I had always been a fan of piercings. In elementary school I wanted a tongue piercing because Scary Spice had one and she looked pretty fierce. I decided that my time would come to puncture my virgin skin when I was a freshman in high school at the lowly age of fourteen. My parents of course hated piercings and just getting my lobes pierced took a ridiculous amount of arm-twisting. I decided that whatever I was going to get had to be hidden. So septum seemed like a logical choice.
At A Glance Author Let_um_hate Contact Let_um_hate@bme.anon IAM Let_um_hate When Five years ago Artist Guy Studio On the street Location NYC A few weeks prior to my experience a friend had hers pierced. I spent a lot of time staring at her nose from different angles trying to see if it could be detected while it was flipped up. Everything seemed fine so I convinced myself to go through with it.
I had not exactly planned when or where I would be pierced but the time eventually came in November. My mom, brother, friend, and I decided to take a city trip and the moment we were off the train Charlotte and I went off on our own. We ended up down on St. Marks place and that is where I discovered the sketchy little piercing chairs set up behind knockoff sunglasses and cheap scarves. A jolly looking Asian man caught up poking around the merchandise and asked if either of us wanted a body piercing. I of course said YES! He escorted us behind a little makeshift wall and I took a seat in the chair. I was absolutely terrified. First off, my mom was wandering around somewhere in the vicinity. Second, I am a terrible liar and awful at keeping exciting news a secret. I must have told that poor guy about 700 times that I wanted to make sure I could flip it up. He held up two different sized circular barbells for me to choose from and of course I chose the larger gauge. A s he prepped for the procedure I was fighting the butterflies in my stomach. My face had turned a bright red and I was beginning to sweat. I closed my eyes and leaned back in the chair. The guy stuck his thumb and index finger into my nose to feel around a bit before getting the clamp. He inserted the cold metal ends into my nose and held it tight. ONE...TWO...THREE! The needle was pushed through and my eyes began to water. The feeling was a cross between sharp pain and the urge to sneeze. In reality the pain part was over before he even got the jewelry into the hole.
I stood up and looked into the mirror and was completely ecstatic with the result. I grabbed the jolly Asian man and gave him the biggest hug I could. So overall the actual piercing part was pretty groovy. The healing part was another story...
In actuality I did not have any issues with the healing. Everything turned out fine but I would really suggest NOT constantly sticking your fingers up there to flip it up and down. I was given bactine to put on a few times a day for a few weeks. I do not know how much it actually helped the healing process, but it was suggested so I did it. I think the most important thing is to keep your hands washed if you are going to be touching the piercing. The last thing you want is hand funk up your nose...gross. Also, it helped to every once in a while, give the ring a little wiggle to prevent nose crust build up...also gross.
Weeks went by without an issue and I thought everything was fine, and then one day my nose really began to hurt. I kept cleaning it to ward off infection but the pain was still there. Every time I flipped it out the skin around the piercing felt tight as though scar tissue were building up, preventing it from flipping out. Eventually the pain stopped and I am assuming the resistance I felt was normal.
It has been five years and I still have the piercing today! Since then I have stretched it from a 16 gauge to a 14 gauge no problem. I ditched the circular barbell and now I just wear a retainer (the shape feels better inside my nose when it is flipped up). I guess my advice for people looking to get their septum pierced would be 1) Do not get it done on the street corner, although mine turned out fine I am sure nasty things could happen and you do NOT want nasty things going down in your nose. 2) Make sure you are able to wear it out, if you are going to get pierced ROCK IT, don't hide it. Plus it will probably be better for the healing process. Finally, just keep everything clean. Take care of your holes and be sure to disinfect. Happy piercing!!