It had been several weeks since my apadravya and I was itching for another piercing. The question was where, since I'm a piercer I'm at no loss for piercings, I'm at a loss for placement. I've always liked the eyebrow piercing but, everyone and their grandmother has one. I've done so many eyebrows in my time, I could do it in my sleep! I wanted something a little different but yet, was on the clock so, couldn't get into something too extreme.I thought about the horizontal eyebrow but, I just wanted to stay away from the brow completely. It finally came to me after looking through BME pictures, that I don't do very many anti-eyebrow piercings.
At A Glance Author Jeff Contact Jeff@bme.anon IAM FirstStar When A week ago Artist Me Studio First Star Location Montreal, QC My mind was made up, I was going to give myself an anti-eyebrow piercing. It was thursday and always being ready, I had all my tools sterilized. I've got a fairly narrow face, the question I was wondering was, should I go with a 14g or your run of the mill 16g curved eyebrow barbell. This is more of a surface piercing and less like an eyebrow piercing. With any surface piercing, my main concern is always rejection. So, I had to really think about the area to be pierced. I'd usually go with a surface barbell with any surface piercing but, didn't have the right size for me. I had to go with a curved barbell, I still hadn't decided if I was going with a 14g or a 16g. I poked and prodded around my eye and cheek for about 10 minutes, until I found an area I liked. I couldn't have an area where the skin was too tight or where there wasn't enough fat. Like I said earlier on, I was concerned about rejection. Maybe if it hadn't been a facial piercing, I wouldn't have been so precautious. Rejection can leave some nasty scaring and didn't want that on my face.
Now with the area finally picked out, I had to figure out what gauge to go with. I looked at all my 14 gauge curved barbells but, just like my surface bars, they were too long for the area being pierced. I was a little afraid that even with my smallest balls, it would sit up too high and cause a lot of tension on the exit holes. There are a lot of factors to take into consideration, when doing any surface piercing. I found that with the 16 gauge curved barbell, the curve wasn't as pronounced and that the balls were slightly smaller. This would allow the barbell to sit more comfortably in the skin, with a lot less tension on the exit holes. Here I was, looking for a quick an easy procedure and when I finally was ready to pierce the skin, almost 45 minutes had gone by.
I cleaned the area to be pierced and made my marks. I proceeded to put on my clamps and got my needle ready. One, two, three it was done, the bar was in and I was just tightening the balls. I cleaned up the area and took a good look at my new anti-eyebrow piercing. It looked great, although the whole set process took about 45 minutes, the actually piercing only took a few minutes.
I know a lot of piercer's are going with a freehand approach but, I still prefer my clamps or at least, a receiving tube. There are several reasons why I prefer working with clamps, for one, there's less chance for needle sticking, second, it stops blood flow to the area being pierced and lastly, I find it takes people's attention off the needle and most are thinking about the clamps. 9 times out of 10, people coming for the first time will say," I didn't even feel the needle go through, the only thing I could feel was those clamps!". Yes, they can cause bruising in some area's and it is a little uncomfortable but, I'd never put myself at risk for someone else's comfort. I've had many people flinch or twitch during a piercing, I wouldn't want the needle to pierce my skin because somebody jumped! I'm not taking a jab at those who use the freehand approach. I know many amazing piercer's with many more years experience than me, who use this method. I guess it comes down to personal choice and for me, I use my clamps.
With being a piercer and I say this in all of my articles, always get your piercings done by a qualified piercer. If I take into account my apprenticeship, I can say I've been piercing for 8 years. Yet, on a straight forward and pretty basic piercing, I took a good 45 minutes to make sure I was going about it the right way. I obviously don't take this long with every piercing, I took all my knowledge into consideration, from my course's to my 8 years. Things that someone at home wouldn't think about. It's one thing to have rejection scars on your body, it's another to have them on your face!
One thing I've seen many people do during an anti-eyebrow piercing and this really bothers me, is pierce so that the needle is coming out facing the eye. Never, ever do this, always pierce away from the eye. When applying enough pressure so that a needle pierce's the skin, you can never be sure when or where it'll stop when it comes out the skin. Yeah, you can always use corks but, why take the chance?
Here I am, almost a week and half later and it's healing beautifully. I've always found that properly pierced surface piercings, heal fairly quickly without much fuss. So, if your surface piercing isn't healing up quickly, there might be a problem.
I know it costs a lot these days for a piercing but, if you don't have the money on hand, wait a few weeks and save up. Don't go see a buddy who supposedly has pierced many others with a safety pin or sewing needle - I can't stress enough how wrong that is. For one thing, you in for a lot more pain, real piercing needles are as sharp as a razor blade. Secondly, how sure are you that the needle is properly sterilized, how do you know he didn't just take it out of the bottom of his pant leg?
If you're not old enough, wait until you are or get your parents to come with you. I deal with this type of thing just about every week. At least twice a week, someone comes to me with a botched piercing. Most qualified piercer's have taken in depth course's on the subject, there's a lot more that goes into piercing that just putting a needle through someone's skin. You need to know a little about the human body, about nerves, veins, how the skin heals. I'm not just saying this to get your business (go to another qualified piercer for all I care), I'm saying this so, you'll have a piercing you can be proud to show off, instead of a hack job that you're ashamed of and have to cover up.
Enough said, I'm out of here!