About 8 months ago, I got a typical run-of-the-mill eyebrow piercing in my right brow-a good choice for a first piercing, considering it's virtually painless and easy to hide when necessary. After that, I told myself I was done with piercings. That was the only piercing I had ever wanted, so I waited until I turned 18 to get it and thought that was that. Wrong.
At A Glance Author Ian Contact Ian@bme.anon When A month ago Artist Lori Studio Forever Art Tattoos Location Hornell, NY One day at band practice, our guitarist's room-mate had just gotten a horizontal eyebrow. I hadn't really seen many of those and I thought it was pretty neat. Then I got the bright idea of getting one that goes behind my vertical piercing. I went back and forth about it for a couple weeks, trying to decide if I really wanted another piercing, and if it would be concealable when I needed it to be (Nursing school doesn't allow visible piercings in clinical work). Eventually, I said screw it all, I'm doing it.
On a Thursday night, I went to our local piercing shop in town where I had gotten my first brow piercing-Forever Art. Working at Forever Art are two piercers-Lori, who has been piercing for God knows how long, and Tiffany, who doesn't have as much experience as Lori. That night was Lori's night off, so Tiffany was the only piercer there. I showed her a picture of what I wanted, and she examined it closely and told me she didn't want to risk screwing it up since it was so close to the first piercing, so I set up an appointment for the next night to have Lori do it.
The next morning, I woke up and found out my Grandmother had died in the night. At first I was going to cancel the appointment, but during the day I couldn't sit still and I needed something to let some of the adrenaline off. By the middle of the day I decided to keep my appointment. Besides, this way I could write it off as my coping mechanism when my parents got pissed.
Anyway, I got out of work and headed over to my friend's house to hang out until the appointment. A couple of them came up with me to witness the "mutilation" as they so elegantly put it. I walked in the door and Lori was sitting at the computer with the picture next to her. Once I identified myself as the one getting the brow done she told me she had done something similar to that before and it wouldn't be a problem, which made me feel a little better. I showed my ID and paid the $25, then started talking with her about jewelry. At first I wanted to get another barbell, but she said if I get it with a hoop, it comes with the cost of the piercing whereas I would have had to pay extra for the barbell. I'm all about saving money so I went with the hoop. I chose a 16 gauge 3/8 silver hoop with silver capture ball. I thought it looked a little big. I didn't want it to be too big and flop down flat hanging down into my eye socket. I asked her if 5/16 would be too small. She said it probably would be so I didn't argue. She put the ring in the sterilizer for 15 minutes while I waited and played pool with my friends.
The dinger went off and Lori went and got the ring out. Then we went into the back room where she got out the needle and whatever else you use to pierce. She put dots on my brow and asked if they were in the right place, which they were. She took the barbell out of my brow and swabbed my skin with alcohol or something of that sort, then clamped it really tight. She had to clamp a lot of skin in order to get under the first hole. She got the needle in position and told me to take a deep breath in and hold it....."Let it out". The needle went in with no problem and less pain that I had expected. It hurt more than the first one but not bad at all. She then slid the ring though. Then the bleeding started. I didn't even think about bleeding-my first one didn't bleed at all. That didn't last too long though. I went over and looked in the mirror. It looked exactly how I wanted it to. I got a clear plastic retainer to put in it for school and was on my way.
I haven't had any major problems with it as of yet, although it's only been a little under a month. I was worried about it migrating out and pushing my first one out with it, but everything's going good so far. For the first week or so it hurt when I squeezed my eyes closed or raised my brow, but that's gone now. All I'm left with is a pretty damn cool piercing.