So, I guess I should start this thing off by referencing the first part of the story, which details the piercing of my nostrils.
At A Glance Author hydr0chl0ric Contact hydr0chl0ric@hotmail.com IAM hydr0chl0ric When A week ago Artist Dave Gillstrap Studio Stigma Location Pacific Beach, CA
When I got them pierced just a little over 2 months ago, I had it done with the intention of going big. I was never really sure just how big. But I knew I wasn't going to be content with 14ga nostril piercings. That being said, I had them done at 6ga. I babied them for about 2 weeks (by that time I had attempted to move to Phoenix), so I cruised by HTC and picked up a 4ga talon, and a pair of 4ga tunnels. When I got home I did a quick salt soak (more for my own mental benefit than anything else), took out the 6ga plug, lubed the 4 and started sliding it in from the top of my nostril down. I stopped when I felt tension and got the tunnel ready in my other hand. Took a deep breath in, and on the start of the exhale pushed the talon the rest of the way through. I was expecting it to be a lot worse than it was, so I was surprised when there was very little pain involved. My nostrils didn't even really act u p at all, and, in all reality were only sore for about 10 minutes or so.
I waited another 2 weeks before I came across a pair of 2ga talons, and when I found them, decided it was time to go up another size. I was back in San Diego this time, after failing the move to Phoenix, and I picked up the talons in Hillcrest one night while I was stomping around with a couple friends. So, I took those over to Tera's and decided to stretch first thing in the morning. I hopped in the shower this time, and just let the warm water run over my nose for a while (once again for my own mental well being more than anything else). I pulled out one tunnel, lubed up the talon, and started pushing it through until I felt tension. Deep breath in, and on the exhale I pushed the talon the rest of the way through. This time though, I just slapped a couple o-rings on them, and wore those (even though the extra weight probably wasn't the best thing in the world for my nostril tissue-ie stuff...they looked damn cool). The actual pain of this stretch, once again, was pretty minimal, the soreness only lasted an hour or so...and they lymphed for about 2 days this time.
I took a month off from the stretching and worked on other endevours...got my lobes pierced, stretched my septum a little, but one night, one week ago today I walked into Stigma (best mod shop in San Diego *cough*) and saw the most beautiful pair of Sarawak water buffalo horn talons. It just so happened that they were 0ga. The next size I was going to need. Funny thing is, that just the day before I had picked up a 0ga talon to use as the actual stretching mechanism later that week. Looks like it was meant to be. So, decided to wait until the next night to stretch, so I would have time to mentally prepare myself (once I started comparing the jewelery sizes, I started to get a little nervous). I spent an hour in the shower this time, with the lubed up talon in my left nostril applying (what I thought was) a copius amount of pressure, but really making no progress at all. So, I stopped, and was sad...feeling defeated. The hole in my left nostril was visibly larger, but, not large enough unfortunately. I tried again the next night on the other nostril, but failed again. This resulted in 2 sore nostrils and me being very sad. I took a day off, and babied the holes once again, and made an appointment with Dave at Stigma for a stretching session.
I head down on Saturday and he has a couple various piercings to take care of before we can get down to business. We head into the piercing room, and he starts to get everything ready. Didier pops his head in and wants to know if he can watch. I say "Sure", and he gets excited. While Dave is getting everything ready, I'm starting to prepare myself mentally. I pop in some VNV Nation in the Cd player, and make small talk with Didier about random things. He wants to know when I'm going to let him do some work on me, and I tell him once I come up with something cool enough, I'll let him know. I soak my right nostril first (after pulling the jewelery out), for about 5 minutes or so, take a drink of my Mt. Dew, and tell Dave I'm ready as I'll ever be. I lay back on the table close my eyes and start breathing. He lubes the taper and starts to slide it in (we go from the inside out this time). Almost immediately there is a burning feeling in my nostril as he slowly slides the taper through. I was expecting the pain to increase as we got nearer the end of it, but, it actually stayed very constant, very intense, excruciating almost. I worked to control my breathing, Didier helped me concentrate, and reminded me to let out each breath completely before bringing another in. Before I knew it, the taper was through, and he followed as closely as he could with the talon. The transfer was a little rough, but, considering the jewelery we were using...he did an awesome job. I stayed laying down for a minute to collect myself and let my eyes stop watering (they were watering so bad that it hurt to open my eyes..in fact, just thinking about it makes them water now). Didier got me a towel, and I wiped my face and sat up...looked in the mirror and *POW* my nose started running. Not like normal *sniff* *sniff* type runny nose, but, like someone turned on a snot faucet in my head, like, the kind of runny nose when your brain knows there is something it doesn't like n esting itself in your nasal passages...wow. I was blowing my nose for about 5 minutes straight (which is really hard to do when you have a 0ga horn sticking through your nostril). I soaked the left side (which was the side that was slightly stretched from a couple days before), took a drink of Mt. Dew, and informed Dave that I was ready to rock again. Lay back, start breathing, concentrate on the music. I feel the taper start it's way in again, and much like the last side, the burning started almost immediately. The pain wasn't as bad this time (maybe one or two notches lower on the 'Pain-0-Meter'), but still pretty bad. In talking with him afterwards, he said that he actually felt more resistance on the left side than the right, which was weird for me, since I thought the right side hurt considerably more. I cleaned up all the gunk that came out of them and we took these pictures.
My nostrils were pretty much constantly causing me considerable pain for about 24 hours, and after 3 days still really hurt when I yawn or flare them at all (which is understandable). Aftercare is my normal routine of 3 daily salt soaks followed by removing any loose nastiness with a q-tip coated in saline solution. I rinse them off in the shower, and clean off the horns themselves with some mild antimicrobial soap. All in all, I'm intensely proud of my new horns, and, given the chance to do this stretch again, I would. This is a huge accomplishment for me, and one of the first milestones on my nostrils stretching extravaganza. Although, it's kind of weird now, that, instead of people asking me "Did that hurt?", they ask "Are those real?".
/marc