When I was a 17-year-old kid, running around trying to rebellious and whatnot, I was about to go to a private school for my last year of high school. I had about one week left of my summer holidays before school started. This was one of those rather strict schools, in terms of appearance, even by New Zealand standards. It was a Christian school as well, and I had heard rumors of kids from that school being kicked out for getting their tongues pierced and whatnot. And, well, I wanted to see what I could get away with. I mean, I figured it would be pretty cool to have a few facial piercings that I could hide from all the teachers, yet show off to all my friends. I had a navel piercing, and an upper lip frenulum piercing, both of which were very easy to hide from people. I figured that a nice septum piercing, done with some jewellery that could be hidden up my nose would work great!
At A Glance Author xmeatlessx Contact xmeatlessx@bme.anon When Two years ago Artist Matt Studio Sin of the Skin Location Tauranga, New Zealand I had been living in a rather small town for a few years, and had just started meeting some punk rawk and hard-core kids from some of the nearby cities. And a punk rawk girl, who happened to be a Canadian living in New Zealand too, just moved to town, sporting a wonderful looking septum piercing. With all of these new influences I thought it was time to get some further holes in my body.
I knew of a rather good piercer in the city about an hour from where I was living at the time. I had gotten to know him pretty good over the months, and knew that he knew his stuff. So I headed into his shop with my support crew, of a few friends, well, my little bro and our fellow Canadian punk rawk friend. I started talking to the piercer, Matt, about costs, and healing, and stuff. I was about to chicken out, but somehow me managed to get me to agree to get it done right there and then, which was great really.
So I hoped in the chair, and braced myself for what I was told is the most painful facial piercing possible. And it wasn't that bad at all, really. I mean, my eyes watered, and it did hurt, but it wasn't the worst thing possible.
So know I had this lovely little circular barbell through my septum, that I could flip up and hide from EVERYONE. School started a week later, and the constant flipping up and down of the jewellery hindered the healing process a fair bit. I took me about half the year of constant cleaning before my septum had healed nice and perfectly.
And then came the stretching!! About half way through the year I went on a road trip with some friends of mine, who were rather heavily into piercing. I had wanted to start stretching my septum eventually anyway, and they had the spare jewellery, so I started on the trip. I was pierced with a 14 gauge to start with, which is pretty typical. So I started out by trying my luck with a 12 gauge. It slid straight in without any need of any lubrication whatsoever. I was very excited. In fact overly excited.
They also had some 10 gauge rings with them. I was overly excited about the idea of having a large gauge septum that I only waited three days before shoving through the 10 gauge. I had to use a lot of lube to get it through, and I put a lot of force into it, which on hindsight was most certainly not a good idea at all. I don't know why I didn't have the patience to wait; I wish I had now of course. But no, I shoved it through, and it hurt, a lot. My nose swelled up a little bit for the next few days. I don't know what happened though, but after that stretch, when I turned the ring it sent a sharp, intense pain throughout my face. It brought tears to my eyes, and made me unable to concentrate. I thought that it would go away after a while, but no. So after about a week of this pain, I decided to take it a bit slower. I took out the 10 gauge, and stuck in a 12 gauge ring and a 16 gauge ring, and I flipped them both up for school.
After that little problem I regained my patience, and went slowly. I used fimo to stretch it the rest of the way, with homemade little septum retainers at first. I bought myself a 3mm plug, and when I could fit that I stopped for a while. I just wanted something easy and comfortable to get through school with.
So with school ended, I decided it was time to move on to bigger and better things. I went out to the local whole sale body piercing jewellery shop in Auckland, and bought myself a 2 gauge circular barbell just a few weeks after school ended. And I started stretching my septum to reach that new goal. I used fimo again, but this time I just made little plugs. I found that I couldn't really make any good looking retainers at that size, and they felt horrible to flip up as they got bigger, so plugs were the way to go. I stretched it slowly, and patiently, but it still causes some pain and swelling off and on, especially when I had misjudged the size of my new homemade plugs.
But finally I had made it to my goal, and stuck the jewellery in. I was very, very excited, yet a little tender. After about a week I took the barbell out. It was too heavy, that when I slept on my side it would make my nose bend to one side, which hindered the healing from the stretching, which I really needed. My nose was running non-stop for a while. So I went out and I bought a 6mm tunnel to put through, to keep the hole open, but allow for healing. I seldom wore my barbell after that, it just didn't feel right. I often stuck some smaller barbells through my tunnel, which was a look I liked. My then girlfriend had gone to Australia and brought me back a barbell with spikes on the end to put through my septum tunnel, but it was too short to fit through the length of the tunnel.
One day I went shopping around for new jewellery for some other piercings of mine, and I found a shorter then average 7mm tunnel, for rather cheap. I thought about it, and figured why not, may as well stretch it up just that one extra millimeter. So I bought the tunnel, and grabbed my old handy fimo, and started to stretch up my septum just a little bit further. I went for a visit to my parent during this process, with a tender nose. I bent down to pet the family dog, only to have him jump up and hit my nose, hard. It brought tears to my eyes, and made me yelp. But a few days later I had my new tunnel in my septum, and was feeling great about it.
I still have it at 7mm right now, about two years later, and I love it. I love watching people realize that they can look right through my nose. I love freaking little kids out by pretending to pierce my septum in front of them, with safety pins and other objects. My little brother says that he can see the sun through my nose. I think it's great. A large gauge septum is what is it all about. I have been thinking about going bigger, but I don't' know. I guess we will see how things go from here.