My eyebrow piercing has been long gone for years, but I've decided to share the story, or what I remember of it, so that others can gain from the experience.
At A Glance Author ladyorion Contact webmistress@deathstarnebula.com IAM ladyorion When Five years ago Studio "studio moreno" body piercing tent Location Arad, Israel It was the Summer of 1997, and I was 15 years old. The "Arad" festival, in Israel's southern city of Arad, was packed to the brim with teenagers, performers, goodie stands and whatnot. A popular attraction at the festival, which had sprung up throughout the years, aside the hair-braiding stands and jewelry stands, was the body piercing stretch - a large stretch filled with about 5 body piercing tents, each operated by a different studio from throughout Israel.
I don't remember what led me to decide to get my eyebrow done, I had a few friends that were getting labrets done and I suppose I wanted something for myself as well, even though my parents specifically told me that they we expecting me not to do anything of the sort. Regardless, I found myself standing in line, at the entrance to the "Moreno" tent.
The tent was small, it held a cot, a few plastic drawers, and, well, it didn't have a floor. Since it was a tent, whatever ground there was outside was the same ground there was inside, in this case, dirty urban pavement, filled with gum-wrappers and cigarette butts. I hopped up onto the cot and was asked if I had my parent's permission. "sure!" I said, and that was it. I didn't have to hand in any written consent, didn't have to have any parent there, and there was no paperwork to fill out, either. I don't remember getting marked with placement, since there were no mirrors in the tent to have me approve of it, the man who did the procedure (I don't remember his name, but then again, he probably never introduced himself at all) took, what seemed to me as an enormous needle in a plastic wrapper out of one of the drawers. I remember the procedure was a little bit painful, my eyes watered and I gripped whatever I was holding onto very tightly. After we were through, I paid him , and I was off to show my friends hanging out on the other side of the tent. He put a little bit of something that looked like iodine on the fresh piercing and had a gauze-pad stuck over it, and I was told not to remove the gauze for half an hour. I didn't get any aftercare instructions, so assumed there were none, and it would just heal over time and I could get back to my daily business.
I was getting a little guilty for doing it without my parents permission, so I called my mother and told her what I had done. She was very upset and demanded I return home at that instant, without delay. I explained to her that the festival was due to be over the following afternoon, and she agreed to let me stay on account that the eyebrow ring would be removed when I arrived home.
that night we were looking for a place to sleep. the camping lots were packed full and there was no place for us to put our bags down and doze off. We split, and eventually me and a friend found a bomb shelter belonging to one of the apartment buildings, to be a nice, dark and quiet place to spend the night. It was very, VERY dirty, and full of dust and grime. We were so thankful for the fact that we finally found a place to sleep, so we disregarded how filthy it was, layed our heads on our backpacks, and dozed off. In the morning I realized out our mistake. My eyebrow, my ENTIRE eyebrow, was swollen, puffy, red and painful. It was the last day of the festival and the body piercing tents has already begun to pack up and leave, so I found my way to the "public sink" (a large, long sink with multiple faucets, that everybody used to brush their teeth) and washed the crusties off. There was no mirror, so I kept accidently bumping the ring around while trying to rinse it.
A few hours later we were already packed up and ready to leave, we got our stuff together and took the bus home. I was still very tired, but couldn't fall asleep since I had a window seat, and I couldn't rest my head against the window because it would hit the ring. When I arrived home, my mother saw my eyebrow and demanded I remove the ring. I didn't agree. In my eyes, I had just spent a good deal of money on it, it was painful as well, I didn't see any reason to remove it. My mother cut off my allowance and both my parents hardly spoke to we for weeks. I applied Bactroban, as a suggestion from our doctor, and the infection seemed to clear up pretty well, although it bothered me that my parents were giving me the cold shoulder.
About three months later I went to a studio in Tel Aviv and had the ring removed (it was a cbr, and I had been having trouble removing it myself). My reasons for removing it were various, between causing such disappointment in both my parents and my grandparents, I was also growing uncomfortable with the ring. It was as healthy as it could have been at the time (after a horrid, unprofessional procedure, monsterous infection and virtually no aftercare taken), but I started feeling that "it wasn't me" as much as I had liked it to be. I had the ring removed and I kept the 16g cbr in a plastic pouch. When it was out, I ran out to show my friends. I was much more pleased at having it removed than getting it done. It had caused so many problems, and having it taken out was, for me, like lifting a heavy block off my shoulder.
Today, at 20 years of age, and a little over 5 years later, I am the owner of two unnaturally prominent scars on my right eyebrow, very visible on plucked-thin eyebrows, to remind me of the aftermath of getting pierced without forethought, at an unprofessional "studio", in less than sub-sanitary conditions. I have various facial piercings that I'm most proud of, all done in sanitary conditions and preformed by a professional piercer. Every single one of them has healed properly with correct aftercare and minimal problems.
As a piece of advice to *any* piercee, please learn from my mistakes and find yourself a good, clean, reputable studio with a responsible, experienced piercer. The ground conditions present when you get your piercing done often directly reflect the outcome of the healed piercing, and the healing process itself.
Steer clear of any body piercing "stands" and "tents", having a studio with four walls assures that it'll still be there tomorrow, if any problems arise.
If you have an IAM account, you can visit my page (iam: ladyorion) for a photograph of the scar.