Your eyes are among the most expressive areas of your body, and your eyes are completely unique. Naturally, a great way to emphasize your eyes is with body piercings! While facial piercings in general are becoming more popular and acceptable, piercings in the eye area are truly pioneering new styles and methods in the world of body piercing and body modification.
While I don’t want to discourage you from getting an eye piercing (in fact, I think eye piercings are a beautiful way to enhance features), I want you to be fully informed. I’ll first explain eyebrow piercings, which are pretty common now, and then I’ll dive into the rarer, and RISKIEST, piercings that can be done near the eyes.
Eyebrow piercings are common piercings in our culture. The brow piercing can be placed anywhere on the brow, although only a very skilled piercer should consider piercing near the inner corners (closest to the nose) of the brow, as three main nerves meet in this area. (for this reason, this is not a popular location). Most piercings are pierced at a forty degree angle, to minimize the risks of breaking the jewelry. Most starter jewelry consists of curved bars or captive rings, depending on your face structure. Some people get multiple eyebrows pierced on one or both eyebrows; your creativity is really the limit.
Once pierced, these piercings take five to eight weeks to heal, but irritations like makeup or sweat can irritate the piercing and prolong healing. While the eyebrow is one of the least infected piercings, the risk is there, so be sure to soak in a warm saline solution, don’t touch the jewelry with dirty hands, and follow all aftercare instructions your professional piercer gave you.
Speaking of professional piercers, some people may try to tell you that you can pierce your eyebrow with a safety pin (or something like that) without difficulty. This is not entirely true. While it’s not difficult to push sharp objects through your eyebrow (there’s not much tissue or muscle underneath, compared to other piercing sites), the chances of your body rejecting the jewelry are much higher when you do it yourself. Because there isn’t much tissue to hold the jewelry in place, it can sometimes “migrate” (a good term for slipping out of the skin, not fun). Also, heating a sharp metal object over a flame is NOT disinfection! Many bacteria are only destroyed at temperatures much higher than what a flame can provide! As tempting as it may be, don’t get your eyebrow pierced; it will probably get infected, it may be rejected, and if its placement is wrong, it will look uncomfortable. Spending a couple of bucks to have it done by a licensed professional is well worth it.
A very unique and uncommon piercing is the third eye piercing. Very similar to a bridge piercing (see my article on nose piercing for more information), third eye piercings are pierced with either shallow barbells or curved barbells. These piercings sit between the eyebrows (perhaps even a bit higher than between the eyebrows, depending on your face shape) and are technically considered surface piercings. As a result, third eye piercings can migrate or be rejected if not cared for properly. Although these piercings look amazing, these piercings are prone to recurring infections, even if you strictly adhere to the correct aftercare. Sweat, makeup, face wash are irritating; This area of the face is very expressive (imagine yourself frowning, surprised, squinting, etc.) so the skin around this piercing will move frequently and delay healing time. Not everyone can keep this piercing, but if you like the way it looks, it’s worth a try. Talk to your piercer and decide what is best for you!
Eyebrows is still very rare, but when properly cured it can look very intriguing. Usually pierced below the eye, in the orbital bone/upper cheek area, the Anti-Brow is also known as a “teardrop piercing”. This is a superficial piercing so the risk of migration and rejection is possible, although due to the density of the skin, tissue and muscle in this area, this piercing can last a long time if properly maintained. The risk of infection is fairly low if you don’t sweat, touch jewelry, or wear makeup. Be sure to clean the area thoroughly and carefully during the healing period (approximately six weeks).
And finally, the latest piercing in the eye area is not one that I can really recommend to anyone, but since it is available, I feel compelled to discuss it. The eyelid piercing is one of the rarest piercings in the world, and for good reason. To my knowledge, only a handful of people have this piercing, and not all eyelids are conducive to piercing. The eyelid is a thin layer of skin designed to protect, nourish, and hydrate the eyes and corneas. Eyelid piercing is very dangerous and 99.99% of all professional piercers will refuse to do this procedure. Blindness can occur if the piercing goes wrong. It is very challenging from the piercer’s point of view to successfully complete this procedure, as positioning the forceps and needle to miss the eyeball is not an easy task. Eye surgeons spend the better part of a decade specifically learning how to do this and are paid very handsomely for losing eyeballs, just to put it in perspective.
Even if you somehow convince a piercer to risk his reputation and pierce your eyelid for you, cleaning the eyelid is difficult. Captive rings are used, and the eyelid will be swollen, crusty, and pus, and the only way you can keep the piercing clean is with your own tears and saline solution (which is a lot like your tears). If you wear contact lenses, a misplaced piercing will scratch them; Heck, a misplaced eye piercing will scrape your corneas, which can be excruciating. Most of these piercings don’t last long because there are too many irritants in our world to prevent complete, infection-free healing.
While the final images of the few brave people who undergo this procedure look impressive, it can cause serious and irreversible damage. I can’t recommend this to anyone, even though I’m all for pushing the boundaries of self-expression, but I would feel awful if someone tried this piercing and failed. If you’re thinking of getting an eyelid pierced, find a piercer who’s done it before (who isn’t willing to do it for you anyway), be fully aware and prepared for the worst, good luck and send me a picture!
