first piercing was a reverse PA. I've had that for about 6 and a half months now, and have stretched up from 12 ga. to 6 ga. (See: "Stretching Exercises" in reverse PA experiences). About a month ago I made an appointment with my piercer to get my septum done. I called Megan at Camden Chameleon here in Bellingham, WA and arranged to come in that afternoon. Since I'd already been through this before, my biggest concerns were fitting it into my busy day, and how well I'd be able to hide it once it was done.
I got there and signed the release and she took me back to the piercing room. Her apprentice came in and watched.
Even if you're having a genital piercing done, I urge you to let the apprentice watch. Don't be embarrassed. They need the training and that's what they're there for. It was still clean, and it still had that psychotic Jane's Addiction poster on the ceiling. She had me climb up onto the table in reverse, and lay backward so my head was just at the end of the table, toward her. That way she could look down at me, and into my nose. She put on the gloves, and brought out a couple swab sticks that she used to line up both sides of where the piercing would go. She selected a piece of jewelry (12 ga. stainless, curved barbell, internal threading) and then went for the needle and receiving tube. She put the needle against one side, and I could feel a bit of a prick while she made her final alignment. Then she pushed. I think I let out a combination low groan/whine type noise as it was going through. It didn't hurt near as intensely as my RPA did, but it took longer. She put the jewelry in after that, and that hurt a bit. I opened my eyes and yes, they were a bit watery. I sat up slowly and turned around. She had me take a look in the mirror, and it was weird. I couldn't really imagine how I'd look with a ring hanging through my nose, but now I knew. She then showed me how to tuck the ring inside my nose, and how best to pull it back down.
Also since the needle didn't go in completely straight, she said to grab the ring and twist the piercing so the left side stretched more toward the front of my nose. She said that in about a week it would settle in straight. She's right. Everything lines up pretty well now. She went over aftercare, I paid, we chatted a bit, and I went home.

 Per her instructions I stopped on the way home and got

a bottle of bactine. The aftercare regimen was: Soak in hot water, pull the jewelry down, soak some more, clean with a q-tip, run some bactine through the piercing and around it with a q-tip, soak some more to rinse off, Do that 3 times a day. Well, I didn't follow that exactly, but I got lucky. I cleaned 2 times a day, starting with a soak, going to the q-tip, and then finishing up with bactine. Everything turned out okay, but if something had come up, I would have deserved my misery for not following the professional's instructions. By the way, if you get bactine in your mouth your tongue goes numb for a while.
Really funky.

 Two days later I had dinner with my fiance, and she

didn't even know I had anything done until a few hours later when I told her and pulled the ring down. Since she gets the closest to me, and spends the most amount of time there, I figured if I could hide it from her, I could hide it from anyone.

 Curiously enough, I've worn it down a lot more than I

thought I would. After a while you get more comfortable with yourself, and you care less about what other people are thinking. Fuck 'em if they can't handle it. If they're going to judge you harshly because of a peculiar little (hideable) affectation, then what they think doesn't matter, and what they can do for you wouldn't amount to anything meaningful anyway.

 I plan to go back in the next few days and see about

having it stretched to 10 ga. I'll probably go for a retainer at that point since I won't need to do much aftercare, and just keep stretching until I get to the size I want before I buy other types of jewelry. I don't know where I'll stop. Maybe 6 or 4 ga. I'm looking at getting my nipples or my tongue pierced next. But that will have to wait a few months until my hectic travelling schedule tapers off.