"Body Piercing Number 1"
At A Glance Author Samm Contact delerium_31@hotmail.com Artist I don't remember! But I think it was Jay Studio Jersey Devil Location Blackwood, NJ When I was 14 I went to get my first eyebrow piercing. For about two years I had wanted it done, and in the beginning of that year, I was determined I would have my left eyebrow pierced before school was out. I longed for a little, 12 gauge, silver hoop to tug on and twist around. It was going to happen. My parents would never, ever take me to get it pierced, and I know I would be in deep shit if I ever got it done. But at that point, I honestly didn't care. I mean what could they really do anyway? Previously that year, I had been grounded for 5 months, so as far as I was concerned, it couldn't possibly get any worse.
My best friend's father took us to get pierced: her lip and my eyebrow. We went to a little place in South Jersey, and the entire drive there, my stomach was churning. I was deathly afraid that I was going to get grounded, or worse, that I wasn't going to be allowed to talk to my best friend anymore. But after an eternity of shitty New Jersey highways, we were there. With cash in our hands, and butterflies in our stomachs, we went in. The over-air-conditioned lobby was small, and the walls were crowded with possible tattoo designs. We waited, anxiously, for awhile, until the only person working finished up a tattoo. (And though I have no clue what the piercer's name was (something like Matt or Jay), he had worked there for a while, and when I went back to the studio a second time, he was, again, my piercer.)
Finally it was our turn, and breathlessly we explained what we wanted, while her dad and my "uncle" signed for both of us, and we wrote down our names and addresses, etc. My friend decided to go first, being the more nervous one. She sat, very rigidly in the red (very dentist like) chair, while everything was prepared. The piercer (whatever his name was) had to stop about 5 times because she was shaking so badly and it would have hurt like hell if he had slipped. Finally he got her talking, and got her to close her eyes, and before she knew it, the needle was in and the piercing was over. She got a 12 g in the right side of her lower lip.
Then it was my turn.
I was beyond nervous, but I sat calmly in the chair without shaking. I wasn't really afraid of the pain, I was more anxious about getting it FINALLY done after I had wanted it done for such a long time. I was also afraid of what it would feel like, and how much trouble I would be in, when I waltzed in the front door with a slightly red and puffy hole in my left eyebrow. And as anxious as I was, I really wanted to experience as much as possible rather than try to pretend I wasn't there, like my friend before me. I tried to keep my eyes open during the piercing, but the piercer told me sternly to keep them closed. Amazingly, it didn't hurt at all, and I didn't even know when the needle went through. I was shocked that it was less painful than an ear-piercing! I got a 12 g in my left eyebrow, at about the end of the eyebrow.
And even though my dad flipped out that I had an eyebrow piercing, I loved it (and strangely, so did my grandmother; she told me I would be in trouble if I took it out like my dad wanted). I actually didn't get in too much trouble; my dad yelled a whole lot (and threw a few "FUCK!"s in there) but I didn't get grounded or anything annoying like that. Getting pierced is a totally addictive feeling, and I actually went back about two months later to get my piercing changed because I thought it was growing out. I came home with a second eyebrow piercing right behind the first one! (Don't ask me how that happened, because the piercer just sort of took it into his own head to give me another piercing).
And now that its 4 years after the first time I got pierced, I have taken both my eyebrow rings out (I got tired of seeing them everywhere, on everyone and their mothers). For the two and a half years that I had my double silver eyebrow rings, I dearly loved them (and would often gross people out by pulling on them during lunch or dinner). And though I would not put them back in (the holes are pretty much still there), I desperately miss having a piercing. This summer when I finally turn 18 I am definitely getting back in the piercing chair (and repeatedly), for my right nostril, my nipples, and who knows what else!