This is the story of my septum piercing.
At A Glance Author spoon Contact spoon@bme.anon Artist Rob Hill Studio Bee Cool Location Calgary, Alberta, Canada It wasn't a piercing I gave much thought to, I saw it, I liked it, and most importantly I noticed that I could easily flip it up into my nostrils and hide it from my mom and dad who absolutely hate piercings of all kinds (except for regular single lobe piercings ........on girls only of course).
It was mid August and one of my friends at work wanted her belly button pierced, this was her first piercing and she came to me for information because I had a few piercings and knew my stuff so I went with her since I wanted my septum pierced. We went to my regular piercing place which is Bee-Cool, I go there for all my piercings because I like the staff, the job they do, the prices, the environment, the comfy black leather couches, and I like to think that they like me to : ). I made sure that I had eaten before I went, for anyone who doesn't already know this I thoroughly recommend eating a decent meal before getting a piercing especially if you're nervous because you're blood sugar level will be low and you'll be more likely to faint. Anyway we finally got there and I was greeted by Rob and his apprentice (Elisha ..... she's a piercer now), I introduced my friend Jen, and I explained what she wanted and what I wanted. Rob was kind of surprised with my piercing selection but was happy to do it. Jen and I hung around on the couches while Rob talked to us (or rather shouted), as he cleaned up the piercing room, spraying everything down and getting tools and such ready for the navel piercing. We decided the navel would be first since Jen thought that if she viewed my piercing she would be too scared to go through with her own.
Elisha took Jen into the piercing room where she began prepping the area for piercing, cleaning, marking etc, she even used this little monkey wrench looking measuring device to figure out where to mark and I watched because it's neat. Then Rob went in and explained to Jen what was going to happen and he showed her the instruments and I got to watch everything including the piercing, it was very interesting.
After the piercing Elisha escorted Jen out of the room to explain the aftercare procedure, I remained in the room with Rob while he cleaned up the room again, I helped him throw out all the empty autoclaving packages and then sat in the dentists office looking chair thing, Rob got out all the need instruments for my septum piercing and then he explains that sometimes septum piercings come out crooked, he also explained how if crookedness happened to result in this piercing he would be more then happy to re-pierce it for me after the crooked one healed. I agreed that it would be all right and that I was willing to take that chance. The jewelry I (actually we) decided on was a little 14 gauge black niobium septum retainer. Rob unpacked the needle, retainer and the receiving tube, he then asked me to sit up on the chair and then turn so that my legs were over the side and my face was facing his. He then stuck his two gloved index finger up my nose and explained that he need to feel around for the right spot, I could smell the latex but after some movement he says "yes right here is a perfect spot", he reached for a marker and marked the entry and exit holes of where he wanted to pierce and he drew a line across the bottom of my septum. Then he lined up the needle with the receiving tube and said "Ok......you're going to feel a little poke as I line up,......ok now I'm going to count to 3 and then I'll pierce.....Ok?" I nodded "OK....1.....2...." and he pierces before 3 because that's what he always does. My eyes started to water but the pain wasn't so bad.... more of a stinging then anything else. Rob tells me that my septum looks pretty cool with just the needle in it and shows me in the mirror, I laughed and nodded and then he transferred my retainer into the fresh hole. He told me that when I went to bed to flip the retainer up because it could fall out if I left it down, and then he explained aftercare to me.
I walked out of the room and showed Jen who had actually passed out after her piercing but looked better now, Elisha had given her a bottle of Sunny Delight, I guess I should have explained the eating before a piercing thing to Jen but I had forgotten. We both were then given our after care sheets which also happen to be a $10 off coupon for our next visit to Bee-Cool, we paid for our piercings, said our good-byes and thankyous and were on our way.
My septum piercing hurt a lot less then I thought it would, I also found that it was an extremely easy piercing to heal, It didn't swell or cause me any discomfort after that day. If you're thinking about getting your septum pierced but are worried about pain then get over it because it's a really great piercing.
Happy piercing days.