Quote Originally Posted by Dorath View Post
Claire's always had gauges.
No, there was an entire arc about her working up the guts to get her ears pierced, only for Emily to upstage her.

But it's not exactly new, either - I checked the archive, the first time we see her with gauges was 3127; if the copyright notice is any indication, that was the first strip of 2016.
(They look smaller than what she has in 3516, but that's probably just one of Jeph's notorious art shifts.)