I never thought that a piercing could change my life, the way this one has. I know many of you reading this may think "but it's just an eyebrow piercing, who cares?" However, this experience has been practically life altering, and in a way, I feel as if I have reclaimed my body.
At A Glance Author Jean-Guy When Two years ago Artist Ben Studio Tattooatouage Location Montreal I live in Montreal, and although I am now aware of the great piercing studios it has to offer, at the time when I was 16, I was completely oblivious. I had been contemplating an eyebrow piercing for a few years, so when I was downtown with my girlfriend, I had voiced to her my desire to get it pierced. Now, my girlfriend (who has been with me ever since then) is usually supportive in all my life decisions, she seemed hesitant about this one. We had a long talk about it, and finally decided that if I really wanted it, I should do it and not be surprised if she didn't like it. That was good enough for me, so as we were shopping on St-Denis Street, we stopped by at Tattooatouage. Ben was piercing at the time, and he had done my helix and I was very impressed with his friendliness, good manners and knowledge about body modification. There weren't many people waiting before me when I got there, so I made myself comfortable on their couch, watching the Discovery Channel on their T V. After Ben was finished with a client, he approached me and asked me what I wanted done, with a smile. I asked him if it was okay to get an eyebrow piercing with a barbell, and he reassured me that it was fine, and will probably be easier to take care of in the long run, because it won't get bumped around as much as an eyebrow piercing with a CBR.
After a bit of chitchat and paying for the piercing, he led me to the backroom where the piercing would ensue. I plopped down on this dentist-like turquoise chair while the piercer was putting together his tools. He rubbed some kind of liquid on my eyebrow (I'm not sure what it was anymore) and asked me if I was nervous. I laughed and said that I was very anxious for it to be over with. He started to engage in more small conversation with me, about work and school, which ended up relaxing me a lot more while he positioned the clamps on my eyebrow. He handed me a mirror to confirm the spot, and I approved. A few seconds later, he took the 14 gauge needle out of the small tub of lube it was in, told me to relax and breathe, and poked me in the eyebrow. I must say, the pain was nothing like I imagined, but seriously nothing as bad as I thought. It felt intense when it entered and exited, but kind of felt like it was burning when the needle was penetrating the inner layers of sk in. I started tearing from my left eye and quickly wiped it away. I did not want to seem like a sissy in front of Ben. :P
Anyway, he quickly followed the barbell after the needle and I only felt a slight pinch as the jewelry was inserted. Looking back, I should have asked for an internally threaded barbell, but as mentioned before, I wasn't aware of the difference between internal and external jewelry. He screwed on the ball, wiped a drop of blood off my eyebrow and handed me a mirror. I absolutely fell in love with it. I thought it suited my face perfectly; the balls weren't too big or too small and it overall looked so good. I couldn't stop grinning. Even my girlfriend liked it, and said it suited my face. I was practically walking on a cloud for the rest of the day, just beaming and holding my girlfriend's hand while we continued our shopping spree.
I was advised to use Spectro-Gel for my aftercare (which isn't a wise choice), but when I was healing my infected helix, my friend suggested I tried sea salt soaks, which worked wonders and I haven't used anything else since. I did it twice a day at first, once in the morning and once right before going to bed. It ended up becoming a bit irritated, so I cut back and did it once a day. As a result, I haven't run into any problems and it healed perfectly. Two years later, I still love it just as much, and have gotten many compliments about it. I recently changed it to an internally threaded barbell, just to make sure the jewelry would be of top quality.
Overall, it was a great experience. If I were to do it all now, I probably would have shopped around and chosen a piercing studio that used internally threaded barbells, so I am probably lucky that my piercing didn't reject.