This experience happened around three years ago. Since most people are going to write about a piercing not long after they've gotten it, hopefully this will give you an idea about how my piercing behaved over a long period of time.
At A Glance Author anonymous When Two years ago Artist Brad Studio Inkwell Location St. Louis area My piercing was done by Brad at the Inkwell, which is in Fairview Heights, IL (about a twenty-minute drive from St. Louis). From the experience of myself and others, they do a good job on standard piercings. When this was done, I was only seventeen, so had to be accompanied by a parent (and have them sign for me). So after convincing my mother to do this (a feat in itself) we made the drive up there.
After some consultation, and making sure they would do the piercing (as I was a minor) they went over aftercare procedures and a general idea of what they'd be doing. I made sure they had an autoclave, did spore tests, and made sure they were generally sterile about things. It's always a good idea to check these things out first. He did placement marks and adjusted them and remarked. He put the clamps on and pierced. As far as the pain went, it hurt, it stung like hell actually, but it was definitely bearable. It wasn't long before the captive was in and the clamps were off. Since this was my first piercing, the rush of endorphins and adrenaline was pretty unfamiliar. I couldn't decide whether I wanted to stop a train or to curl up and take a nap! Anyway, after paying and tipping, we left.
For about three days it was kind of puffy and the ring didn't lie down for about a week. Maybe three weeks afterwards I went to Ozzfest. It was fun, but the piercing got knocked around and it was really hard to keep it clean. Of course it got infected and I had sunburn like crazy. As I was in marching band, I'm a geek and I know it :-), long days in the sun without a decent place to keep it clean were common several times. Sweat and grime would get into the piercing and I'd have to wait until I'd get home from practice/competition. So it stayed infected for about a month. To make it worse, the jewelry was having a hard time find a place it liked in my eyebrow, so it did a lot of settling (which is common). At the time I thought it was rejecting, so I was really worried. I switched jewelry after about 4 months to a curved barbell. It compliments my facial features more and it settled very quickly afterwards.
Here are some helpful tips I found out over the course of this piercing:
-Before getting any piercing/tattoo, eat or drink something to make sure your blood sugar is up.
-Afterwards, take some time to regroup and wait for your body to calm down.
-Eyebrow piercings are notorious for rejecting. If you think yours is rejecting, get the opinion of a piercer before you take it out. It may just be taking some time to get settled. Also consider switching from a captive to a curved barbell or vice versa. Depending on the placement or your body in general, one may work better than the other.
-Provon soap works well, just make sure you don't over clean and also make sure you get it all rinsed off.
-Sea salt soaks are good too. Yeah, I know it's hard to find a way to soak your eyebrow, but do whatever you think works best. I found that getting a large mouthed cup and just covering everything from my lower forehead to my cheekbone worked best for me. If there's a really easy way out there, I've never heard it.
-Do NOT get a piercing before you have to do anything really physical (i.e. going to Ozzfest). Yeah, I know it sounds stupid, but check your calendar before you get it done.
-If it does reject, let it heal and you now have some scar tissue to anchor it.
-Vitamins and a good diet (I think) are key. They'll keep up your immune system and help your body to heal your piercing.
All in all, my eyebrow piercing is my first piercing and I still have it. I've had several others, but it is my favorite. While it is a fairly common piercing, that doesn't mean anything. Besides, if you're getting a piercing to be unique, you'll realize that other people have it too. If you're thinking about getting it: it's an easy piercing to get, but it can be trick to heal. It took me about five months before I even thought I'd be able to keep it, and about three more before I thought it was fully healed. Anymore, whenever I shower I just rinse it out and it stays happy. Hopefully I'll have it for a very long time.