ad my nostril pierced for about 3 years and had wanted to get a second hole done in the same nostril. I'm fortunate to be working at a job and in an industry where my piercings are not an issue. Granted, most of my piercings and tattoos are not visible, but I do have several lobe and cartilage piercings (rook) - none of which are an issue for my employer. This means that the job factor wasn't an issue. Given that I don't live at home and that I pay my own way - the parental unit thing was not an issue either. My spouse is pierced as well and was just as curious as I was about this, so it just boiled down to 'do I want this?' As with my tattoos, I think about any piercings or tattoos for a few months before I do them. Finally, after thinking about this for a couple of months I made the trek to Staircase. I've been tattooed there before and the shop had been recommended to me by friends for piercing as well. They also carry a very good selection and variety of high quality jewelry. The piercer came out and introduced himself and we began to talk about the piercing, did I have the right anatomy for this, etc. Turns out that I did and the next logical step was to do the ID check (used my driver's license). After the formalities, we discussed the jewelry. I've had other piercings in the past and found that my body heals best with gold, I've had bad luck with stainless and titanium. Small aside, I've had experiences at shops where the piercer didn't bother to talk to me other than to try to collect my money and figure out what I wanted pierced. I call this 'the piece of meat' mentality. I usually walk out of shops like this - I figure they don't need my business :) This piercer is the first that I've met in a while who took the time to sit down with me and discuss the issues. Because my piercing experiences are so few and far between, by the time I go back to a piercer at a shop that I liked - that piercer has usually moved on to another part of the country :-/ As far as issues go, I have very small nostrils and my first piercing was fairly close to the middle of my nostril. Did I want the second piercing to be in front of the first, or behind the first? Ultimately, after weighing both the pros and the cons, I decided to have the second piercing done behind the first piercing. The con to this was that it's a fairly thick portion of the nostril to pierce through, but the pro was that it would be in a good location for comfort, and potentially even healing purposes. I picked out two 20ga captive rings (one for the piercing, the other so that the two rings would match) and went to dinner while he autoclaved the jewelry. About 45 minutes later, I came back and sat down in the back room while the piercer finished preparations. Even though I have several other piercings, he walked me through everything - explaining in detail what he was going to do and how he was going to do it. He first marked a spot on my nostril and had me take a look in the mirror to make sure that I was satisfied with the positioning. Once we settled on a good spot, I sat down in the chair and laid back. He showed me the receiving tube and explained how and why he was using one, told me that I would feel a slight prick of the needle, and instructed to take deep breaths and focus on my breathing.
After a few breaths (3? 4?), on the exhalation he did the piercing. He then corked the end of needle, explained what he was doing as he inserted the jewelry, and asked me how I was doing. I wasn't bleeding too much and already I was feeling the endorphin rush I get whenever I get a new tattoo or piercing. After inserting the jewelry, he went over the aftercare instructions in detail, answered my questions, and gave me contact info in case I had any concerns or questions later on. I've had the hole for almost 2 months now and it's healing well. I went through the 'crusty' stage, and I even got a cold about 2 weeks after the piercing and all is well. For the first few days, I used diluted Dial soap to clean the hole and then I switched to saline soaks twice a day. Always wash your hands before you touch a piercing - to clean it, or whatever other contact you may have with it.
All in all, this was a very pleasant experience. The shop is clean and the piercer is conscientious about this as well. In addition, I felt comfortable during the experience and will go back again for more piercings. When I came into work on Monday, I got the amusing range of questions from 'Did it hurt?' to 'Wow! That's pretty cool!'. Did it hurt? Sure. How much did it hurt? I have a fairly high tolerance for pain, the pain is not something which I fixate on when getting a piercing.

I may change the jewelry in a few months to nostril screws, but I'm not in any hurry. Bottom line - I'm glad I did it, it looks great and I like it :)