Jenn Peterson | Graphics Manager

1/24/02

For months I've been thinking about it, imagining what it would look like, and contemplating the idea of getting a piercing.  I wanted one in my eyebrow.  The first weekend of the semester I gathered the courage, called up my friend Ashley (a sexy single guy, ladies) to give me a ride, and we went to Ancient Arts Tattoo in Blacksburg to get it done.

Ashley knew the piercer, Trey, so we just walked right on in and got me under the needle, so to speak.  I had to pay and sign a waiver first, but that took no trouble and as soon as I knew it, I was in the back, sitting in the chair, and Trey was doing all the prep work.  He put on a pair of gloves, got the tools out, cleaned the skin around where the piercing would be, and drew a couple of dots to show me where the needle would go through my skin.  After I OK'ed the placement of the dots Trey then proceded to get the needle ready.  He changed gloves, placed a clamp on my eyebrow to hold the skin, then he told me to take a deep breath in, and then exhale.  As I exhaled I felt the needle go through my skin.  It felt as if someone was trying to pinch my eyebrow really hard.  As soon as the needle was in Trey put the ring through, cleaned the area up a little, and just like that, I was done.

Trey didn't exactly just push me out of the chair with an "Adios amigos!"  He took a few minutes to tell me how to clean the piercing, and gave me a detailed sheet explaining aftercare for my piercing.  Taking care of your new piercing is not a hard thing to do if you follow some simple rules.  Some of them are:

• Clean it once a day with anti-bacterial soap like Dial and a Q- tip.
• Don't touch the piercing with dirty hands or wear dirty clothes over the piercing
• Don't swim in pools or the ocean for about 2-3 months.
• Don't use alcohol, peroxide, neosporin, or betadine to help the healing.  They can cause irritation and lengthen healing time.
• Wait about 8 weeks before you change jewelry, and the first time you should go back to your piercer to let them do it.  It can be tricky the first time.
• Be on the look out for an infection.  If you get redness, soreness, itching, and yellow, gray, or greenish stuff secreting out, you probably have an infection.  

Take time to think about what you're getting into if you decide to get a piercing.  As I said, I thought for months about getting it done before I did it.  Also take into consideration what your family will think about it.  I talked to my parents about it over the phone days after I had mine done.  That may or may not be the best way to tell your parents about it.  Just take into consideration how they'll react.  Just be sure to tell them that you will take care of it (because you will) and avoid infection, and explain that one of the best things about piercings is that if someday you don't want it anymore, you can just take the ring out, and the hole will heal up.  Not much harm there.

So now, here I am, the piercing is almost two weeks old, and I've been taking care of it like I was told to.  It looks good and I'm proud of it.  Will I get any more?  Nah, one is enough for me.