Single-shot laboratory flow tests were performed with limestone and dolomite cores to determine perforation damage as a function of underbalance pressure. The calculated perforation skins from carbonate perforating experiments are not well described by earlier sandstone correlations. In particular, the reliance on rock permeability as a predictor of perforation cleanup does not work for carbonates. Perforation skin for carbonates is best related to peak underbalance pressure and rock strength. The results of this study suggest that the initial perforation-cleanup, mechanism is primarily related to failure of the perforation-tunnel wall under stress as opposed to fluid surge flow.