This happened about, 8 months ago.
At A Glance Author lilsarah Contact lilsarah@bme.anon When Six months ago Artist Phil Studio Tiger Tattoos Location Manchester U.K.
I woke up one day an thought, 'hmm, I want my eyebrow pierced' but I didn't know were I could get it done because I'd never had any other piercing apart from one set in my ears and my right cartilage and they were done at a hairdressers. So I asked my mate if she knew any were that did them and she came out with the name 'Tiger Tattoo's'.
So, I went to the bank and got out £30 (I did no research in to this at all, I didn't even know how much it would be) and set off on my way with my friend to tiger tattoos.
When I got there, it looked very clean and smelt like a hospital, which put me off a bit but I wasn't going to let my nerves get the better of me (and I had told a lot of people I was getting it done and I didn't want them to think I was a chicken). So I walked straight up to the counter and there he was. I asked him how much for an eyebrow piercing and he said £20 so I agreed, and then he asked me to take a seat while he prepared the equipment. The shop had wall displays of all the tattoo designs they had and there was a black leather sofa on one side and one that went all the way along the other side and curved round.I sat down but my nerve got the better of me and I started pacing the shop floor and as I was about to walk out my eyes caught the display cabinet, there, a curved silver spiked eyebrow bar, I knew I had to have it. I was about to tell my mate. But before I could say a word, I was being dragged through a door, passed someone having a tattoo,then through another door to the back of the shop and put in this black chair by my mate. There was another black chair in this room the same as the one i sat on for the piercer. All around me there was equipment and cleaning solution basically everything you'd need to pierce someone with.
As I sat in the chair Phil started asking me allowed of questions 'what was my name, how was I feeling' all the usually ones and the only word I could get in was ' can I have a spiked bar'. Then he gave me one of those looks, you must be joking but he said 'yeah whatever you want babe' and a look of relief went over my face.
He put a pair of black rubber gloves and started marking my face. He then picked up a mirror but he'd marked really far out on my eyebrow and I didn't like it but I thought, he's the expert, he knows what he's doing and if it wasn't for my mate saying she didn't like were it was I wouldn't of asked him to move them. So after he wiped away the previous marks and re-marked my eyebrow I was happy. Then he cleaned the surface ready for piercing. He picked up the clamp and was getting them in place when I shouted ' stop, aren't you going to numb it first' to which I got the reply, 'of course I am, am just getting the correct amount of skin'. So after he got the right amount he gave me a tissue to put over my eye to stop the numbing stuff going in it then he sprayed this really cold stuff on it.
He picked up the needle and pierced the eyebrow, I could feel it going through but there was no pain what so ever. I couldn't even feel the clamp anymore, but all of a sudden my mate screamed, and he said Phil went 'shhhh' to her, at this point I started to panic. Screaming isn't a good sign in a piercing studio but I didn't no what was wrong and neither of them would tell me. So I had to sit there and wait till it was over to find out.
10 minutes after my friend screamed, he had finally finished. What really happened was that when he put the needle in to pierce it, he had hit the clamp and got it stuck in my eyebrow, also there was a lot of blood splurting out of the top of the needle chamber, which went all over the piercer and the floor. On top of that the reason it took some much longer was that my mate passed out in the process and I thought it was the pierceie that fainted not a by stander.
So when he finished he went through all the after care with me, wash twice a day with a pinch of salt water in a pint of boiling water, keep make-up out of it till it had completely healed (you know the rest). Then I got up and paid him the £20 and I was off, he had warned me about the chance of it rejecting and I thought nothing of it, but was I wrong.
Everything healed well and I thought it was fine until slowly but surely, the amount of skin holding the bar in was getting smaller and smaller and I had lost about half the amount in 6 weeks but I didn't know what was happening I thought it was natural for it to happen. It wasn't till my b/f took me to get my belly button pierced 10 weeks later (at the same place with the same piercer, no story there it went fine) that he told me to remove it health and safety reasons because there wasn't enough skin keeping it in place and there was a chance that I could get it caught on my clothing and it be ripped out, and that's a gamble am not willing to take.
Now the hole has completely healed up, (which makes me a bit sad because it was my first needle piercing) but now it meant that I can get it re-pierced, which I went straight away as soon as I had the money to get it done. That was 3 weeks ago, and I have to tell you that it hurt a lot more the second time than the first but that's because Phil placed the second eyebrow piercing right next to the old one were there is scar tissue, fingers crossed that this one will stay long than the last one.
And yes I can say that piercings are addictive, I've had 16 in total and I want at least 7 more till am happy.
But please don't let this story put you off, very few go wrong. Just make sure you go to a piercer that you know is reliable and that you know a few people that have had piercings done there before you go and that you make sure you follow the cleaning instructions you are given. Also a good one I have found out is the L.I.T.F.A method (leave it the fuck alone). Happy piercing and if you want it, you go get it.