Piercings have been an interest for me since I was twelve, and at this age I was practising for getting my ears pierced by wearing clothespegs on my ears every day for weeks on end. Five years later, I had a row of three in each ear and was searching for something a little different. One of my friends suggested that I would suit a small blue stud in my nostril, but at the time I thought my eyebrow would be more suited to me.
At A Glance Author Karina Contact brideoflichtenstein@hotmail.com When Three months ago Artist Jim Studio Chaebol Location Byres Road, Glasgow, Scotland
After a few months of "research" (terrorising local shops where I knew pierced assistants worked, in the hope they'd share their experiences)I concluded that I wouldn't suit the eyebrow since it seemed to make the faces of other girls look a little too severe. I felt a void on my nose as if it was "naked" and would stand in front of the mirror pinching the skin with my nails and imagining a ring there, which must have been amusing for passers-by, especially for any psychologists that could have been loitering about.
My parents are quite religious and my mother had often said that nose studs were dangerous, that I'd get septicaemia and die a horrible death and that her friend had had to take hers out, and she suggested I got something like my belly-button done instead.
Thanks for the suggestion! The very next day I was booked in to the studio in my lunch break from uni to get both my nostril and navel done, with my young punker friend Matt in tow. Matt has pledged to give so much blood over two years so he is unable to get anything done lest it contaminate all the transplant patients with his pathogens, so he satisfied his curiosity by coming along, all the while hugging me and back-slapping me on my bravery and supposed rebelliousness.
I paid my deposit and then chose my studs. Usually I can only wear gold or silver in my ear lobes, and so I was apprehensive about putting anything titanium in my skin, but I realised how expensive it would be to substitute the set-price jewellery with gold. Plus I don't like gold much, and the piercers don't like to use it. I settled for a titanium body bar with a turquoise stud in my navel and chose a scary-looking hook of a gold stud with a tiny crystal for the nose. I figured if the titanium was going to give me a reaction, I'd rather have a scabby tummy than resemble a leper and have to face my peers looking uglier than usual. This cost £30 for the navel (usually it's £25 but the price got bumped up by the jewel in the bar) and an extra £20 (so £45) for the gold stud to be put in, but the joy that is the student discount meant I got both for a sweet £60.
My piercer's name is Jim and he was very nice, reassuring me that it was unlikely for anything to go wrong with my piercings. I got him to do the nostril first as it was what I had wanted for a while. He said that people generally cry involuntarily when he pierces the nose so I offered to close my eyes. Matt positioned himself in a suitable corner to spectate, and rubbed his hands with glee. He probably hadn't been so excited since the elastic on Jenny McDonald's skirt snapped during the second year production of "West Side Story"...
The stud came out of its little kidney-shaped dish full of disinfectant, and I felt Jim slide the long, hollow needle up the inside of my left nostril and out the other side. It was a bit of a searing pain but there was no popping noise as I had expected there would be and I guess it was no worse than getting my ears pierced except with a needle because guns are baaaaaad, children! (They crush your flesh and make you more likely to get infections and take longer to heal, apparently!)
"Open your eyes,"Jim muttered. I did, and saw a big tube thing poking up from the hole and waving in front of my eyes which was pretty freaky. Water slid out from the corner of my eye which was weird too, and Jim mopped it up. There was quite a bit of blood which he said was because of my imbibing too much alcoholic beverage the night before, which had induced the blood to thin. I looked in the mirror and it was great. Matt said it was pretty. The stud looked kind of big and the whole area felt quite hot and tight. It also felt like I had a snotter stuck to my nose for the first day. I kept saying stupid cliche words out of nervousness (like "kewl!") and nodding happily far too much.
The navel was next, but that's another story. I'll tell you all about that on the navel page. We sat for ages chatting to Jim and asking him lots of questions. The nose just felt hot and looked pink for three or four days but this subsided. Matt was stoked and kept congratulating me and telling everybody we met that day.Aww, bless!
I had to clean them with salt water solution which is more difficult than it sounds. I'd recommend buying an aerosol of ready-made saline solution for contact lenses because it's quick and does the job. I had become used to the clean stingy feeling of surgical spirit on my ears but I was told I didn't need this and that it kills the good flesh too. Cleaning your nose isn't easy as you worry about the bacteria and spend ages on it, and the inside of the nostril is tricky. For the first week I thought I had to pull the stud half the way out to clean under it properly, and snort the saline to cover the inside bit. The laws of gravity were inevitable - what goes up must come down - and I had an itchy runny nose for weeks which was dry around the outside. Washing my face was hellish because I was paranoid about getting soap in it. I soon noticed I had a ring of blackheads and greasy skin around it because I couldn't get in there to wash properly. Ewww.
The worst came three weeks later when I noticed there was a bit of MEAT hanging out of the entrance. Really, it was reddish purple and round and smooth and looked like a big-ass tick was feeding on me. I knew it couldn't be a keloid because there was blood pumping through it - it was alive as if it was part of the inside of my nose that had somehow popped out - and the piercing wouldn't have had time to form scar tissue. Also it kept bleeding without me touching it. Everyone wanted to hurl when I told them of the meat and so I went back to Jim to talk at him very quickly for an hour and have a check-up as promised. He said all that houking the stud out to clean it was unnecessary and that a wee dab round that area would do. I stopped being so enthusiastic about the cleaning, put up with the piercing oozing blood all the time(this was gradual, as it healed I would find there was a black crust of dried blood that had accumulated throughout the day) and the meat went away after two months.It's funny how you expect your nose to feel different but it feels the same as before I got it done. Stick-on jewels are more noticeable because you feel the skin stretch under the glued bit - you can't feel anything at all with the piercing and it's easy to forget it exists; you can just see the jewel if you cross your eyes a bit.
I'm now really happy with it, but I still find it painful to change the studs. I bought a BCR because I like the look of them but I found the hole was too far up my nostril for it to reach and the 1.2 was too thick so I might try a 1.0 which are more expensive.
Everybody loves it! I get compliments all the time which is nice... My mum never even noticed. I phoned her to tell her I'd had it done before she could see me and when I got in the car she asked "Where is it?"
In fact, the biggest problem seems to be my boyfriend. He has long floppy curly hair and when we make out his ringlets get caught in the nose stud and I have to get him to hold still. One time he didn't and while I tried to disentangle us the stud shot out across the room and I panicked to get it back into the throbbing hole before it closed up. I do believe mine tries to close up within five minutes!
I have a new friend in Jim although he is twice my age, has lots of tattoos, a shaved head and wooden plugs in his ears so big that they look like bongo drums and make the stretched flesh look purple. Seriously, you could play tunes on his plugs they're so big! Anyway, I go into the shop for my jewellery needs and chat to him for hours at a time and reminisce about my "meat", punctuated with embarrassing laughs.
Next up for me? My ears are feeling neglected so I shall try the tragus. Then possibly my lip, but not for a while because the cleaning routine gets tiresome and I want to have a morning where I'm not late for my lectures or carrying cotton buds with me. Eight holes is enough for now!
My tips for nostrils....
1. Ask for a metal you know you are okay with if it makes you more reassured. The fixed prices can generally be adjusted if the piercer is a good one! Anything inert should be okay though.
2. Clean twice a day at least for the first 3-4 weeks. after that once is enough until you feel you're ready.
3. Don't snort the saline.
4. Wash your hands before changing studs. Clean them first!
5. If you have a cold you have a cold! Nothing bad will happen,it won't feel different, just be careful blowing it.
6.If you get "meat" don't worry; go back to your piercer - decent ones won't mind providing free check-ups! In worst-case scenarios if they don't go away they'll dab it with a little peroxide every once in a while until it does (or else tell you how to do it yourself safely)
7. Exercise caution when engaging in certain activities with the opposite sex. Ahem...
Enjoy getting "stabbed", my chickens!!!!