I am not *heavily* modified but for the average joe, for the navel, nose and tongue group, I like to think I'm pretty hardcore. I have a decent amount of facial piercings, I've never had a rejection and I have a few surface piercings, with plans for implants and all sorts of other neat stuff. I try to keep an eye out for interesting mods and I do often find myself sitting around trying to make up something that I have never seen before, something to accentuate parts of me.
At A Glance Author bathory Contact bathory@bme.anon When A month ago Artist Tom Brazda Studio Stainless Studios Location Toronto Anti-Eyebrows, however, never struck me as terribly aesthetically pleasing. It always seemed you needed one on each side to balance the weight, not something I thought I would ever get. When I looked at pictures of them I always thought that you needed a certain face to pull it off without the piercing adding weight to the underside of your eyes. They suit many people but I never considered myself one of those people.
As time went by, and I decided it was time for another mod, I realised that an Anti-Eyebrow didn't need to go across. I could make it vertical and more like a teardrop. Now THIS interested me. I went in to Stainless Studios and spoke to my piercer, Tom, about positioning and we felt around for nerves. I had already dotted on (with eyeliner) the general placement I wanted so he could see immediately what I was looking for. After a bit of compromising we chose a position and jewelry was ordered.
A week or so later I returned to Stainless to get a second eyebrow piercing that I deemed necesary to balance the impending weight of the anti-eyebrow. WHen i showed up Tom showed me the jewelry he hasd made for my anti-eyebrow and mentioned that as it was titanium it would not buff up to a high shine like my stainless jewelry - maybe we should consider anodizing it. Knowing me too well he just asked which shade of blue I wanted.(nice :) The day of my appointment for the anti-eyebrow I arrived to find a beautiful metalic blue, the same colour as my hair, surface bar waiting on the tray-thinger. I sat again in the chair and we poked and pinched to make sure no nerves were going to be affected and marked the area.
The piercing itself felt like a very intense hot flash (the best I can describe it). We did manage to clamp the area which caught some of the nerves that we had previously been worried about - I had no idea what this was going to feel like - my nape and vertical earl both had complications on some level and though I have always enjoyed my surface piercing experiences this was really on my face! It was quick and without complication. The jewelry (a staple shaped surface bar) was made with a slight kink in the middle to compensate for the curve of my face. I could feel the kink as it was pushed into position.
Almost immediately I sensed some bruising - which a day later was visible, but not bad at all. There was some slight bleeding (while at the studio) but nothing worth mentioning really, and any swelling that may have occured really wasn't visible. I walked out of the studio happy as a clam.
I think the most interesting experience I had with this piercing was that I wasn't completely concious of it after it was done. Usually (and especially with surface piercings) I find that I am very aware of the area where I have recently been pierced. I think about it a lot and look at it all the time but this one, maybe it was the blue - a colour i always have on my face, just melded into my features very quickly.
Though I was wary of anti-eyebrows I have learned to love it. Much like the rest of my facial mods I don't notice it anymore than I notice my eyes or my nose. I wouldn't necesarily recommend this to anyone who is really nervous about their appearance. It is a bit of an odd place to have a piercing, though most people assume at first it's just some beads i have glued to my face. Though I rarely notice it when I look in the mirror - everyone else notices it right away. The pain level was not bad by any means, and healing it has been simple. (I just don't mess with it really :)
I think having it anodized was a great idea because it really makes the piercing seem like a beautifying mod - something about it makes it feel like a beauty mark. I can't help but think about the movie "Strictly Ballroom" and all the jewels the dancers wear on their face when I look at it.
Soon after a got pierced a friend of mine passed away. One of my rituals is that I try to link each mod to an event in my life - usually something happens and THEN I go get modded. The Anti-Eyebrow was originally just a de-stressing hole. I flew across the coutry to go to the funeral and met up with lots of long lost friends. Someone said at the wake that the piercing was like a teardrop (one of my original ideas) and it was kind of like an "eternal tear" - a bit cheezy yes, but to a group of mourning goths it held some sort of significance. So the piercing has been linked, it has become part of me, and I *love* it.
So that's my rant...