marrying, or serving in the military. Add another to the list: How old must you be to get your tongue or an “intimate” body part pierced?

In Wales, the answer is 18, under a law that took effect on Thursday, just days after the Welsh government proposed allowing people as young as 16 to vote in local elections. The restriction on piercing, part of a health law that passed last year with broad support in the Welsh National Assembly, prohibits piercing the tongue, breast, genitals or posterior of anyone younger than 18.

There are basic standards that apply across Britain. The law prohibits piercing the genitals of anyone under 16, the age of sexual consent, or the nipples of a girl under 16. In England, there is no age limit for piercing tongues, boys’ nipples or less intimate body parts. In Scotland, any piercings, even of earlobes, require parental approval before age 16.

The Welsh law was prompted by studies and surveys reporting that not only are young people far more likely to have piercings, their piercings are much more likely to cause problems like infections and, in the case of tongue studs, damaged teeth.

A British Medical Journal report from 2008, often cited by health officials, said that tongue piercings were the most troublesome, with 50 percent of people between 16 to 24 with the piercings reporting medical complications. The next most problematic were genital and nipple piercings.

The new law in Wales calls for a fine, to be decided by a court, for violating the age limit. The statute has not drawn much criticism, even from people in the piercing business.

“I personally think it’s a good thing, and I haven’t heard anybody say they have any problems with this,” said Rhian Mansfield, owner of Mrs M’s Body Beautiful, a tattoo and piercing parlor in the Welsh city of Swansea. “Young girls particularly get a lot of pressure put on them to get piercings. I don’t generally think that they really know the extent of the effects it can have in the long term.”

Daryn Webb, the piercer at Katdemon Ink Tattoo and Piercing Studio in Cardiff, the Welsh capital, said “it’s about maturity and hygiene.” He added that he had already refused to pierce people younger than 18, or “anybody who I think isn’t going to look after it.”

Like the common lament in the United States that an 18-year-old can fight and die in uniform, but cannot order a beer, the law illustrated the challenge in finding a consistent benchmark for maturity.

Critics of the Labour-led government of Wales, while not finding fault with the law, took to social media to accuse the government of hypocrisy in gauging the maturity of teenagers. The Welsh government recently called for lowering the voting age in local elections, as Scotland did a few years ago.

Mr. Webb dismissed the comparison, noting that “voting doesn’t destroy your oral health.”

In the United States, laws on piercing vary by state, but in general, they do not make distinctions among parts of the body, and they require parental consent before age 18.