For years I have been into piercings but have never had the courage/money to go through with it myself. I guess I just preferred to admire them from afar, on other people. But it eventually just got to me: I needed to have one. Or two. Or ten. You know.
At A Glance Author Morgan When A year ago Artist Jay Studio Living Colour Location Ottawa For nearly a year I was dead set on one thing: snake bites. Unfortunately, my mother had a thing about lip piercings (she hated them with a passion), and straight up told me no. After months of begging she still wouldn't let up; I gave up and let the snake bites thing slide.
However a part of me was still so compelled to get something pierced (and at the time I simply hated eyebrow piercings), so the question was still at hand: what to get? Nose? No. Helix? No. Monroe? No. I let it go once again.
I'm not exactly sure what made me stop hating and start loving eyebrow piercings, but it happened. And I'm so glad it did.
There are a bunch of different piercing places in downtown Ottawa (most of which do both piercings and tattoos); I chose to go with Living Colour. I had been there previously with a friend and watched as she got her second lip piercing and her 6th helix. Needless to say, I was really impressed and didn't think twice about where I wanted to get my first piercing done.
About two weeks after my 18th birthday it went down. My boyfriend lived out of town at the time, so I ended up going with my good friend Kayla. We walked in and went up to the front desk. The girl working at the front desk was really friendly and said I could get it done almost right away as the piercer was just finishing up with someone and there was no one else waiting. I was given some paperwork to fill out as well as an aftercare sheet to look over beforehand. After it was taken care of, the piercer came out and introduced himself; his name is Jay and he is the epitome of awesome. Stretched lobes, microdermals, scarification, branding, tattoos. You name it, he's got it. And a band shirt to boot. I was impressed.
We followed him into the back room and we all talked for a bit. Jay is both very professional and silly at the same time; it really helped to ease my nervousness. I plopped myself down on the chair and he got all the tools ready for me. It was all individually wrapped so nothing could have possibly have been used previously. Legit as can be.
As he was prepping everything for me he asked a few questions:
"Been here before?"
"Not for myself, but with a friend, yeah."
"What made you want your eyebrow pierced?"
"How about because it's friggin awesome?"
"Good callllll. Did you eat beforehand?"
"Yep."
"Are you allergic to iodine?"
"Pfft. Nope."
"Geez, you expect me to just read your mind about these things?"
He drew two dots on my skin where the piercing would go and handed me a mirror.
"What do you think?"
"I think it looks perfect. Do it."
Now I was more nervous than ever. I didn't realize it at the time, but the aftercare sheet I was given earlier was clenched tightly between both of my hands.
I laid back and closed my eyes. It was at this point he started to squeeze and squish my eyebrow and went "Hey! Now's when you get your free eyebrow massage!" I laughed. He continued this 'eyebrow massage' for a few minutes and then reached for the needle.
"You ready?" he asked.
"Of course."
"Okay. Take a deep breath."
I inhaled deeply, and on the exhale he poked the needle through. (It didn't even hurt! To be honest, the awkward eyebrow massage hurt more.) He let go of the needle and told me he all he had left was to put the jewelry through. This didn't really hurt either; it was more of a pinching feeling this time around.
After all was said and done he let me look in the mirror. I thought it looked fantastic and was really stoked. I then noticed that I had completely destroyed my aftercare sheet by holding on to it too tightly and looked up at Kayla. "Uhm. I think I squeezed the paper a little too hard..." Jay got me a new aftercare sheet and went over it all with me. He made sure I didn't have any more questions and then sent me on my way. I got up, paid and left with my beautiful new piercing. Easily the best day of my life.
I'd recommend this piercing to anyone in a heartbeat. Easy maintenance. Relatively painless. Looks awesome.