Hello. Reading my little story? Good for you. I hope I hope to provide some insight on how my eyebrow piercing came to be.
At A Glance Author Just Me When Six months ago Artist Moi Studio Dentist's office (Dad's Work) Location Minnesota
Just a little information on the author. I am a 16-year-old male. I live in the Mid-West, and have open-minded parents and friends. I have, over the past year, acquired 11 piercings, all self-inflicted. I became interested in body piercing because I feel that it is a form of beautification. Some people wear nice clothes, some wear make-up, some frenzy over their hair. My self-gratification and confidence booster is piercing. I choose to do my piercings myself, because I can. I feel that I am skilled at performing them on myself. I most certainly do not recommend that everybody go out and pierce himself or herself up. On that token, I would never pierce another person. I put the necessary research into the piercings before they are performed. In this research BME is a great aid. I am not one to rush into anything. Hence my virginity to even a kiss (but no one wants to know that). Anyhow, I digress. Onto the story at hand.
I fell in love with pierced eyebrows after looking through the BME galleries for weeks. Now, on occasion, I do this when looking for a new "beauty mark." This being my fist piercing was actually more of a surprise desire. I just thought that the eyebrow piercings were so nice looking. I decided to start preparations for piercing my eyebrow.
My father is a great help in my self-piercing missions. He is a dentist, therefore has ready access to an autoclave. I would not do piercings on myself without everything being completely sanitary. Now, my father thought I should go to a professional. In my city, there is only one piercing/tattoo parlor. I visited it, and felt an ambience of uncleanness. The piercings were done in the same room as tattoos. From the lobby, you could walk directly into the studio, no door, and no curtain. This seemed highly questionable. I left and decided that I would either have to drive five hours to a larger city, or do my piercing myself. I chose the latter. I started searching heavily for information on eyebrow piercings. Now, I know that it is not technically a surface piercing due to the nature of the brow ridge. There is a curvature to the flesh. I decided for the least chance of rejection, though, that I should treat it as a surface piercing.
I had my father poke around my eyebrow for nerves. None where I wanted to be pierced, good to go there. I hopped on to the Internet to buy the necessary supplies. I decided that I should go with 14 gauge. The largest needles my dad could procure without raising eyebrows (pardon the pun) were 27 gauge. I would have to get larger ones off the Internet. I ordered five 14 gauge piercing needles of off a tattoo supply site. Onto the jewelry. I was going for flexible. Tygon© or Teflon©? I decided the more pliable of the two. I proceeded to order a 14 gauge, 5/8 inch length of Tygon© and two o-rings. Luckily, my father allows me use of his credit card, with his permission. I finalized the two orders and waited for their arrival.
The company through which I ordered the needles delivered via airmail. They arrived two days post-order. The jewelry company delivered via landmail, five business-day wait on the Tygon©. The day the second package arrived came to fall two days before spring break. I decided to wait until Friday to perform the piercing.
Day of the piercing had arrived. I was getting a little bit nervous on the way home from school, this being my first piercing and all, but I just pictured how nicely it would look, and that helped get rid of some butterflies. When I arrived at home, I ate a large, early supper. I knew that this would be helpful when it came down to piercing time. I called my father's office. His secretary told me that he was performing at the time, but that his last appointment was at 5. He called at five to tell me that he was coming to pick me up. I gathered 3 of the needles and the jewelry. I was in extreme anticipation. I decided to wait outside to get some fresh air to calm me.
We arrived at his building; he introduced me to a couple of the other dentists. It was funny; they all asked what brought me there. I just told them I had an interest in the career. Corny? Yes. But it worked. He brought me to his cluster of three rooms. He let me choose which one to do the deed in. I chose one with a large mirror with a counter in front of it. Very well lit. I gave him the needles, which he put into pouches to autoclave. The jewelry was already in a pre-sterilized pouch. I kept that. The o-rings, I had to wash with soap and water. He said that they weren't autoclave safe. He left to autoclave them and came back a few minutes later. I washed my entire face in the sink and put on a pair of gloves. I then used Provon© soap to further wash my eyebrow. I had him feel around once more for nerves. None where I wanted the piercing. I decided it was a good time to mark the area. I realized that I hadn't thought of what to mark with. He, luckily, had disposable marking pens. I measured, and measured some more until I was absolutely sure I knew where to mark. I placed the marks a few hairs less than 3/8 of an inch apart on a slight angle away from my face. I knew that they must be thusly angled if one ever hoped for them to properly accommodate a ring.
By now, the autoclave was finished and the needles properly cooled, he told me. He brought them in their pouches and put them on a cleaned metal sheet. He also had autoclaved a small round clamp. Wow, I had completely forgotten that I would need one. He told me to wash the counter before I put the needles on it. I hadn't thought of that either. He showed me how to clean it, and I did. We both washed our hand and put on gloves. I opened one needle and the clamps. Again changed my gloves. I showed him where to put the clamps and had him hold them for me. They honestly didn't hurt as much as I had been expecting. Some of the BME experiences made the clamping out to be torturous. By now, it felt as if the butterflies in my stomach had turned to hippopotami. I pulled the needle and rubber cork out of the pouch. My god, the needle looked enormous. I had to make a conscious effort to keep my hands from shaking. I lined the needle up to the dots. I put the cork unde r the bottom dot. I applied a quick pressure to the needle and felt it hit the cork. At this point I felt very dizzy. My dad had barely said a word up to this point, but now he kept asking me how it felt, was I OK? I told him I was. Surprisingly I didn't feel any pain at all; I would liken the feeling to the kind of shock that you get from static electricity. Kind of a rush really.
I stood there for a minute with the needle in my face and my dad clamping my eyebrow. I'm sure we looked like idiots standing there. I had my father hand me the pouch with the Tygon© bar. I lined up the bar with the needle's end and pulled down on the cork while pushing down on the tube. I had it in within two seconds. That step honestly did hurt a little bit; similar to a bee sting. He unclamped me and handed me the o-rings. I put them on the bar and looked at myself. Looked like good placement to me. I sat down in the chair and took my gloves off. I felt so strange. Like I was floating, must have been the endorphins. I talked to my dad for a good ten minutes about it, then we cleaned up and went home.
I have been cleaning it twice a day with 12-minute sea-salt soaks. Once a day, I pull the o-rings down on the tube and swab with a q-tip soaked in salt-water. For about three days, there was minor pain when I would accidentally hit the bar in the shower or in my sleep. There was no pulling on it with getting dressed. The healing was rather uneventful. It has now been six months. Just last week I changed the tube to a 3/8 inch micro-ball curve barbell of polished, un-anodized titanium. The change was easy, with no pus, no ripping. During the entire process there hasn't been a drop of blood, not even during the piercing. I highly recommend an eyebrow piercing to anyone interested. It is relatively painless and quick. And I feel that it enhances a person's facial symmetry, or lack thereof. If you do decide you want one, please do the research. If you are not capable of doing it yourself sanitarily, then don't do it yourself. Thank you for reading my story and I hop e it has been helpful. Oh yeah, my dad and I are really good friends, his helping me was a good way of becoming closer.