Okay, so the story of my piercing is a complex one with a little bit of history. For my 13th birthday in 7th grade, I went with my friends to walk around South Street on Philadelphia. We passed a bunch of piercing parlors, and saw a lot of people on the street that had eyebrow piercings. I told my friend how much I liked them and that I wanted one, but needless to say I chickened out before I could even get up the courage to ask my parents about one. About a year and a half passed, and I decided that I really, really wanted an
At A Glance Author shabonmerc Contact shabonmerc@aol.com Artist Luis Garcia Studio Infinite Piercing Location Philadelphia, Pa eyebrow piercing. I had been doing a lot of research and looking at pictures on BME, and I knew that this was the piercing for me. At this point I only had two sets of holes in each ear, so this was a really big step for me. Around April I approached my mother and told
her that I wanted an eyebrow piercing. Her first reaction was "absolutely not!" I pulled up some stories on BME written by kids who were around my age and had gotten their eyebrows pierced, and I also showed her pictures of some of the eyebrow piercings, so she could see how nice they were. She said she'd think about it.
About a month passed with no word from my mother, and I was beginning to think she had either forgotten that I had asked or was simply waiting to tell me that I couldn't. Finally at the end of May I gathered up the courage to ask her, and she told me I could! I was so excited, but now I was scared too! After she told me yes, I realized that I was going to have someone push a needle through my eyebrow!
It took me the entire summer to work up the courage, but I finally decided to do it while I was on vacation in early September with my family and friend Hanna. This was a really big step for me because not only was I finally getting the piercing I'd always wanted, but I
was going to be the only one in my entire school with an eyebrow piercing. Towards the end of the vacation we drove down to a little town on the Massachusetts cape, and found the piercing place we had been told about. It was called "The Pin Cushion", which of course just made me more nervous. We had lunch (I wanted to do it on an empty stomach but the guy wouldn't let me), and then I went back. By this point I was so nervous I was shaking, and my friend Hanna kept talking to me trying to calm me down, but she sounded nervous too!
I went into the piercing place, and I noticed that it was really clean, which made me feel a little bit better. The piercer there was a big guy with really long bleached dreadlocks and really big stretched ears - he was kind of intimidating, but ended up being really nice. He picked out my jewelry for me - a stainless steel 18g ring - and lead me into the back. No was allowed back with me, which scared me the hell out of me. I laid down on a table, and watched as the guy put on gloves and then opened all the packages with brand new
sterile equipment. He started telling me about the cleaning basics as he was readying everything, although I was too nervous to really listen. He put the dots on my eyebrow and showed me them in a mirror. I OKed them, and then laid back. He put the clamp on
my eyebrow and then almost immediately afterwards told me to take a deep breath and exhale. I did, and before I knew it, I was pierced! I didn't even feel the needle go through, which I attributed to the fact the clamp had messed with my nerves a little. He put the jewelry in, and lead me out. I was sooo happy with it! Everyone agreed that it looked really good.
I cleaned my piercing twice a day with dial soap, and for the first few months it was perfect. I didn't really know about how clean you have to keep eyebrow piercings, so I played with it all the time and let other people touch it, because they thought it was so awesome. After the first few months, I developed a bacterial infection right around the bottom hole. Not knowing any better, I started using neosporin on it every night for at least 2 months. Over those two months, a raised red bump appeared underneath the jewelry, and while it didn't hurt, it wouldn't drain or go away. I just decided to ignore it, and in February I bought a curved barbell from Spencer's, and I put that in without any problems. What I didn't know was that it was made from cheap metal, full of nickel, and it made the bump much worse and painful. Then, I started running into bad luck - I had it hit several times in mosh pits and by flailing arms, and I got it stuck once in the zipper of one of my jackets. By the end of 10th grade in June, my eyebrow was an absolute mess. I e-mailed Infinite Piercing and they told me I had a bacterial infection and should come in so they could asses how bad it was. When I went in August, they told me that my piercing was almost completely grown out and that I needed to remove the jewelry. I was heartbroken!
I took out the jewelry in the hopes that my eyebrow would heal, and applied cocoa butter to it every day to make the large scar I had developed there go away. I went back every month asking if it was okay to get my eyebrow (the left one - the same one) pierced again,
and every time they turned me away. Finally I decided I just really, really wanted an eyebrow piercing, and so I made the deal with my mom that no matter what, she would take me to get my eyebrow pierced for my 17th birthday. So, I went in on February 23rd, 2001, and asked them if I could pierce my left eyebrow. The piercer - Luis Garcia -
wasn't sure, so I settled on getting my right eyebrow pierced instead. I picked out a curved steel barbell, 16g, and followed him back to the room. Because of statutory rape laws in Pa, my mom had to come back into the room with me, which made me feel better.
I sat down in a chair that looked a lot like a dentist's chair, and my piercer sat on a high stool in front of me. The room was immaculate - there wasn't any dirt or dust at all! He
looked over my right eyebrow and cleaned it, and then he put on bright purple gloves, which I thought was cool. As he was laying out the equipment (all sterile), I noticed that there was no clamp, and I asked him if he was going to use one. He said no (ahhhhh!), because that caused displacement in the skin of the eyebrow, and it would grow out. I nodded, much more nervous now, and closed my eyes. He told me to breathe out, and I did, squeezing my mom's hand to death, and he pushed the needle through. It felt a little bit like a bee sting - a quick pain, but that was it. He then put the barbell through, gave me some cleaning instructions, and I was done! I was so happy! I had to hold onto my mother's arm as I walked back to the car because I felt slightly dizzy, but then I was fine.
I've had my new eyebrow piercing for almost 7 months now, and I haven't had any problems at all with it! It stays clean and I no longer let anyone touch it, and the only time I move it is when I clean it. It's also much deeper, so I can't really move it around. I
haven't had enough money to buy new jewelry for it, but I can't wait until I do! This is by far the best piercing I've, and I absolutely love it! That is saying a lot, because I have 4 lobe piercings in my right ear, 3 in my left ear, and the cartilage pierced once in both. I also have my belly button pierced. I'm planning on going back to Infinite to get my left tragus pierced for my 18th birthday, and also to have them recommend a good tattoo parlor to me.
I definitely recommend Infinite Piercing if you're looking for a high quality piercing that will last you a lifetime!