A Teenager Had Her Mask Accidentally Pierced Into Her Ear by an Icing Employee

Sissy Sheridan, the 16-year-old host of Nickelodeon web series DIY With Me, is claiming that an Icing by Claire's employee accidentally pierced the mask she was wearing into her ear.

Sheridan uploaded an emotional TikTok, in which she explained, through tears, that the "lady pierced my ear on my mask" and that she "can't get it off and it hurts so bad." 

"I hate you Claire's," Sheridan exclaims. "It's stuck on my ear and they look so ugly."

Sheridan explained to Buzzfeed that she had gotten her ears pierced at an Icing by Claire's store in Sterling, Virginia. Her mother was able to cut the mask off, but a piece of the mask's strap is still lodged into her ear.

In an update, Sheridan said she was distraught in her original video because she didn't know what to do.

The teenager explained that her ear was still too swollen to remove the piercing, and that she was afraid the piercing would heal if she did manage to take it out.

Sheridan told Buzzfeed that she was wearing two masks when she got her piercing to be extra cautious.

"I’m wearing two masks because one covered more than the other. The blue one didn’t cover as much, and I knew the woman [doing the piercing] would be pretty close to me," she said.

"She does the first one, which is the right ear, and that was the one [she got] the mask stuck in. I had no idea. I’m just sitting in the chair. I didn’t feel anything. There was no sign the mask had been punctured in the ear."

The teenager was "already kind of worked up" because she didn't like the placing of the piercing, but when she got into the car to go home, she realized that her mask was pierced into her ear.

"[My mask] won't come off, so I thought it might have gotten stuck behind my ear or hair. I was like, mom, can you help me get it off? She’s trying to get it out. I’m like, oh my god, did she pierce the mask in my ear?"

"She’s trying to keep me calm. Now I’m hysterically sobbing."

Sheridan and her mom are after a full refund, but say that the store manager told them they'd need to remove and return the earring to get their $73 back.

"Her ear is obviously swollen and painful. I do not want to pull the earring out while the cotton is still in her ear," the mother said. "I am shocked that they are arguing about the refund when they were clearly negligent."

Carmen Sandy, the store manager, confirmed that she had spoken to Sheridan and her mother and shared the company policy.

"She needs to bring the earring back and come into the store. I’ll replace it for her [with] a full earring, but she didn’t want to hear it," Sandy said. "If she’s unhappy, she needs to call corporate."

Claire's corporate headquarters said they are investigating and "will take appropriate corrective action, including offering Sissy and her mom a full refund."

Sheridan, however, believes that the company may have been too quick to reopen their doors.

"In Virginia, the masks are mandatory. It’s ignorant to ask someone to take their mask off for something so minor as an ear piercing," she said. "Maybe they should stop with piercings right now."

Sheridan's misfortune attracted plenty of responses from social media users. 

"Personally, I think you could start a whole trend with the mask earring," one user wrote. "Sissy's an icon."

Another user added: "I'm sorry that happened but this is too funny."

Sheridan sums it up best: "Moral of the story; Don’t get your ears pierced during a pandemic."