Prepared point for ear piercing (11)

I believe the answer is:

perforation

'piercing' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'prepared point for ear' is the wordplay.
'prepared' indicates anagramming the letters.
'point'+'for'+'ear'='pointforear'
'pointforear' is an anagram of 'PERFORATION'.

(Other definitions for perforation that I've seen before include "holes?" , "Boring" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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