The first I have of many I plan to get

I'd been against piercings of any kind other than in the ear lobe since I was about 10 years old. I'd been taken back then to have an ear piercing and since then I never even once thought of getting another. That was fine for me I thought. Nine years on I meet Laura who's got more piercings than most other people I've met. I knew her for about a month or two and used to question her piercings all the time but over time I started to get used to them and then wanted more piercings myself. I'd not been able to properly decide between a lip piercing or an eyebrow piercing.

A few months went by and as I spoke to Laura more about piercings I started to go into places a lot more often, in fact every chance I got. I'd go in and see what piercings where available and how much they cost but I've got a really bad fear of needles and this always stopped me from getting it done, even if I had the money. I used to just expect them to hurt a hell of a lot more than they actually did so I wouldn't even consider getting a piercing.

My birthday was coming up and I was bored of the usual things I bought for myself. I always got CDs and stuff like that and I wanted something more personal this time. So at first it started out that I asked Laura to re-open my ear piercing and then had a weird idea from out of nowhere and asked her to pierce my eyebrow instead. She was reluctant to do it obviously. I know it can go wrong if not done properly but she agreed to do it. She had her piercing box with her and a syringe needle straight from the sealed packaging. She put it to my eyebrow and her hand started shaking so I decided it might be a bit of a bad idea to let her do it. Bless her, she loves me to pieces and, it turns out, a little too much to put a needle through my eyebrow. I gave it a shot myself but I couldn't muster the guts to do it with my fear of needles.

I was determined to get my eyebrow done and the next day I borrowed some money off of a friend and went to The Dragon's Den, a local place for piercing and tattoos. I remember having to wait for about an hour in the front before he had a slot to fit me in but it didn't really bother me. I just spent most of the time looking at the tattoos and picking the piercing. I ended up wanting a silver 1.3mm piercing but the only one he had at the time was a dark blue one. I settled for that. Karl, the resident piercer, came out eventually and was really friendly from the word go. He said hi, asked if I was alright then asked if I'd like to follow him into the back. I got a bit of needle fear twinging in the back of my head but went in anyway, dragging my mate Laura in as well.

I went into the back, sat on the seat and just randomly started talking about all sorts of rubbish with Karl. At one point I think his wife called and started talking about fudge arriving which they'd ordered last night or something and how Karl should stop the piercing business and sell fudge instead. Karl then spent a while ranting about his wife. Anyways, after a lengthy period of talking that never seemed to end right Karl got round to my piercing. He was still talking through it which kept me calm. It took my mind off of the needle I was about to have shoved through my skin at any rate. He placed the piercing into alcohol to sterilise it and left it to soak while he got everything else ready. Even though I was the one getting pierced Laura was holding MY hand instead of me holding hers. She really doesn't like me in discomfort.

Karl asked if I'd had any other piercings and I told him about my ear (which Laura had kindly re-opened the night before). He pulled the clamps out of a steriliser and placed them on my eyebrow, squeezing so it was holding tight but I could hardly feel the clamps there. He got the piercing out of the alcohol and placed it on a paper towel in front of him and then picked up the needle. He told me to close my eyes and that I'd feel a sharp pinch. I said 'Yeah, sure.' and closed my eyes and waited a while. I felt the tip of the needle scratch against my eyebrow and for some reason I didn't get freaked out. Every other time in the past, just the thought of sticking a needle through my skin would have made me freak out of anything involving needles. This time it didn't bother me. Karl pushed it up gently and I felt it go through. It stang a tiny bit but it was just like a quick pin-prick. He left the needle hanging there through my skin at which point I opened my eyes and sort of noticed it there, which was weird. He said to close my eyes again so I did and he snipped the plastic off of the piercing needle then pulled it through before putting it down, picking up the piercing itself and slipping it through. He screwed on the ball and stood back saying there you go.

I got up and looked in the mirror on the wall and admired my new piercing for a while. I thanked Karl and paid him. He told me quickly how to look after it and Laura went over it in more detail later on. It wasn't anywhere near as bad as I'd expected and I really like my eyebrow piercing. In fact, I plan to go back for another two piercings (another eyebrow and a lip ring) and a tattoo in a few days piercing gallery blogs.

I got it's been about 12 hours since I got the piercing and there's no swelling, no pain and no irritation. My only annoyance is I keep forgetting it's there because I was expecting to feel it hurt for a lot longer belly button blog. Every time I tidy my hair a bit I catch it slightly and it lets me know it's there. But I'll get used to it in a little while.

After that I'll probably get quite a few more piercings in the future.