When I was 18 I got my modifications rather impulsively, never regretting any of them. My eyebrow was no exception. One day, 3 years ago myself and two friends were sitting around outside a local coffee shop trying to kill time. I had just turned 18 one month prier to the day and I was sporting a small tattoo, tongue piercing and some new cartilage work aside from my standard double lobe gun piercings. I was reading a tattoo magazine that I had just bought and was getting all worked up, I kept seeing eyebrow piercings on people and I wanted one, not because other people had it, but because it was the answer to what I was looking for, the piercing just called out to me. So I persuaded my friends to go to the Ra Shop, so off we went!
At A Glance Author Elizabeth Contact Elizabeth@bme.anon IAM purrtykitty4m When N/A Artist Robby Studio Ra Shop Location Slidell, Louisiana When we got to the shop I saw Robby behind the jewelry counter talking to someone, he had done my cartilage piercing a week before and had a feeling I was back for more. I told him what I wanted and he told me to pick out my ring ... ring? I didn't want a ring and told him rather sternly. He explained that eyebrows often reject or migrate and there is a better chance it won't with a ring, I still didn't care, I had this image of me and my barbell. He finally agreed to pierce me with a barbell. I went and filled out my form and gave him my ID and then I was good to go. I went into that oh so familiar piercing room and had a seat in the red velvet, upholstered, vintage dentist chair (which has since been retired) I clipped my banges back and Robby asked what eyebrow I wanted pierced, I told him the left and he gave me and odd look and asked me if I was sure. What that was all about I will never know. So he began to swab my eyebrow with alcohol, he marked it and didn't bother t o ask if the placement was okay. Since they didn't have any more 16ga needles and my barbell was 16ga Robby was going to pierce me with an 18ga and stretch it. He didn't use clamps, he did the piercing free hand, he told me to breath in ... and out ... in and ... on the exhale he pierced me. It felt like a pinch but nothing unbearable. He left the needle in and went to get the barbell to thread at the end of the needle to pull threw with the stretch. He instructed me to take a deep breath in and let it out and he would have the jewelry in, well, I exhaled and there was still no barbell in my fresh fistula. Robby said in a joking, apologetic voice that he can't get the barbell in. I wasn't in pain more so irritated that I had a needle hanging down in front of my eyeball. He tried again, this time he put clamps on, and with some tugging and struggling he finally got the barbell threw.
Overly excited with my new piercing I didn't even stop to think about what I would tell my parents, or what I would do about school that was about to start in a few weeks. Well, I kept my hair over the piercing, and that hid it from my parents for about a week. They weren't thrilled with my new piercing, they put their foot down and said no more! Once school started I was put threw hell, I was in the disciplinarian's office at least once a week, constantly having to remove my eyebrow barbell and tongue piercing before I got to her office for my weekly "check up" at one point once she devised a tricky plan and would call kids out of class and she would start to run towards the class room to catch you in the act, I was never caught, but others were. I finally decided to invest in some retainers. I bought a quartz retainer for my tongue and eyebrow and the troubles subsided a little, though I was still being watched like a hawk at school.
By the time I got a retainer my eyebrow was red, hot to the touch, with a greenish discharge and crusting a lot from constantly fooling with it. How it healed I will never know, and how it never rejected, well thats a miracle all on its own. I'm 20 now and still wear my eyebrow barbell, it never migrated or gave me and trouble. I remove it for work and often leave it out for weeks at a time with no trouble putting it back in. If you are afraid of rejection, don't be, because you will never know what happens until you do it yourself. And if at first you don't succeed, try again!