Thursday August 14th, 2008 @ 1:40 AM
I am interested in piercing my own eyebrow, and I was just wondering if I should use any specific needle, or if any needle would do? (Like, would a sewing needle that was big enough be alright or suicidal?) Thanks.
Not “Suicidal” but “Stupid” quite possibly.
If you cannot comprehend the definitions of “Sterile” vs “Non-Sterile” and/or “Clean/De-Contaminated” vs “Dirty/Contaminated” then I most honestly would suggest you are not a potential candidate to try a DIY piercing alone.
You’re best choice is to visit a reputable piercing artist and bring up that you want to do the piercing yourself, but want to make sure you have the best possible chance. An easy-going/reputable artist should be willing to help/guide you through this by offering you their guidance/assistance and help you prep, mark,etc the eyebrow. But then when it came time to pierce the flesh with the needle, then that’s your queue to pick the needle up and do the piercing. The piercer would only be on standby in case you are unable to do it or lost the transfer and can’t get it in,etc.
+11 / 35 votes 
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Posted by Warren Hiller | Permalink | Comments
Tuesday August 12th, 2008 @ 4:13 PM
I was just wondering if a retainer would be okay as initial jewelry for a bridge piercing. I would love to have this piercing and my job doesn’t mind wearing retainers, but they won’t let me have any metal jewelry in it. Thanks!
I prefer to use straight jewellery such as barbells in bridge piercings (and I do not place them as surface piercings, like some piercers seem to do), so if a client came to me with this request I’d be happy to do the piercing with a quartz glass tongue-style retainer. If your piercer uses glass retainers as initial jewellery for piercings (and honestly, we’ve done lots of them at my shop and never had any problems other than the occasional client losing their jewellery - retainers are NEVER as secure as threaded jewellery!), I can’t imagine why they would mind doing this for you.
+4 / 6 votes
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Posted by Lori St.Leone | Permalink | 2 Comments
Saturday July 5th, 2008 @ 12:22 AM
To make a long story short, I’m going to be a bridesmaid in my brothers wedding and his fiancee wants me to take out my eyebrow ring (barbell). By that time I will have had it for about 2.5 years. Aside from personal issues about trying to control what someone else does to their body for the sake of pictures, I’m wondering what the odds of it closing up over the course of the day are? Thanks!
Damn brides and their Bridezilla ways…Hence why when I get married it’s going to be in Vegas, with Elvis as the “priest” and only with a small select group of people…But that’s probably why I’ll never get married…Oh well…
One thing you can do is take the eyebrow piercing out right before you have to do your wedding obligations,etc. Or another option is finding a quartz retainer to wear which virtually makes it impossible to notice if you have a piercing in or not,etc.
Perhaps you can talk the bride into going for the quartz retainer. If not just take the piercing out right before the wedding obligations and during the reception,etc (post-wedding ceremony) maybe you can just try to slide the jewelry in for some time to make sure the pathway hasn’t tightened up,etc. If it doesn’t fit, don’t force it, and simply visit a professional studio and have them taper the pathway back open to the size of your jewelry.
+10 / 16 votes
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Posted by Warren Hiller | Permalink | 7 Comments
Saturday July 5th, 2008 @ 12:12 AM
Alright so i recently decided to get my bridge pierced after already having snakebites, my septum, the side of my nose and i have gauged my ears.
I use to have a tounge web piercing byt it was regected, thts the only problem ive had with a regecting piercing and i was wondering how common it is for a bridge piercing to regect???
And is there a certain ammount of skin that HAS to be between your eyes or is it pretty much the same for everyone
There is no set amount of skin between our eyes because everyone’s bridge width will vary since we’re all unique special snowflakes.
Some piercers will use grids to line everything up, others will just keep putting dots on and wiping them off until they get to an ideal placement…I tend to do a mixture of the two where I’ll draw a single line down the mid-line of the bridge, then draw two dots where I think they look level and straight,etc. From there I’ll measure the width to determine the length I need.
I wouldn’t say a bridge piercing is overly common to reject, any piercer can reject if the body does not want it there and views it as foreign matter in the body. I do advise my clients though that quite often you will need to downsize after roughly 3-4 weeks and even then sometimes in another 3-4 weeks need to downsize once more.
Quite often the major issues with bridges is scar tissue build up, as well as Boil or furuncle. Thus requiring hot sea salt water compresses the occasional time,etc.
But as I said Bridge piercings aren’t a common piercing to reject, but depending on the person and everything, its not unheard of that they can reject.
+6 / 8 votes
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Posted by Warren Hiller | Permalink | 2 Comments
Thursday June 12th, 2008 @ 8:40 PM
Okay, so I got my eyebrow pierced in February, and it STILL hasn’t healed and isn’t really showing any signs of healing. It has a large bump” underneath it (NOT on the bottom or top hole, just underneath it ALL) and there is also a red scab like thing beside my piercing about a cm away. I’ve been back to my piercer 3 times and she just keeps saying it doesn’t look TOO bad and t should still heal. What I don’t get is why there is this scab thing like a full cm beside the piercing, and why it’s taking this long to heal if i’m caring for it properly. Anyways, if anyone has an idea PLEASE let me know!
The scab you are showing, is hard to figure out exactly WHY its appearing. In order to figure out why we will need to assess quite a few things, so we can troubleshoot the situation and pinpoint the problem. So assessing things like what manner of aftercare protocol did you follow, what type of body hygiene products you’re using, among various other things…It could even be a result of you sleeping and scratching the area while you sleep.
Just from initial observation I can tell you that the jewelry is too long and needs a downsizing. Also, and I just don’t want to continue beating a dead horse, but hey its dead already it won’t feel another prod…Just out of curiosity in the picture it appears the jewelry is some form of flexible material either PTFE, Tygon or BioPlast, do you happen to know WHAT material your jewelry is actually made out?
Also, just a personal suggestion, if you’ve visited the piercer THREE TIMES and all they say is that it doesn’t look too bad and that it should still heal. My suggestion is to perhaps go get a couple other opinions from other piercers in your area. As it would personally raise the bells and whistles in my head if I kept returning to a piercer with a problem and they just said it looks ok and should still heal. A reputable artist would instantly be wanting to consult with you every single time and really source out what is causing the issue. From aftercare, to jewelry, to body hygiene products,etc they would just run through the lists and figure out exactly what the problem is. Now maybe she did and you just failed to let us know that, but yeah I’d still suggest visiting a couple other piercers to get their opinion on how the piercing is looking/doing.
+4 / 6 votes
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Posted by Warren Hiller | Permalink | 2 Comments
Wednesday May 21st, 2008 @ 7:28 AM
In early Febuary of this year I had my bridge pierced. Approximately two days ago I woke up to find my bridge piercing, which was healing remarkably well and hadn’t had any crusties for nearly a month was firmly caught in a fuzzy pillow I forgot to toss off my bed before I went to sleep - I have no idea who long I was tangled like that and I’m sure what woke me up was a move to roll over. The short of it is that the right side of the piercing is swollen, red, there has been dried blood and lots of lymph for the last two days and the piercing has definitly been torn, tho how much I can’t tell because of the swelling. I’ve been using h2ocean three or four times a day since that morning and it isn’t really helping - is there anything I should do? Should I take it out? Should I wait and see? How do I minimise the scarring if I do take it out and what do I need to watch for while it’s healing over? Thanks.
Bridges can be notoriously bitchy piercings to heal. I have had mine pierced twice and have had the same set of issues with healing both times. Needless to say, I have no bridge piercing! If you want to try and save this piercing then go with twice-daily seasalt soaks and look after yourself - there’s no better aftercare regimen than good diet and hydration. If you are in any doubt, take a good quality multi-vitamin and try to drink at least eight glasses of water a day (approximately two litres). Give it a couple of weeks and if you don’t notice an improvement then it may be time to re-assess the situation.
+3 / 3 votes 
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Posted by Tiff Badhairdo | Permalink | 1 Comment
Friday May 16th, 2008 @ 2:05 AM
Hi,
I wonder how much time one should leave before repiercing a facial surface piercing that has slowly pushed out over the course of a few years - will a few weeks be enough?
Thanks!
Pretty sure this has been answered quite a few times in the past, but hey what’s one more right? 
In answer to your question…it depends…It depends how long you kept it, it depends on how much scar tissue has formed,etc.
Personally I advise individuals based on individual assessments…I analyze the area, gloved hand I tend to feel the area,etc…But quite often I usually advise waiting a couple months before re-piercing, if it’s going to be in the same identical spot, definitely wouldn’t encourage someone to wait a mere few weeks before re-piercing.
+3 / 3 votes
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Posted by Warren Hiller | Permalink | Comments
Saturday May 10th, 2008 @ 8:28 PM
ive had my eyebrow piercing for 4 months now.i think it still hasnt healed, the first jewelery i had was a 16 gauge (3/8)barbell. after two and a half months from getting the piercing i changed the jewlery to a titanium barbell which was a 16 gauge but a 5/16 it was kind of tight. i let it sit their for like a month or 2 then recently i took it off and put the first one i had back on and now i noticed that the bar is hanging from the bottom a little, it wasnt like this when i first got it. also when i press on my skin between the two beads i feel a little pain, is this part of the healing process or is it rejection or migration maybe? i clean my piercing and disinfect it everyday since i got it and 1 month ago i just started putting salt water on it, so if u can please answer me as soon as possible i would really appreciate it. thanks
I wish I knew if you were wearing a straight barbell or a curved barbell.
If you are wearing a straight barbell, I would say chances are very good your piercing is rejecting. The pressure put on the flat, often-tight tissue of an eyebrow, often leads to rejection. A curved barbell is a better option. Having said that, eyebrow piercings done with curved barbells still reject sometimes.
Without seeing your piercing, there is no way to say for sure if it is rejecting or not. However, rejection with eyebrow piercings…especially ones that are subject to a lot of irritation/abuse while they are healing…isn’t unheard of.
Your best option is to go visit a piercer you trust and get their assessment of the situation. Unfortunately, this is one of those situation where someone who can see will be much better-suited for figuring out what the problem is.
+3 / 3 votes
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Posted by Derek Lowe | Permalink | Comments
Tuesday May 6th, 2008 @ 3:08 AM
Hey guys!
I got my eyebrow pierced on my 15th birthday at the biggest, most reputable shop in our area. He did it with a (316L i think) 1/2inch, straight, externally threaded barbell. I cleaned it with H2Ocean & switched to a curved barbell after a couple of months to see if it would heal better. It never healed and just continually rejected until it was held on by a tiny flap of skin, at which point I retired it, being left with a funny looking scar.
Right before my 16th birthday I went to another smaller shop that my friends used and asked the piercer there why it didn’t work out. I told him that I had had stitches in the area about 7 years prior but he said that it was all healed and shouldn’t have made a difference. He said it was probably the jewelry used, the fact that it was not curved. He pierced me on the other eyebrow with a titanium CBR and I still have it 2 years later.
I know that the first shop is still using straight barbells because my friend got his eyebrow pierced there recently and they used the same jewelry as they did on me and his rejected as well.
In short my question is: do straight barbells increase the risk of rejection in an eyebrow piercing?
Thanks for all your help!
In short: Quite often yes.
In long: I will say I HAVE seen some individuals heal a straight barbell in their eyebrows, however its far and few between. Quite often it heals as a result of the actual brow ridge being of a specific shape. Most people I find don’t really have this type of brow ridge so a curved barbell is honestly the ideal jewelry option. As when we’re piercing we either elevate the brow area with our fingers (freehand) or use forceps. When we use these techniques and pass the needle through the tissue it makes a curved pathway. So when that’s done and when a straight bar is inserted pressure occurs as its a straight piece of metal through a curved pathway. This pressure often is chronically being applied until the pressure is released, which is often what we call migration and rejection.
Personally I wouldn’t even consider a CBR ideal for initial/fresh eyebrow piercing jewelry either. The only type of jewelry I’d say is the ideal type is a Implant Grade(Steel or Titanium) Internally Threaded Curved Barbell. Then after a good many months of the pathway being healed (everyone’s different but I usually say around 6 months or so) then you can most definitely switch it over to a CBR, Circular Barbell,etc.
+2 / 6 votes
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Posted by Warren Hiller | Permalink | 1 Comment
Tuesday January 8th, 2008 @ 1:58 PM
I recently split from my ex-fiance and decided that since I had to remove most of my facial piercings for one reason or another while we were together, that I’d get a new one to mark my new life and independence.
I settled on getting my bridge done. With years between piercings that I mentioned, I was sort of at a loss as to where to go. I did some cursory checking on BME and saw that the few (straight) bridges that I could find on the search were done by this one particular piercer, so I decided to try him out.
It’s crooked. I was super-nervous at the time that I was getting it, and I thought that the marks might have been a bit off, but I wasn’t completely sure… I preferred to defer to the piercer’s knowledge of where to place it on my admittedly not-so-symmetrical bridge… So I went ahead with it. Turns out that the marks were indeed off (left side lower than the right by about a millimetre), and that one side is placed deeper than the other, as well, which I didn’t initally notice, my friend did after I got back from it being done.
I want this to be right so badly. Is it reasonable to ask the piercer to redo the piercing? After some stories that I got wind of after I got this done, I’m not completely sure that I want to head back there, anyway… I got the piercing on Friday. How long after removing it do I wait before getting it redone?
Piercings do sometimes come out crooked or off center or less-than-ideal. Piercers are, after-all, human and not machines. In general, bridge piercings can be very challenging to get perfect…not trying to make excuses for anyone, just stating the facts.
However, regardless of the piercing, if it doesn’t come out the way it should, a “good” piercer will be willing to re-do it for you at no charge. Even if the marks were off initially, if the piercer thought everything seemed all-good, then they should be willing to re-do the piercing so it’s correct.
As for whether you choose to go back to that piercer, that will will have to be your decision. I’m not sure what other kinds of stories you’ve heard since having your initial piercing done, but I would encourage you not to let a crooked bridge piercing put a piercer in the “no good” category.
As for how long to wait…I would suggest 2-3 weeks, assuming you remove the piercing within a week or so of having the piercing.
Best of luck with your next go at the bridge piercing. And, next time, if you aren’t 100% confident in the marks, don’t proceed with the piercing.
If a piercing does come out not the way you want it,
0 / 0 votes 
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Posted by Derek Lowe | Permalink | 1 Comment
