At A Glance
Author	Ed
Contact	Ed@bme.anon
When	A week ago
Studio	Eclipse
Location	Camden Town

I decided to get my eyebrow pierced shortly after getting my first piercing done, scaffold in my right ear, I do have to admit I was a bit nervous due to the fact the scaffold had felt like leaning my ear on a BBQ.

My dad had never been to keen on piercing, and considering I was only 16 at the time I can probably see why. But I weighed up my odds and finally decided that considering he lived about 2 hours drive away from me, it was worth the risk of getting it torn out by him during the night.

I was 16 at the time so I was also worried about them asking for id, which of course I didn't have, but with some miracle he didn't ask for id and slid the necessary forms over to me to sign and date and then told me to take a seat. I sat with my friend waiting to be called up into the room; I remember I must have read that "piercing aftercare" leaflet about 10 times I was so nervous!

Finally this lady, clad with more piercing then I could count, called me through to the room. I was actually very impressed by the hygiene standards in Eclipse. My mum being a dentist she had given me a 1hour rant prior to getting pierced about sterilised equipment and gloves and autoclaves, which the piercer was more then happy to show me were being used.

She sprayed down the bed for me and covered it in a layer of a cling film type plastic and indicated for me to lie down flat on my back. She cleaned the eyebrow site and marked it with a pen and then showed me the reflection in the mirror to see if I was happy with it, which I was.

Looking back on it, I think the worst bit by far is the unpacking of the needles and other equipment. threes usually a few of them lying on the table in sealed bags and you cant help but think that the largest one is probably the one they will use on your poor soft tender skin.

The first step for the piercer to put on some surgical latex gloves and removed all the equipment from its sealed packaging onto a sterilised holder, she then changed her gloves carefully and put on a fresh pair for the actual piercing 'fun'.

She clamped my eyebrow down and told me to breathe in... Then out... then in and hold it, as I held my breath she pushed the needle through and that was that. It didn't hurt much at all really, just more of a sharp pinch and a slight irritation as the jewellery was pushed through and the ball screwed on tight.

She told me I had to wash it carefully twice a day for a month with salt solution, and then once a day the month after. All this is usually written on the aftercare leaflet they provide with your documents.

I was so pleased with my new eyebrow bar! I had to walk around and kept sweeping my hair back to show it off, it cost me around £28 for the piercing which was with a surgical steel curved bar.

When ever I get pierced I always come out in a bit of a daze, even though now I'm more used to the whole experience. Something about the adrenaline rush you get from being pierced, even though the whole things over and done with in about 3 minutes flat.

I went back about 2 months later for a second eyebrow bar right next to the first, it is very difficult to clean in-between them now but for some reason the swelling and bruising doesn't seem to be even a third as bad as the first one, both are curved 'banana' bars and are comfortable in the skin.

Changing the jewellery on these bars is a nightmare; I have to borrow my mum's surgical gloves just to take off the balls. Because of the swelling at first, I was to paranoid to remove the first bar and to clean the second but as they swelling went down it become easier to simply push the bars apart and clean in-between them. I'm now considering getting a 3rd bar put next to them, all tightly packed together.

I would definitely recommend getting an eyebrow bar, they don't have to be big aggressive pieces of building scaffold like is sometimes assumed, you can get smaller gauge bars which are quite discrete if you don't want it to be noticed easily. I would also recommend getting the curved banana shaped bars. They seem to sit nicer in the skin, and reject less from what I have read and from other experiences with piercing.