Before I tell you about my actual piercing experience let me give you some background on how I came to pick this piercing. Its odd, for years now, septums have probably been my least favorite piercing. I've seen far too many crooked septums, septums that just didn't suit people's faces and, worst of all, tons of 14 year olds who looked like they had pierced themselves with a safety pin and one of their mother's earings. In person I've seen maybe 4 people with septums that I've liked, all guys. However most of the girls on BME with pierced septums looked really cute and started to turn me from my anti-septum mindset.
At A Glance Author lustitana Contact lustitana@bme.anon IAM lustitana Artist Rick Gilmour Studio Adorned Precision Body Piercing Location Calgary, Alberta, Canada About 6 months ago I got a job at Starbucks, and being the evil corporation that it is, facial piercings were forbidden. As it was I had to take out my nose, tongue and 8 of my ear piercings for work. So my much desired labret was out. I started to stretch my ears, but it still didn't satisfy my desire to get work done. After lots of browsing on BME I decided that getting a septum was the pefect solution. It was a facial piercing, visible, yet extremely easy to hide. And if I turned out to be one of the people who looked funny with one, I could easily take it out, or wear a retainer. Of course I wanted my septum ring to be absolutely perfect and I had absolutely had it with my old piercer after they botched my conch. So I decided to go to Rick Gilmour, he has the best reputation in the city, has been piercing longer than anyone in town and he and his girlfriend gave me awesome advice when I was stretching my ears. Not to mention his shop recomends all natural a ftercare, and their jewelry is fabulous.
So a little over a week ago I screwed up my courage and decided this was the time to get it done. My boyfriend had just gone out of town, so there would be nobody to bump my nose for 3 weeks. I headed over to Adorned and told Rick and Tara that today was the day. Rick was helping a girl change her plugs so I filled out my forms, Tara checked my ID and told her I wanted a retainer. We hung out and chatted about the upcoming fetish ball while I waited for Rick to finish up. Suddenly it was my turn. My stomach did a little leap, as I followed Rick and sat down. Rick explained the equipment, asked if I had any questions and began. He cleaned my nose with an iodine pad, another antiseptic and then began marking it. Rather than just marking the hole, he first marked refernce points. He then chose the spot to pierce and prepared to begin. This is part that I found really interesting. As he explained to me what was going to happen he spoke in a low soothing voice and began moving around out front of my face. He reminded me of a snake charmer. But it worked, I was suddenly totally calm and relaxed. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and pop, the needle was in. It barely hurt at all. Just a small pinch and some watery eyes. Rick popped in the reatainer, took a look at me and said "Its crooked". My heart sank. But he fixed it. A couple little pokes with the needle on the left side of my nose and all was well. He handed me the mirror, and to my surprise I loved it! I got him to flip up the retainerand clean the pen off my nose. We talked about the after care and when I could switch to a ring, asked him about my conch and thanked him about a million times. While we were chatting he cleaned the room with some sterilizing wipes, changing his gloves about 4 times. I thanked him again, went out to pay Tara and say my goodbyes.
Aftercare has been pretty easy so far, I wash it each morning with lavendar soap and do hot salt soaks one or twice a day. I caught a cold 3 days after the piercing and I still haven't had any problems. The only major issue I'm dealing with is my retainer falling out when I clean it in the shower, I always forget to close my drain, but I haven't lost it yet. My nose doesn't throb, I've been able to touch the tip of my nose since the start and I haven't suffered any of the other septum horrors that I've read about. To anyone considering this piercing I would totally recomend getting it done, as long as you go to someone who will do it properly. If you're planning on getting it done during cold season I would recommend increasing your vitamin intake a week or two before getting it done, so you don't suffer like me. And if you live in Calgary, be sure to go to Rick.