I honestly thought my septum was going to be the most trying of my mods. I was afraid of it being terribly painful, and agonizing to heal. I thought it would be brutal. Boy was I wrong.
At A Glance Author smurf Contact bismurf69@hotmail.com IAM smurf When A month ago Artist Steve Truitt Studio don't matter Location Abq. NM It took me six months or so to actually decide that I was really going to get my nose pierced and not just sit around wondering if I ever would. To be honest, the deciding factor was getting a message from Steve telling me he was coming back to Albuquerque after several months in Florida. I thought, yeah, I can handle it if Steve does the work, he's a good guy.
So, let's skip past several weeks of contemplation and preparing myself for what I imagined to be my most painful mod (including the scarification on my back). I spent a lot of time sticking my fingers in my nose trying to figure out where the ring was going to go. I also started reading every description of septum piercings. The pain factor seemed to range from "my eyes only watered" to "it's like getting your nose broken". Lot of help that was. The best aspect of the timing was the fact that Andy (my boytoy) was going to be in town, which ment I was going to have strong support, seeing as he already had his septum pierced and could stand watching me get done. Yeah, right.
After a failed attempt at getting poked, Andy and I were finally able to bum a ride up to Albuquerque with Schlake... the same guy that's gone with me for most of my other mods. Actually, I tricked Schlake. I told him that Steve was back in town and I wanted to get pierced, if he drove us up I'd let him take pictures. Sick perv that he is, Schlake assumed I ment a genital piercing and jumped at the chance. Ha.
A long drive later, we finally made it to the shop where Steve had been able to filch a room. We'd already talked on the phone, so he had picked up the jewelry earlier that day (internally threaded circular barbell, for those who care). I got everyone arranged to my liking, Andy holding my hand on one side, Schlake in the background, disappointed but still taking pictures. Steve started getting everything lined up, I was concentrating on his forehead, trying not to think about the agonizing pain.... he started to push the needle through and it hit me, other than the strong sensation of "needle-through-my-nose" there was nothing. No pain. No eyes watering, nothing. Wow. This rocks!
I took a look at myself with a needle through my nose in the mirror, very primitive and cool, before he put in the jewelry. When he put it in he got a funny look on his face. Crooked as fuck. The needle was straight as an arrow, what happened? Crooked septum. <Note: Upon close inspection, it really is crooked, he wasn't making up excuses. My dad had a deviated septum, so I'm not surprised.>
So Steve and I are staring into the mirror on the wall discussing a re-pierce when something makes me turn around to where Andy is. He's halfway to the floor. What the???
Crash! He lands on a mirror tilted against the wall. Dude passed out, I'm patting the side of his face trying to get him out of it, I hear Steve tell a guy that ran in at the noise "You know the drill." We arrange Andy in a chair with a Dr. Pepper, him embarrassed as hell, but still holding my hand.
Back to the re-pierce. We took out the jewelry and Steve pinched my nose with a tissue to stop the bit of bleeding. After getting everything set up and clean I was ready for a second go. He lined stuff up a little differently this time. Deep breath in, exhale... needle through my nose. It was just as pain free as the first and much straighter. After cleaning up the blood, joking about how we got as much blood out of my nose as we did from my cutting, everything was set. So I paid, tipped, and we took off for Greek food. I think Steve felt bad about having to do it again, but it's not as if it is really easy to get everything perfect on a pierce like that... crooked septum, dodge the sides of my nose and get everything straight in all directions... whatever, he's a nice guy and good at what he does.
My nose was a little raw feeling that evening, but nothing that a person couldn't handle. I was really paranoid about bonking it in my sleep for a while, but that only happened once and it wasn't too bad. Overall, the healing has been amazingly easy. I decided that I was going to see how I healed with just sea-salt soaks a few times a day. It worked beautifully. The crusties were gone in about 2 weeks, and now it's wonderful. I'm not going to claim that it will be pain free for everybody, but the septum is definitely a fun hole to have in your face. Perhaps the best aspect about it is the fact that it is one hundred percent hideable if you can't have it showing for whatever reason.