Once upon a time I had two vertical curved bars sitting in my eyebrow. One fateful day I took off a scuba mask and tore one of them out (mass cringe by all). It didn't actually hurt that bad, in fact the first thing I noticed was the bar still done up sitting in the mask. I didn't realise what had actually happened until I tried to put it back in and it fell out again.
At A Glance Author catacomb Contact catacomb@bme.anon When N/A Artist Nathan Studio Poly-morph Location Sydney Fast forward a few months. Having healed up the tear, I decided to repierce my 'brow. Wanting something a little more unique, I browsed through the eyebrow projects in the BME gallery and found a picture of a vertical 'brow with a horizontal bar underneath it, forming a cross of sorts. I decided I wanted something similar to that so I printed the picture out and went along with it to Polymorph in Sydney.
I showed Yuka, the more junior piercer there the picture and she went and got Robert, the shop's more experienced piercer. He looked at the picture and said he could do it, but he said that given the existing piercing had rejected a little already, piercing below it would almost certainly cause it to reject all the way. We discussed a few options and I decided to get a horizontal piercing done directly next to the existing vertical piercing, the result being 3 balls in a row on the edge of my 'brow and one about an inch towards my bridge.
We headed in and Robert prepped the piercing room, laid out the jewelry and sized me up. He spent a while measuring up my 'brow with the calipers and then marked the spot. I was getting my daith done at the same time so he measured up the CBR for that as well and marked it.
Given that this was effectively a surface piercing, Robert recommended tygon jewelry for the pierce. Given the lower chance of rejection associated with the tygon jewelry, it sounded like a good idea. I agreed, so long as he was comfortable working with the stuff.
Yuka came in to observe the pierce, which I was fine with. She had done all the work associated with piercing and stretching my earlobes up to 0 gauge.
Robert told me to close my eyes, took out my existing bar then clamped the area. At this point I opened my eyes again only to be told to close them. He explained that if he dropped something during the procedure he didn't want it to go in my eye. This seemed pretty logical, but I have this thing where I like to watch as much of the process as I can.
He told me to breathe, and I began to breathe deeply. He waited until I was breathing out and pushed the needle through. It hurt, but not terribly. The area seemed to become hypersensitive. I could feel the needle sliding through and the burning as the flesh stretches around it. I'm sure most people who have been pierced can relate to this sensation and the emotional responses to it. It's a very empowering sensual experience that you want to come back and experience again.
At this point I sneaked a peek, got a glance at the needle through my 'brow and got a big fat drop of blood in my eye. "Now you know why to keep your eyes closed, stupid." I thought.
Robert must have noticed me opening my eyes because before he put the jewelry in he stressed how difficult it was putting balls on the bendy tygon tubing and the importance of keeping my eyes closed and staying still while he did it. Despite saying this he dropped nothing and had the ends on in 20 seconds or so.
He went on to pierce my daith (for comparison, this was less painful than the 'brow, and is proving less of a bitch to heal) and I got up to go have a look at my new additions. The result was exactly how I described earlier. 3 balls in a row, one towards the middle. I was stoked. I left a hearty tip and went on my merry way.
The area bruised up pretty bad, which I hadn't experienced with my vertical 'brow piercings and it is crusting up like there's no tomorrow, but other than that it appears to be doing quite well. I have to go back in a few months to get the bar replaced and the CBR in my daith downsized, so I'll get an expert update then.
One downside to it is that my existing vertical 'brow appears to be mucking up in response to all the nearby trauma. This is easy to look after with soaks and soap as it is right next to the new piercing. Ah, the fun and games involved in surface piercings.