So it was about a year ago now, that I had my anti done. The way that it's placed though, my piercer at the time was calling it a "crow's foot piercing" or a "temple". Lucky me (stupid me?), I got to be the first person he did it on.
At A Glance Author nikki Contact nikki@bme.anon When A year ago Artist jimmy Studio Art of Tattoos Location portage, MI The story goes something like this.
I was at the Motor City convention last year when I saw this beautiful piercing for the first time. And it was like a dream come true, let me tell you. I instantly wanted to have it done. Honestly, I'm not sure why I never thought of it before I saw it, because I have always had the habit of wearing things like little star stickers off the corner of my eyes, but suddenly it all made sense to me when I saw it. Love at fist sight, only it was with a piece of metal.
So for the next 3 months, give or take, I went absolutely crazy with the idea. Looking for anything I could find about it, looking here on BME for photos to see how I like the placement, trying to see what kind of jewelry was used. Anything I could find. And when I wasn't doing that, well, even when I was doing that I would sit and pinch the area trying to figure out how it was going to feel. There were a lot of times when I had spent all day pinching and would go home from the shop with pink temples. But as some of us know, the pinching method is NOT an accurate way to tell how bad something is going to feel, as was the case with this. (Pinching the same place for hours a day, it starts to hurt!)
After all the days of researching, e-mailing piercers, and people that had it done; pinching and otherwise driving myself mad over this and also making my piercer crazy too. We did it. I was extremely nervous laying back in the chair. I closed my eyes, turned my head to the side, felt the clamp, and what seemed like only a few seconds later I heard "your done honey." "How'd it feel?"
Amazingly, it felt like nothing, like having your lobes pierced. There was the slightest pinch and the jewelry going in was probably the most uncomfortable part of it all, but it was mostly because it's kind of an awkward place to reach and not set the side of your hand in the persons eye I suppose. I was so happy with it, and so pleased that it came out so nice being that I was the experiment for this one. (Which I wouldn't recommend doing, because it's a pretty big gamble on if it's going to come out right or not. The same is for ANY piercing. I'm not really comfortable with being the guinea pig for something.)
Since I've had this done, it's been my most asked about piercing. Everyone assumes that it's super painful and every once in a while you get the "you know, that needle could've ended up in your eye." And a few "is that REAL??" because most people haven't seen it before. Which I think is a shame because it looks so much nicer than a regular eyebrow piercing, when it's done right.
I've also had a few conversations with piercers that I've met. And talking to them about the "correct" jewelry for this, and what I've found is that they say (usually) one of the three following: 1) PTFE. Because it helps in healing by helping to produce white blood cells and its flexibility helps to prevent rejection. 2) Surface bars. I'm not sure why, exactly, no one has ever explained it to me. It's something about the way they're bent that helps them to keep from rejecting, at least that's something that I had read about them once. 3) Curved barbells. This seems to be the least favorite answer among the more "professional" piercers that I've talked to. However, this is what we used in my piercing, and I have had them for a little more than a year now, with minimal movement and it seems to surprise most of the pros that I've talked to. I guess that I got lucky. This is good, because having it done by a piercer who had never done one, or even seen one in person it could've come out not so good.
I love my anti. And I will NEVER give it up. Even thought I wear glasses and most of the time it's not visible because of them. And to anyone that is thinking of having it done, GO FOR IT. You'll be very happy that you did. There are so many different ways of placing it, that you are sure to find one that you like and that is flattering to your face. It's especially nice on girls, because it draws attention to your eyes like wearing the Cleopatra style eye liner. I would just suggest looking here on BME for some photos, to see what you like, and finding a piercer that has done one before, or is VERY well versed in piercing.
And don't worry. Because it doesn't hurt.