This is the story of my ill-fated eyebrow piercing!!
At A Glance Author Tiffany Contact Tiffany@bme.anon IAM *Twinkle* When A year ago Artist Ben Studio Body Art Emporium Location Louisville, Ky Some time in July of 2002 my ex, a friend of mine, and I decided to drive across town to browse our favorite CD store. This also happens to be right down the street from our favorite piercing studio as well! After buying a few CDs and grabbing a bite to eat my friend says to me "hey Tiff, wanna' go to Body Art and get something pierced? I'll get my labret done if you get something done too!" Considering he owed me a birthday gift I suggested he pay for it as well. I'd been wanting to get my eyebrow done for some time now, so the offer was definitely something I couldn't refuse. He agreed to pay for it and we were on our way.
We walked into Body Art and went over to the piercing section of the studio. A tall scruffy biker-looking guy (Ben) walked up to us and greeted us cheerfully with a "what can I pierce ya?!" (got to love a sense of humor to put you at ease) My friend chimed up and told Ben what we wanted. So he asked for our IDs and had us fill out some information about ourselves while he photocopied our driver's licenses. After filling out the paper work and talking a bit with some other people around us, he asked who wanted to go first. I volunteered to go first because I just wanted to get it over with. Plus I knew I would chicken out if I waited too long!
So he smiled and told me to step into his piercing booth. I wasn't nervous until this point because I hadn't really thought about it much. A lot of my piercings go this way, because usually I go on a whim. On top of being a little bit nervous about the piercing, I had about 5 people staring at me like I was some kind of circus side show or something! Just what I need, an audience to my pain!
Ben sat me down in a dentist-type chair and got the supplies ready. He washed his hands thoroughly and put on new gloves. He then got out a large metal tray and laid down a sheet of blue towel. On this he laid out the fresh prepackaged needle, a prepackaged CBR, a prepackaged popsicle stick type thing (to put some lubricant on), clamps, and some cleanser to wash my eyebrow with. After doing all this he put on another pair of gloves and washed off my eyebrow and marked my eyebrow where he though it looked good. I looked in the mirror, then showed it to my friends. After self approval, and the approval of my peers, I was all set.
Ben changed his gloves yet again (always a good thing) and told me to get ready. He opened the packages of the CBR and the needle and put some lubricant on them. Next was the clamp! He told me it would hurt, but it didn't! The real pain was yet to come. On the count of three Ben pushed the needle through my eyebrow and followed through with the CBR. This pain felt very similar to when I had my navel pierced. It kind of shot through my eyebrow, but that pain didn't last very long. Actually, the part that hurt the worst was Ben closing up the CBR. It was such a tiny thing that it took a lot of fuss to get it shut. OUCH. All that was left was a warm feeling and a bit of soreness. The people watching had big smiles on their faces as I took a look at my new adornment in the mirror. It fit my face very well I think.
He then went over the after care procedure with me. I was instructed to clean it 3 times a day with either saline solution or sea salt soaks (whichever was easier for me) and then put A&D ointment on it after cleaning. No touching it with dirty hands, and try to keep hair care products away from it. Also, clean it more frequently if I sweated too much during the day (being July and all, that was very possible) He gave me his card and after care steps on a sheet of paper and I was done! My friend got his labret pierced and that was that.
The piercing went well for the first few weeks. I followed the after care to a T and made sure not to let it get too dirty while at work. It was so pretty on my face, I wanted it to be there forever! But my body and other factors in my life had other plans! Sleeping was a bit hard, as I had to lay on the other side of my head to make sure not to bump it. But my ex-boyfriend usually forgot about it and hit it several times a night while I was sleeping. The hair dresser was a pain as well. The first time I went to get a new hair cut she almost ripped it out with the comb. After weeks of healing, that set me back to phase one again. I had to treat it again like it was a fresh piercing.
>From that moment on I had nothing but trouble with it. If it wasn't my ex ripping it out in his sleep, it was me hitting it with my shirt or the stupid hair dresser getting it caught on the comb. Having it for 5 or so months it was still crusty and red and I started to notice it was "sliding" down my eyebrow. It was like my body was pushing it out of me day by day. But stupid me kept it in a little longer in hopes that it would eventually heal. I still cleaned it like normal and took extra care of it every day like I was instructed. I thought maybe, by some miracle, it would heal. But alas, it did not.
While going to get a tattoo about 8 months after the initial piercing at Body Art, I had Ben take a look at it. He said "sorry deary, your body does not want that there" So he was nice enough to take it out for me. He instructed me to clean it and put tea tree oil on it to minimize scarring. And that was it! No more eyebrow piercing! All I had left was a 14g CBR, a few pictures, and a lot of memories. But I knew I was better off. All I can do now is hope that my future piercings will do better. Good luck to you in your new piercing, I hope it works out better than mine did!!