Getting My Eyebrow Pierced

I found myself eating lunch all by myself last Sunday and decided that I needed to do something exciting for once. Getting my eyebrow pierced seemed to fit the bill quite nicely.

I emailed a friend and asked if she knew anyplace to recommend: she told me about The Hole Look. I called them and got the basic information (such as how much it would cost - $45 – and where they’re located – on Dawson Street, between Benson and Northern Lights) and headed out the door.

When I got there, I found the shop to be very clean – almost sterile, and smelling cleaner than a hospital almost. I was the only customer, so got to spend some time talking to the lady at the front desk. She went over the particulars and made sure to answer any questions I had.

I had a few: How do I take care of it after it’s pierced? (I have a saline solution that I spray on it 6 times a day to help it heal and keep it clean) How long will it take to heal? (Up to 6 months) Will I get any diseases from your shop? (No - they sterilize everything according to medical standards to ensure no blood-borne diseases get passed on) That sort of thing. She was more than happy to assuage all my fears, and soon enough I had signed the paperwork and was ready to be pierced.

My piercer for the day was Blake, a very nice man with several piercings and tattoos on his own body. He led me back to a room that was set up just like an exam room might be at the doctor’s office. Again, it was very clean and sterile, and again smelled very strongly of bleach or some other cleaning solution. He had all his tools laid out and ready for me, and was very thorough in explaining exactly what he was going to do.

First he had me sit up on the table so he could clean the area to be pierced. He had a q-tip covered in the cleaning solution that he swabbed me with, making sure to get every possible contamination off.

Then he took a sharpie (yes, a sharpie!) and made dots where he would be piercing me. He was very particular about the placement, erasing the dots several times till he was satisfied with the results.

Next came the measurements to determine what size ring I need. Apparently some people have fatter eyebrows than others do. Which only makes sense, since people come in all sizes: I just had never really considered that before.

Once he had the ring ready and all his tools on hand, he then had me lay down so he could do the actual piercing. He told me, “I want you to take a deep breath in through your nose and then blow it out through your mouth. When you breathe out, that’s when I’ll do it.”

So, I took a deep breath in and slowly blew it out my mouth – and he stuck the needle in. It hurt, of course. It actually hurt a lot, and it wasn’t a quick poke either. In fact, he eventually had to tell me to “Keep breathing!” because I had apparently stopped.

Once he had the needle all the way through he then had to back it out while at the same time threading the ring through. I just kept on breathing very consciously: in through the nose, out through the mouth – in through the nose, out through the mouth. Once the needle was out and the ring was in, he closed the ring.

And then he was done. I lay on the table a while, to make sure my body adjusted itself to its new pierced condition before attempting to stand up. I’ve feinted before, and don’t enjoy it!

Now, here’s a very interesting side effect that I totally did not expect. When I finally sat up to see if a vertical position was at all possible yet, I discovered that my toe had turned completely black! (Yes, I was barefoot) What in the world would cause my toe to turn black from getting my eyebrow pierced? It was the toe right next to the big toe, and it took a good 10-15 minutes for color to come back to it.

Very strange.