A YOUNG girl has been permanently disfigured after she tried to follow fashion by having her ear pierced.

The girl was just ten years old when she went alone into a hairdressers, in County Durham, two weeks ago and paid £2.50 to have a stud put in the top of her ear.

Her ear swelled up and the girl, whose family wish to remain anonymous, was rushed to Darlington Memorial Hospital where she was detained for a week.

Her grandmother said: "She had to spend her 11th birthday in hospital and she was in a lot of pain.

"The consultant said the cartilage in her ear had been split and she had to have an operation. We have been told her ear will never look the same again.

"It is terrible that a young girl can have something like a piercing done without her parents' knowledge."

The family is taking legal action against the company that carried out the piercing.

But a Darlington Borough Council spokesman said there was no law on the age of children having piercings.

He said: "There is a law governing the minimum age for tattoos, but not for piercings.

"We know about places that offer piercings, because they have to be licensed.

"But these checks cover hygiene and ensure places use sterile instruments.

"We have no control over the age of youngsters in these shops, but we would suggest piercings should not be carried out on youngsters if their parents are not there. But this would be a voluntary code and not enforceable by us."

News of her injury came on the day that pop star Victoria Beckham revealed that she has not had her lip pierced.

Dental experts had expressed concern that such a piercing could spark a copycat trend among youngsters which could have health implications, such as excessive bleeding or infection.

But last night the former Spice Girl insisted the ring - worn at Birmingham's Party in the Park on Monday - was merely a decorative clip-on.

Last year, there were calls for the piercing industry to be properly regulated when 18-year-old Gemma Danielson, of Blyth, Northumberland, lost four pints of blood when she had her tongue pierced and a vein was punctured.