I got into piercing when I had just left school, and had a couple of quite tame ones including my lip, tongue and eyebrow. I wanted something a little more unusual, so I decided to go for the septum, despite all the pain horror stories I'd heard.
At A Glance Author Lorelei Chaos Contact Lorelei Chaos@bme.anon When Two years ago Artist Mark Boyle (no longer with the studio in question) Studio Festival Shop Location Middlesbrough, England I had it done when I was 16 (the accepted legal piercing age in Britain), and honestly couldn't understand what all the fuss was about. A few weeks later, I got talked into stretching my ear lobes, and after that, really got bitten by the gauging bug.
I had to wait a few weeks more for my septum to heal properly, then went back to see Mark, and had a 2.4mm ring put in. The stretch wasn't bad. I think it would have been more painful with a slow stretch, but I asked for a fast one, where the taper is basically banged straight through the hole really quickly.
I gave it a week or so for the hole to settle down again. I wasn't really intending to go up again, but suddenly the people I knew with septum piercings all had theirs at 2.4, and I wanted to be different. So, I found myself in town again, and up we went to 3.2mm. I think I prefer that size for my septum, to be honest, as I have a really small face, and the bigger jewellery tends to swamp me.
The 3.2 stretch felt like nothing. The guy who watched said I didn't even flinch, and the jewellery looked beautiful, as larger gauge generally does.
Two weeks later, and yup, back again. This time, I'd seen a really pretty 4mm bar closure ring, and it was just the right size for my nose. Sooo...bang, through. Lovely. The sensation was pretty much the same as the 3.2 stretch, quite nondescript, really. Maybe even a bit disappointing overall.
Now, I had the initial piercing around mid November, and the final stretch to 5mm happened just after New Year, Jan 1999 I think.
It was a fairly spur of the moment thing. Suddenly, I had the itch for a new piercing, but didn't really know what I wanted done. So, instead of waltzing willy nilly into a hole I might feel I dislike later, I decided to go for the 5mm stretch on my septum.
The last two had been tame, pain wise, so I wasn't really prepared. For some reason, it didn't click that there's quite a difference in stretching terms between 0.8mm and 1mm. I KNOW I flinched for this one, although I still got congratulated on remaining calm in my disposition. Wow...I can't even begin to describe the feeling. It was honestly the biggest adrenaline rush I've had so far with stretching. Better than some of the rushes off some of my more extreme piercings.
No matter how much you think it will hurt, I recommend 5mm septum stretching completely, because the rush is so worth the bit of pain you get. It was the closest non-sexual thing to sexual pleasure I can imagine.
Stupidly, I tried to change the jewellery after only two days, and lost the gauge to 3.2, as I didn't have a 4mm ring anywhere. I was on the phone to friends, who are also into piercing, for hours, trying to get a 4mm ring, but failed. I suppose that was the downfall in trying to keep 'one step ahead' with my mods.
Sadly, the second time I took it up to 5mm, the rush wasn't anywhere near as good.
I've since stopped wearing my septum ring regularly, and the hole has shrunk. The good thing is though, because I wore it at 5mm for a while, even though I haven't worn it regularly for about two years now, the hole hasn't closed up. It stays at 2.4mm, and it goes to 3.2 really easily. It's like elastic.
Don't know if I'd recommend everyone to go up so quickly with something like a septum-my tolerance for pain is good, and my body heals pretty well. I think I would have gone up further, but my nose wouldn't allow it. I took out the 5mm in the end because the jewellery I was wearing was really tapping badly against the cartilage above the fleshy part of the septum, and I was advised that by going up further, I was risking losing part of my nose. The cartilage could simply collapse, without the added support of the web below, and I'd possibly be left with a funny shaped nose. (Although at the time, I did seriously consider the idea of whether or not a nasallang piercing would help support the cartilage, allowing me to continue stretching.)
I'm now off to uni, so can have visible piercings again, and I'm thinking of taking my septum back up to 4mm. I've seen a really pretty set of bone tusks that would look great perched beneath my nose!