Let me start out by saying I do not like pain. Oh, and I'm needle phobic.... I didn't even get my ears pierced until I was 15. However, I had seen body mods on other people and commended them for their bravery. In my opinion it takes a lot of guts to sit there through the pain, even only a few seconds worth, and show the world a piece of your individuality on the surface. The eyebrow piercing caught my attention early on and I had rolled the idea around in my head for quite awhile but I was still nervous.
At A Glance Author coyotescott Contact coyotescott@bme.anon When A year ago Artist Chris Montgomery Studio Sunshine & Company Location Lincoln City, Oregon What made me do it? A couple of friends had gotten some piercing done to them and I basically thought if they can do it then I could do it! Why keep myself back from something I've wanted to do for years? So I asked my friends where they had gone, who had done their piercing and they directed me to Chris at Sunshine & Company. Before I decided to actually go get pierced I checked out the Internet for pictures and stories and such and I found BME. I looked at pictures and read until I thought my eyes would pop out. But everything I saw was comforting and it put me at ease.
Well I finally got up the nerve and called to make an appointment, she accepts drop-ins but I knew if I didn't make an appointment that I might chicken out. So I went in that Saturday. Lo and behold I step into the office and my friend is there, getting her nose ring checked out. So we shot the breeze while Chris was getting the room prepared for me. My friend left to head home and I was left with Chris's assistant (kick ass girl, by the way) to fill out all of the papers.
Now, I'm allergic to metals so my choices for getting pierced were limited to either titanium or acrylic. I chose to try out titanium since I hadn't done it before and I had a surprisingly good selection to choose from. I picked out the "rainbow" colored one, which shone in green/blue/purple depending on how the light hit it. Puuurty. So once that was all done Chris motioned me into the back room. This room is covered in photographs of past clients, pictures of Johnny Rzeznik of The Goo Goo Dolls (she has a thing for him!), and funny little sayings. My favorite stated; "When I saw your age we had to walk five miles to get stoned and have sex!" I saw this and some of my nervousness flew away.
She told me to hop up on the little table, which in my mind is a bit like a flat dentists chair, and we talked for a couple minutes. I'm sure she could tell that I was nervous (I think I was actually shaking) so she talked to me casually while she got everything ready. Told me a story about her and a poppy field that I shall never forget! I had filled out my allergies and such on the forms before going into the back room but she double-checked with me. Asking if I was allergic to any seafood or shellfish and such. I told her no and asked why and she replied, saying that similar ingredients were in the items she used.
Once she was all gloved up and ready she removed the jewelry from the package and had me stand in front of the mirror as she held it in front of my brow to give me an idea of what it would look like once it was on. After that she had me lay down on the table, which is when I really started to get nervous. Did I mention that I don't like pain or needles? Hmmm. I started wondering what the hell I was doing there. Could I go through with this? How much would this hurt me? I had heard varying accounts of the pain online and knew it was different for everyone. All I could think of was that I had a low tolerance for pain. I think at that moment I was sure I was going to die...
But Chris just kept talking to me. She told me to close my eyes and breathe slowly that she wasn't even ready to pierce me yet. She informed me that she was going to clean the area really well so I could just sit back and relax. I did my best on the relaxing bit and concentrated on just breathing. I felt some cold liquid on my skin as she cleaned the area thoroughly with a cotton ball various times. She ran the cotton ball all the way to my hairline, across my eyebrow, and onto the top part of my eyelid, making sure to get everything nice and ready.
She asked me if I had any preference to where I wanted the jewelry placed or if I wanted her to mark my skin in the location the piercing was most commonly done. I had her mark me, trusting her judgment, and then I looked over the tiny marker points with the handheld mirror she gave me. She had placed it perfectly and I was pleased. She then called in her assistant and told me to close my eyes and not open them until she said it was all right. She said I would feel the urge to open them but I had to remember that there was going to be a needle right there if I did. So I better not. I took her advice and closed my eyes. She then informed me that I needed to relax my face and take long, deep breathes through the entire process because if my facial muscles were tense it would be more difficult for her to pierce me.
So I breathed steadily, even when I felt the clamps take hold on my eyebrow firmly. I was surprised that it didn't hurt; I had heard over and over that the clamp was the worst part of the entire thing. So it didn't hurt and I relaxed a little more. She told me to take in a deep breath and to let it out when she told me to. So I inhaled deeply and felt the needle enter the bottom of my eyebrow, the second it entered she told me to release my breath and I did. By the time I had completely exhaled the needle was through the other side.
The piercing sensation was...different, to say the least. It hurt, of course, but not as badly as I expected it to. It was reminiscent of a very, very sharp pinch. I didn't feel it much when the needle entered my skin but when it came out the other side there was a feeling of a 'pop.' I burned a bit as it traveled its course through my skin but once she had inserted the jewelry all that was left was a full, slightly burning sensation. I had bled a bit and she explained to me that it was probably due to a bit of bacteria under the skin and was completely normal. With that she hit the lights and told me to lie there and relax for a few minutes.
I later found out from her that the reason she has you lay in the dark is so you can calm down. Breathing regularly and closing your eyes while in a dark space helps the blood clot. After about fifteen minutes of lying there Chris came back and switched on the lights. She asked me how I was doing and I told her I was doing well. She handed me the hand mirror again and let me look at my new jewelry for the first time. I loved it! It looked like it had always belonged there. I smiled at her and said thanks, that I absolutely loved it and thought it looked great. She said she thought it looked really good on me.
With that we went over aftercare. She handed me a piece of paper with all of the instructions on it, her business card (complete with home phone number written on the back should I ever need it) a small sized baggie full of sea salt, and a tea bag of Chamomile tea. She explained to me that I shouldn't touch it or fiddle with it unless I was cleaning it because the canal needed to heal evenly and if I had too much handling it would heal jagged. She told me I needed to clean in the shower everyday with dial soap, massaging a dollop of it on my eyebrow and extending in a circular motion until I've covered the area of about the size of a plumb. After that I needed to clean it was sea salt water twice a day. In addition I could use the Chamomile tea bag by seeping it in some hot water like I normally would and then applying the teabag directly to the piercing.
She told me to call her anytime I had a question or if there was a problem, said she couldn't help me if she didn't know what was going on. After that I was free to go. Taking care of the piercing was a cinch! I only had one of two instances where it got caught on some clothing while I was getting dressed. Healing went really smoothly and I couldn't be happier with my new jewelry!
The biggest problem I had occurred months after healing. In my sleep I somehow managed to push the top ball of my piercing down into the canal. I woke up with blood everywhere and a very sharp pain in my head...yeah go figure that, eh? Anyway, I went back to see Chris immediately and she patched me all up and put in an acrylic barbell in to help my wound heal as it can be difficult for the tear to heal around metal. If this is the type of thing you're worried about I would say to sleep with a band aid or something similar over the piercing after the allocated healing time has passed, especially if you're known to fiddle around a lot in your sleep, until you're comfortable that it won't be an issue for you. I'm happy to say I have had no other problems with this piercing at all and, over nine months later, I still love it.
All in all I would experience it all over again if I had to. The small moment of minimal pain was well worth what I took away from the experience.