I never thought I d actually go through with it

If you had asked me a year ago whether I would ever get a facial

piercing, I would have emphatically replied, "Never!" My sister had her
nose pierced at one point, and now has a tongue piercing and three tattoos,
and I pretty much wrote off piercing as a trendy/semi-tacky thing. Well, as
hard as it is for me to admit, I was WRONG.
I got to college here in
D.C.and started seeing more people with pierdings (I am originally from an
extremely tiny, conservative town where the most radical piercing is a guy
getting his ear done) - in fact, one of my good friends has his eyebrow
pierced. Anyway, I started to really like the way they looked and I began to
contemplate getting mine done.
In the meantime, however, I had joined
the women's ice hockey team, and I didn't think that a fresh piercing and a
hockey helmet would be very compatible. So, I actually had well over a month
to think about my decision and make sure this was something I really wanted
to do. I did some research online and chose Grafixx, near Metro Center, as
the place where I would get pierced. I went with a friend of mine to get his
tongue pierced there a couple weeks before I got my eyebrow done, and the
studio seemed very clean and the people were really nice and helpful.

So, we had our final hockey practice of the semester on a Wednesday morning,
and that afternoon I set out to get pierced. The original plan was that a
friend of mine who wanted to get her nipple done would come with me for moral
support and whatnot; however, she was sleeping and refused to wake up. No one
else could come with me either, this being in the middle of finals week (so
people were a little crazed). I ended up having to go alone. I was a little
nervous, but not much. So I got there, paid my $50, showed my I.D. and signed
a consent form, and then it was time for the action.
I stood in front
of the piercer and he marked the spot to be pierced on my brow. Then I sat
down and closed my eyes, preparing for the pain. Well, I was in for a
surprise....it barely hurt at all! I just had my wisdom teeth removed, and
the injection of anesthetic for that was about 10 times more painful than the
piercing was. It just felt like a sharp pinch. I bled a little, but not much.
The whole process took about 10 minutes, maybe less.
Basically, this is
what happened, as far as I can remember (I kept my eyes shut, so this
information might not be that accurate!): He put the clamp on my eyebrow,
which felt a little odd but didn't hurt. Then he stuck the needle through,
which was the most painful part - "pain" being a relative term, since it was
more uncomfortable than painful. Then he put the jewelry in and closed it,
and voila! a new piercing. Like I said, I kept my eyes closed because I'm not
a big fan of needles, so I didn't want to see anything that he was doing. All
the equipment used was brand new and sterilized, and Matt explained how to
clean the piercing and what kind of soap to use and all that fun stuff
afterwards.
It did sting a bit for the rest of the day, and it was a
little tender to the touch for a few days afterwards, but seriously, I had
more problems when I got my ears pierced. Cleaning it grossed me out a little
at first, just because you have to move the ring around and I was a little
squeamish about that, but overall it's a lot easier to care for than I
expected. I just apply some antibacterial soap and water around the ring,
then wiggle it back and forth to work the soap through the hole. Then I rinse
it out really really well. I put Neosporin on it for the first couple days,
and now I do sea salt soaks once or twice a day.
It does tend to bleed a
little sometimes and get a bit crusty, but I just wipe off the crust with a
Q-Tip and it's fine. I was expecting it to be a lot more swollen and bruised
than it actually is. The only problem I have is with sleeping...I got the
ring in my left eyebrow, and I tend to sleep on my left side. The first night
I had it, I pulled an all nighter to write a paper so I didn't have to worry
about rolling over on it in my sleep, but for a while I was so petrified of
accidentally hurting it that I slept flat on my back and didn't move all
night. Even now, two weeks later, I'm still a little hesitant to sleep on my
left side, but that's probably just my own little issue.
All this has
been a small price to pay, considering how much I love my eyebrow piercing.
Everyone else tells me they really like it as well. Right now I have a ring,
but I am definitely going to switch to a barbell before hockey starts again.
I would recommend eyebrow piercing to anyone...it looks great, it's not very
painful, and I can honestly say that it's one of the best decisions I've ever
made.
One warning - be prepared to get some strange looks and to
encounter some prejudice from people. At school, it's not bad, but right now
I'm at my parents' house for break and I do get a lot of nasty looks and some
comments from the people around here. If you aren't prepared to deal with
this, go for a tongue piercing or something less conspicuous. Other than
that, I think eyebrow piercing is great and I wouldn't trade mine for
anything!