This is the story of how I stretched my septum from 14 ga to 4 ga.
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact anonymous@bme.anon When A week ago Artist me Studio home Location home I was originally pierced my freshman year in college with a 14 ga retainer. I really liked my piercing, not for the showing-off value, but rather just knowing that I had a piece of metal going through my body that was not put there at birth was a very exhilarating feeling. I would wear a 14 ga cbb in there from time to time when I went out and wanted people to see my piercing.
Eventually, the piercing stretched itself to about a 10 ga. I enjoyed playing with it and the motion, I guess, stretched it out. The hole became too big to hold in a 14 ga retainer and so the retainer would fall out periodically. I should have bought new jewelry, but money was tight as I had to help my parents with college costs.
Finally, one morning, I woke up and the piercing was no longer there. I looked around all over my dorm room to find it, but alas, it was gone. That wasn't too great of a loss at the time, since I started dating a girl who was very much opposed to piercing. She didn't even have her ears pierced! So, I dated her for about a year and a half and we finally broke up. In the meantime, I had decided to try to see if my piercing was still open. So, I would put in a straightened-out paperclip periodically to check up on the piercing. It was still open, but very tight.
I went to Spain with her and her parents at the end of the summer and I snuck away for one day and went into town, which had many piercing and jewelry shops. I bought a 14ga CBB for just 5 Euros (about $5). When I tried putting it in, however, it wouldn't go into the hole. I guess the hole had closed up too much. After a bit of pushing and shoving, pulling and tugging, I finally got the CBB to go in. I had to take it out soon, though since I was with my girlfriend and her parents and didn't want them to see me with a septum piercing (I know, I'm a loser).
Finally, we broke up and I decided to start wearing my CBB. I also came across some cash and bought a 12 ga retainer. Again, when I put the retainer in, it wouldn't go in. Finally, after I pushed and pulled, it went in. A little bit of blood trickled down my nose. I guess I had ripped the piercing (kids, don't do that! Very bad!). So, now, I had a 12 ga retainer in there. Like the previous retainer, it stretched my piercing a good deal by itself. Eventually, I had a 10 ga.
I decided to go down to NYC to visit my cousin who had many piercings of her own. She had several stretched piercings, and I got intrigued with stretching my septum. She had some extra tapers and old CBB's and plugs and such and gave them all to me for free! That was awesome, because I had very little money and couldn't afford new jewelry. So, I set out to stretch my piercing to an 8 ga. She went to get a madonna to a piercing shop in the Village and I went with her, to get the piercer to autoclave my new jewelry for me. He did that for $5. I definitely recommend this to people who buy used jewelry or borrow jewelry from friends. Even if you know your friends are clean and have no diseases, bacteria and such collect on jewelry and it needs to be sterilized. So, I used the taper and stretched my septum piercing to an 8 ga. I put in a CBB and wore that for a couple of days. It hurt at first, almost like getting punched in the nose. It was almost like the feeling I had right af ter getting my septum pierced in the first place. After the pain subsided, I figured that it would be safe to stretch further. I decided to stretch to a 6 ga. Again, with the taper, I was able to do it. I now had a 6 ga CBB through my septum.
When I went back to school in Sep, I definitely got a bunch of weird looks for my big hunk of jewelry. It is surprising how big 6 ga actually is. After a couple of weeks, I decided to go further. I was out of my cousin's CBBs, but had a couple of flesh tunnels. So, I decided to stretch up to 4 ga and put in a flesh tunnel. As usual, I went to a piercer and got the tunnel autoclaved. I then proceeded to stretch. As I put the taper in and kept sliding it through, I could feel the skin almost tearing. The jump from 6 to 4 seemed much greater than the one from 10 to 8 or even 8 to 6. Finally, after much effort and a bit of pain, I had a tunnel through my septum. That was very cool. I would look through the mirror to admire the hole that was visible through my septum. That was very cool.
I really like my 4 ga septum. I plan on stretching it more and eventually being able to fit the 0 ga plug my cousin gave me. I am planning on getting several more piercings soon and stretching all of them eventually. The key to successful stretching is not doing too fast, but rather in stages. I should have probably used a taper when trying to fit in the jewelry into an almost-closed hole. But, oh well. Happy piercing and stretching. And always remember, make sure that any piercing equipment you use is sterilized. If you tear the skin, non-sterilized equipment could cause infections, which are always nasty. Email me if you have any questions!