I Tattooed My Eyelids Hear Me Roar

{today; healing day three}

AHHHHH MY BALLS ARE SO HAIRY!!! I DID IT!!! I screwed my courage to the sticking place and decided to go for the permanent eyeliner to match the brows I’m oh-so-happy with.

And I did it despite many many many stories like this one, left by the lovely Lynn when I mentioned in a recent post I was considering doing it. (Although seriously, this is just a sampling because Lynn was not alone in her account of permanent eyeliner application being “worse than childbirth”. And I got an epidural at 9cm, so you can imagine how much that comparison scared me.) Anyway — Lynn’s story:

I had my upper and lower eyeliner tattooed in August of 2008. I have 3 tattoos on various parts of my body and they were a piece of cake. But it took everything I had not to jump out of the chair when having the eyeliner done! I live in the south and the lady who did mine has a wonderful reputation and I had seen her work on other people and was very impressed. I had to take a break after she did my right eye. I went to the bathroom, looked in the mirror and about freaked out!! My right eye was already swelling humongously and it looked like someone had taken a black Sharpie and circled my right eye with it. I knew that I had to have my left eye done or I was really gonna look weird. She repeatedly applied the numbing cream but I promise you, it really didn’t feel like it was working. I could feel everything. In my mind at the time, all I could think of was that the pain felt like someone was taking a razor blade and running it across my upper and lower lashes. After 2 1/2 hours of torture, I threw on my sunglasses and drove the 30 minute drive home. I kept ice packs on my eyes for the next week and tried to rest as much as possible. …Now I’m not a wimp, I have gone through natural child birth twice, stepped in a hole and snapped the ligament in my foot, had a vein ripped out of my leg and had various other injuries but the thought of the pain of re-doing the permanent eyeliner scares me!!

Okay actually, re-reading that comment from Lynn makes me think I’m kind of a lunatic for having gone through with it anyway. But I really really trust my Esthetician and she said she had never had anyone run screaming from the room, and that while reactions varied she thought a lot of people psyched themselves out about the whole needle-in-eye thing more than they actually felt the pain. So I made the appointment.As before, my trusty Esthetician Tess at Skin Body Lounge did the dirty totally sterile work, and even tolerated when I decided to video tape the process for you guys. She’s good people. Call her if you need permanent make up or eyelashes or the like. Or a spray tan, they give an excellent spray tan over there.

Anyway, it was seriously FINE. Above is a photo of my eyes immediately after she finished. The numbing cream was necessary, undoubtedly, and Tess liberally re-applied throughout. I’m not going to lie, I had the added benefit of anti-anxiety medication to keep me relaxed, but seriously is did not even hurt as much as the brows. If they were a four on the 1-10 pain scale, the lids were a three. Here’s a video of me talking, laughing, and videotaping while having it done.

I don’t know why my experience didn’t compare with childbirth, and it’s also worth noting that I spent about 30 minutes start to finish in the chair, not the two+ hours I’d heard about, so it’s possible that I went for a thinner line and therefore didn’t have time for my adrenaline to wear off?

Because when it did, I was not a happy camper. I mean, I’d do it all again in a heart beat but I definitely needed some ibuprofen, ice, and a good puppy snuggle to make it through that first night. By the following morning, I was still swollen, but no longer uncomfortable.

{my swollen day 2 lids}

Good thing I have a husband who humors these kinds of antics, huh? Speaking of swelling, do you ever use Arnica Montana for stiffness and bruises? It’s a homeopathic remedy I learned about from my plastic surgeon back when Katie broke my face in college. Anyway Boiron makes a gel form that I keep stocked for Dee’s bumps and bruises, and also because it does wonders for dark under eye bags, but that’s not an official use of it. It was great for bringing down the swelling on my poor lids, as well. By yesterday morning when I rolled out of bed (day two) they already looked like this:

I’m pretty psyched. Mostly because I don’t have to put on makeup or have smeared under-eye bags any more. HALLELUJAH! Would you ever do it?