Piercings have been an infatuation of mine since about the age of 12. I would browse BME for hours, my interest being caught by more fascinating piercings every day. I even began making piercings the topic of school reports and presentations. Of course, I dreamed of one day getting one. But, having a rather conservative parent who considers body piercing "trashy" was of no aid.
At A Glance Author Alice White Contact alicewhitedoll@yahoo.com IAM alice.white When Three months ago Artist Matt Studio Darkside Location Little Rock, Arkansas Time went on, and my mother began accepting my body as my own; and subject to my own alterations. As my 17th birthday began to approach, I decided to try and convince her into allowing me an eyebrow piercing for my birthday present. The day of my birthday my mother went out to lunch with my brother and I. After much pestering and convincing from us, she hesitantly agreed. My brother placed a call to the tattoo shop he was familiar with, and got the go-ahead for a walk-in.
30 minutes later, I arrived at the shop with my son, mom, and brother. I didn't have a chance to round together friends, considering we didn't want to take the chance of my mother changing her mind. So, we went through the regular drill. Consent papers, aftercare instructions, etc. The piercer, Matt, asked me to pick my jewelry from the clear case in the front of the shop. I pointed out the smallest, most inoffensive eyebrow jewelry I could spot (or so I thought). He grabbed it, and we made our way back to one of the little piercing cubbies. To be honest, I didn't like the look of the place. Things weren't kept very tidy, there was a bit of trash here and there. But, of course, I didn't have the patience to shop around for other studios. I sat on the table and waited as Matt got everything prepared. He cleaned my eyebrow well, and then marked a spot. I got up and looked in the mirror, and thought it was a bit low. My brother also made a comment about needing to get it done as deeply as possible, so I asked him to reposition. He remarked the spot and it was perfect.
So now; the moment of truth. Matt applied the clamp, which was relatively comfortable. I closed my eyes at this point, not wanting to see the needle. He told me to take 2 deep breaths, and on the last one he would pierce me. On the last breath, I felt a sharp pain. It hurt a bit more than I expected, but didn't last very long at all. I kept my eyes closed while Matt retrieved the jewelry, and instructed my brother to catch a photo. Matt put in the jewelry, which I couldn't feel at all. I had gotten completely lightheaded - being someone struggling to fight a serious needle phobia - and had to lay down. My brother gave me a chocolate mint to eat and I quickly recovered. I got up to look at the jewelry and was blown away by how big it looked. This jewelry was huge, and being someone with a small face anyway it was somewhat less than flattering. The piercing also seemed to come out a bit father from the eyebrow on the bottom than on the top. Matt found a smaller ball he said he could put on one end, but couldn't seem to unscrew the jewelry without hurting me. He sent me home with the spare piece so I could change it myself when it hurt less. We payed, thanked him, and were on our way.
Aftercare, I admit, wasn't my best subject. I took care of it perfectly for about a week, and then started slacking. I'm extremely lucky that my body heals well. Although instructed to wait atleast 3 months, I was determined to change my jewelry 2 weeks later. I had bought a few cute pieces and couldn't wait to get that huge bar out. The only drawback; I couldn't seem to unscrew the balls. No matter how hard I, or anyone else, tried we couldn't remove the jewelry. I managed to find some medical tape, and put two pieces around each ball on the jewelry. This provided the perfect resistance, and they screwed right off. I went straight to my bathroom and washed my hands, my new jewelry, and proceeded to remove the old jewelry. I was very careful, afraid of hurting the still new piercing. I slipped out the old jewelry and gave the hole a quick cleaning. I inserted the new jewelry with no problem at all. After that, the healing process went great - even though I was only cleaning it with bactine every day, or sometimes every other day. I have to mention, I would NEVER recommend anyone slack off on the aftercare like I did. I do believe it somewhat hindered the healing process, and might do much worse to someone else's body.
It's been about 4 months now and the piercing is doing great. It's very deep, and normal jewelry fits it perfectly where the bar isn't visible at all. No signs of rejection or infection have ever come up. I look forward to being adorned with even more body jewelry in the future.