I just want to start off saying that I'm 13, going on 14, I'm entering 8th grade, and I've had to deal with a lot of sh*t in my life. You're probably asking what this has to do with facial piercings, but I'll get to that later because it's important that you know my whole story before you read the rest of this.
At A Glance Author Katie Contact quidditchkate1@aol.com When A year ago Artist Dave Studio Just 4 U Tattoo Location Findlay, OH I had just moved for the 5th time in my life and I was entering 6th grade. I was a loner. Some adults think that all kids are stress free, but that couldn't be further from the truth, at least in my case. I couldn't understand why I had no friends because I was tops in nearly all my classes (and there are 180 kids in my grade), I was extremely athletic (although 6th graders can't play school sports so I was not able to show that), and I was really low-maintenance.
About eight weeks into the school year I entered honors classes for math and language arts/reading. This couldn't have been a worse choice for me. The homework in REACH (the gifted lang. arts/reading) was a huge load and me and I, being the perfectionist that I am, would spend hours just trying to get it finished. I went on a long streak of depression and I couldn't even smile at things that used to make me laugh. I was never myself and I couldn't stop my consistent crying at night.
Life just wasn't what I was expecting it to be. I'd wake up every morning and wonder what I was doing here. It wasn't worth waking up for. It wasn't worth crying over. My life needed to end. My parents were divorced, my mom was a nutcase, my dad lives 2,000 miles away and did nothing for me, we're poor, my grandpa just died, and I have no one. No one at all. No shoulder to cry on, nobody to talk too, nobody to spill my heart to. Nobody. Over all this, I had homework to do and I had constant breakdowns that I would hide from my mother and brother. Life sucked. But all that changed when it was the very last day of school.
My feelings shifted at the end of the year awards assembly. I had scored the highest on math proficiency than anyone in the city, and as far as I knew, the whole state could have scored lower than me because I only missed two multiple-choice questions out of a lot more. I picked up a ton of awards and for the first time in a year, people recognized me and appreciated me. It didn't matter that I had no friends because I was happy. To top that off, volleyball soon approached and I was finally getting attention because I was the star. (I don't know why, but sports just come really naturally to me. It was my first year ever playing and already I had made team captain of the second best team in the region.) Getting my eyebrow pierced gave me the same feeling when I received these honors. But best of all, I had friends.
Not just nerdy friends, but intelligent and athletic friends that actually paid attention to me...sometimes. I was still different because these girls had lived real easy lives, having parents that loved them and each other and were still together, having a fair amount of money coming in, and lived a wonderful life period. I actually had something to live for.
My moment came and gone because I couldn't control how our relationships went and whether or not my game was on or off. I couldn't control the unacceptable amount of homework I received. And I couldn't control how I felt about myself. Volleyball ended and I was again on a streak of depression.
Until I stumbled on BME.
I saw piercings and more piercings. All of which had people who were slightly different than everyone I knew. These people weren't punks; they just had a passion. Finally, there was one thing I had complete control of: the modifying of my body. When I was 12 and my birthday was approaching in my 7th grade year, I had decided I wanted an eyebrow piercing. It sounded like the simplest and most risk free piercing on the whole sight (besides the common lobes).
I asked my mother and she actually had no problem with it. Of course, it's not as if she could say no, I'm a straight A student that's involved in leadership groups and still succeed in sports. This was on a Saturday and as soon as I got back to school I told my closest friends about the new addition to my body I was going to receive. Of course, some where definitely not pleased, but I told them to go f*ck themselves and the Friday of that week I was pierced.
I went to the place where my sister got her belly button pierced and got a small ivy tattoo bordering her wrist and she highly recommended it. It was called "Just 4 You Tattoo". After babysitting for a bit, my mom picked me up and told me,"Let's get you pierced." I was shocked, I was planning to do it next week sometime, but now is good.
So it was a really rainy day and people on the streets where wondering why I was so excited on a shitty day like this. We had a spot of trouble finding the place, but we idiots finally found the place.
It was what I had been expecting and nothing more or less. When you walked in there was black furniture for people that were waiting (we were behind a couple) and a coffee table with the piercer's and tattoo artist's best work. I browsed through the portfolio, but I wasn't really looking at any of the photos-just trying to get my mind off of my nervousness. I turned my false interest instead to the hundreds of tattoo designs that covered the wall (which I think was painted black, but I couldn't tell for sure). Anyway, my mom and I went up to the counter and asked if there were any forms that needed filling out. The man, whose name I found out was Dave, had told us that we both needed some sort of ID and a copy of my birth certificate.
Sh*t! I totally forgot they ID'd you. We sped home and I called one of my friends and told her I was leaving to get my eyebrow done and that I'd see her on Monday at school. We got all our crap together and left. By then, it was pouring down rain. After my mom's,"OH MY LORD, I HOPE MY WIND- SHIELD WIPERS WORK!" and her,"PLEASE GOD, LET US GET TO THE PIERCING PARLOR WITHOUT WRECKING!" we were good to go.
If you couldn't tell, my mom is a bit, well is a worrier. She was finally starting to have her doubts about going through with this and asked if I wanted to back out. I told her,"No way!" and that was the end of that conversation.
In what seemed like forever, we made it to Just 4 U Tattoo and signed the papers and went right into the piercing room in back. The tile was black and white and the walls were plain with the exceptions of a few posters. The autoclave was in the corner and the "dentist chair" sat in the very middle of the room.
I got as comfortable as I could. Dave went through the procedure with me and told me that he'd be starting me with surgical steel, 18 gauge, curved barbell. That's what I was planning on getting anyway and I had my full trust in Dave. He was a big guy with tattoos all the way up his arms. He had dreadlocks underneath his beanie and a surface piercing below his neck and many on his face. (I found out later that my friend's little brother plays with Dave's kid on the same soccer team. Dave was a soccer Dad!)
Well anyway, my mom asked if this would be deforming my face in anyway. I had told her that it wouldn't a hundred times before unless it hit a major artery/vein/blood vessel and my whole half of my face would become paralyzed. (Actually, I just told her that it wouldn't. Haha!) I'm an excellent arguer and persuader. Dave chuckled and said no, my face would be fine if I wanted to take it out later on besides two small scars from where the holes had been.
So FINALLY I was going to get my eyebrow pierced. I wouldn't back out now. The only thing to worry about was the pain, but I have a higher tolerance to pain than most people, so I was okay. But that didn't keep me from being nervous. He marked the spot with a toothpick with its end's dotted in ink. It was perfect, right on the edge of my right eyebrow. Dave put the clamps on, which didn't really hurt, but were just uncomfortable because they are cutting off an amount of your blood flow. He said he'd tell me when to inhale and exhale and on the third exhale he'd push the needle through. I was grateful that he didn't surprise me and push it through on two. I felt a rush when he inserted the needle.
No, I couldn't hear my skin rip. No, it doesn't feel like a pinch. Yes, it did hurt no matter what those other people on BME said. I knew that this was my first real piercing and it wasn't painless. Those people that say they couldn't feel any pain are liars that are trying to act hard. So don't believe them! I mean, it wasn't excruciating-just a bee sting. You know, where you won't cry just because, but you know you could if you wanted to and no one was around. Yeah, it was like that. So I tipped Dave, thanked him, and left.
Aftercare was pretty simple. I just cleaned it twice a day with antibacterial soap (which I later found out wasn't recommended, but it worked okay) and I'd push the barbell down so I could scrub the bar and push it up to do the same thing. Then I'd rotate the jewelry up and down to get into the wound, rinse, and dry. After about two weeks I stopped and just wiped it with a cotton swab with warm water soaked into it to remove crusties.
I was so pleased with how my brow turned out and apparently everyone else was too. Well, except my health teacher that I am super close with, but he got over himself when I wrote a report on the hazards of body modification that he requested. I would have said no if it was another teacher, but well, it wasn't. This was way back when I first told him I was going to get it done in and he was impressed with how much I knew. He gained to respect me after I got it done. But anyway, I was getting way more attention than usual and I could actually say I was starting to get popular. (This just goes to show, what you look like does affect who your friends are.) People were asking me questions, the most common being,"Did it hurt?" I'd joke with them and say,"Let me stick a needle through your eyebrow and we'll see if it's painful." Ha, I think that pretty much answered their question.
About a week after I got it done, the ball fell off when I was taking a shower and went who knows where. Some people poked fun at me for having two red dots on my eyebrow, but I went and got a needle stuck through my eyebrow again for free, this time because my mom later found both pieces of the jewelry.
For basketball and track I'd just cover it up with a band-aid, thus gaining a nickname. Too bad it wasn't a "happily ever after" story. Softball season approached a half of a year later and I'd have to take it out because I catch. This wasn't slowpitch, but fastpitch where I rip my helmet off for any ball in the air. My mom was afraid I was going to rip it out so she insisted I take it out. I obeyed and sure enough, my eyebrow got infected. Unfortunately, we were short on money so we couldn't afford to get it repierced and I was not in the mood to be lectured by my body mod virgin of a doctor. Letting it close up was not an option, so I poked around with it and got it to go back through the half closed holes. By this time, it looked as if I had a large zit that my top hole was pierced through, but it drastically went down in the next few days. (I don't recommend anybody try to repierce anything.)
It is months later and now my eyebrow is ¾ of a year old. The actual healing is over and I can sweat on it, sleep on it, and let one or two people touch it without it getting infected. I'm wearing a 16 g surgical steel banana bell with red jewels around the silver balls. Since I've lost the retainer, my 18g starter jewelry, and another 16 g with a few sets of balls, I'm going to Claire's to buy another barbell, this time a 16g g surgical steel barbell with cones.
And now since softball season is nearly over and there is some free time for me before volleyball starts, I'm going to get my lip done. I told a few of my closest friends and the word got around fast. (I have to learn to just shut up sometimes...) Anyway, people were actually more upset with me than when I decided to get my eyebrow. Before, everyone just wanted to know if I was really getting one because I didn't seem to be the type and I got a lot of positive attention encouraging me to go through with it. The situation with my lip is different now. I've had fights with my friends about it and they just doesn't understand what piercings mean to me. It's not like I can explain it to them either, all of them being real body mod virgins. So that's what I'm debating right now. It's either I lose some friends, or I be the person I want to become. So far, I've decided that they're not worth keeping if they can't at least respect what makes me, well, me. You can trust me, though, as soon as I get my lip done I'll be sure to write to BME so they can have it posted. :)
All I can say is, getting my eyebrow pierced was the best thing in the world for me. I don't care if I am young, because I understand what I am doing. I have been criticized for "putting holes in my pretty face at such a young age," but that's not what I am doing. Age is not a measure of maturity as it is sometime used as. For I am coming of maturity in a fashion in which I can only understand: by the modification of my body.