At A Glance Author The Lizardman Contact thelizardman23@aol.com IAM The Lizardman When N/A Artist Keith Alexander (piercing), Myself (stretching) Studio Modern American Location NYC, NY
A few days ago, I inserted a half-inch tunnel into my septum and realized later that same evening, as I made an entry about this occurrence on my IAM page, that I had never even written an initial experience when the piercing was done. So, before discussing how I came to have a hole in my septum with a diameter of half an inch, a little history...I don't recall precisely when, I believe early summer (May-June) of 1998 I traveled down to Bay Ridge Brooklyn to meet Keith Alexander and get my septum pierced. Actually, I was planning on both my septum and an apadravya but lack of jewelry meant the apadravya had to be postponed. I was living in Albany, NY at the time so I made a day of the trip. I took a bus down in the morning, about 3 hours, and met up with Gregg, a friend from college who was living in Englewood, NJ. Together, we headed into NYC and eventually to Keith's shop – Modern American Bodyarts. Once at the shop, we spent a fair amount of time just talking about a lot of varied things – this was the first time I had met Keith in person, having only known him through rec.arts.bodyart up until then. For the piercing, I opted to go with a 14 gauge black niobium retainer for the initial jewelry. I don't really recall much of the actual procedure, beyond that it was incredibly fast. In fact, Keith place d the receiving tube, lined up and then told me to let him know when I was ready, and then at my signal he literally pierced and inserted the jewelry so quickly that I missed it. I actually asked him if it was done. Afterwards, we all hung out for a while and then Gregg and I had couple drinks before I caught one of the last buses back up to Albany. For aftercare, I pretty much adhered to the 'leave it the hell alone method'. Occasionally, I would use a moistened q-tip to remove crusties but that was pretty much the extent of things. It seemed healed within a couple of weeks and very soon I was preparing to stretch it.
For my first stretch, I simply went out and bought a knitting needle that was approximately ten gauge. I clipped off the tip of the needle to make a nice little spike and then using a little lube after a hot shower, I forced it through. This was about 2-3 months after the initial piercing had been done and for the next little while I would alternate between wearing my homemade 10 gauge spike and the original 14 gauge retainer. In early 1999, my tattoo artist offered me some free jewelry, so I took an 8 gauge retainer and cbr, which were tapered in and worn interchangeably till that summer. I spent the summer getting tattooed and working at the studio, which meant I had access to tapers and jewelry at will. By August when I returned to Albany I had tapered up to 4 gauge. That October I went out on tour till December and had a lot of press coverage for my transformation kick in afterwards. This meant I was performing a lot more and having my picture taken, being fi lmed, or the like and as a result, stretching wasn't really convenient.
It was late June or early July when I began stretching my septum again. This time I used Teflon taped wrapped around my 4 gauge tunnel. I was able to wrap twice a day at times and very quickly, in a couple weeks, had pushed to more than a 0 gauge. However, this proved to be a bit too much. I had already stopped adding wraps when I began a trip from Albany to Texas to visit friends due to some soreness but instead of subsiding, it got worse. My nose showed visible swelling and was pretty tender when I made it to Austin. While there, I made a trip to Body Rites Austin and my friends there helped me out with a 2 gauge tunnel. Downsizing did the trick, my septum responded very quickly – the swelling subsided and there was no more tenderness within a couple days. Once back in NY I waited about 2 months before once again using the Teflon tape wrapping method to increase the piercing to a 00 gauge plug.
I wore that 00 gauge plug up until just a couple nights ago. After returning from a trip to Tokyo I decided to take advantage of a relatively open schedule to do some stretching. Once again, I began wrapping Teflon tape around my plug – once a day, after my morning shower. As with before, it went very easily and quickly. Then, during a visit to Body Rites Austin, I mentioned that I had almost reached half an inch to Chris Kane and asked what he had in stock in that size – he provided me with a wooden plug and a tunnel. When I got home that night, I popped out my heavily wrapped 00 gauge plug and with little difficulty pushed in the tunnel. It was a bit of a stretch though and I think the flare is irritating the inside of my left nostril since I do have some tenderness, particular on the left side. I'm not worried though, it's getting better rapidly and should fine and ready for more stretching soon.
I'm not sure how far I will stretch my septum. I promised myself that I would take some time off from it once I made half an inch though. I don't have an ultimate goal but I do want to be able to put my finger through the piercing. It's one of my idiosyncrasies that I like being able to do that. I love the sound of a one-inch septum. Thus far I don't have that noticeable a distortion of my nose from stretching, but I doubt it would deter me.