A septum. a bull-ring. a middle of the nose piercing. a "is that real?". it's been called many names to me throughout the years. I remember back in high school, I was talking to a childhood friend about piercings, he mentionned he wanted to get the "straight ear" gunned, while I was thinking of getting my septum pierced, even if I didn't know what it was called.
At A Glance Author Pierre Contact valo@nbnet.nb.ca IAM Valo When A year ago Artist Shawn Deyoung Studio Epidart Location Moncton, NB, Canada The reasoning behind wanting the piercing was as simple as most kids who walk into a piercing parlor asking for the "lip piercing like the guy from Linkin Park"; I wanted that piercing I saw on my favorite bass player, Mark "Boris" St-Maurice, bass player from Montreal hardcore band Grimskunk. Only problem was, this was 1995-1996, and I lived in a little redneck town with no piercers besides the "piercer" at the local hairdresser, equipped with her trusty gun. She advised me that piercing the septum area was physically impossible. not knowing any better, I accepted her verdict and nixed the idea for a few years.
Fast forward to April 2002. I got a little older, a little wiser, and a little more mod-knowledgable, thanks to BME. I now knew septums could be pierced, and that I still wanted one. so I saved my pennies, and headed to the local shop I dealt with at the time, Epidart Tattoos and Piercings. I knew both piercers at the shop, and wanted to get Shawn to pierce me, seeing as he was the more experienced of the two. unfortunately, he was not working when I went in to talk to him about getting it done. I did, however, check the price ($35.00, since I already had some 14ga jewelry I inherited from an ex girlfriend who had hers done), and made an appointment for a few days later, when Shawn was around.
I come in at about 6:00pm, and Shawn was still out on lunch. he gets back, and there were three girls waiting to get pierced as well (two navels and a tongue, or something to that effect). I decide to be the nice guy and let them go first, which ended up taking forever, since one of the girls getting their tongue done stalled for an hour. I finally get into the room, and immediately start getting nervous. At the time, I had already had almost 100 hours of tattoo work done on me (I've since passed the 100-hour mark, and am closing in on 120), but still had limited experience in getting pierced. I sat there as Shawn started getting the equipment ready. Kevin, one of the tattoo artists, came in and watched, as he "wanted to see me cry". Shawn then cleans up my nose with this product (the name evades me) and starts feeling up my nose for the best possible spot to pierce. He then clamps me up with a septum clamp thing (again, forgive me, I forget the name), which pinched a little bit. he played around with it a little, putting it on, taking it off, and setting it a little bit until it was perfectly straight and in position. He then has me look in the mirror to check placement, which I inspected thoroughly (partially because I wanted to make sure it was straight, partially because I was stalling a little), approved, and sat in the chair.he tells me to take a deep breath, and on the way out, he pierced me.
I can admit it was painful, but nowhere close to what I was expecting. my eyes did water, but it's a natural reaction from having a septum pierced. Shawn then slipped the CBB in, wiped the few drops of blood, and sent me on my merry way. I paid, tipped, and hung around the shop for a few more minutes talking about future projects I wanted done and making an appointment for my next tattoo session.
The piercing looked great, healing was quite easy (cleaning it twice a day did fine with me), and besides the complete IDIOT at the bar that night pulling on it asking if it was real, it gave me no problems whatsoever. I wore a retainer most of the time, and only took it out whenever I went out and whatnot.
The end of my septum came in a wrestling match with Chris Tubb, a local independant wrestling hopeful. it was a pretty brutal match that saw him busted open from a chairshot, and then later in the match had me in a camel clutch (he sat on my back and put my arms on his knees), and decided to do his trademark crossfaces to the head. as usual, he was "stiffing" me a bit, when the second one conected with my nose, ripping the septum upwards in my nose about 3mm. immediately, it started bleeding, but no pain. The adrenaline was flowing, so I barely even noticed. I cleaned it up post-match, realized it wasn't worth trying to heal a gash this big, and retired it.
I don't regret the piercing, though I wish I would have had it done at a larger gauge. I'm thinking of getting it redone, this time at an 8ga. Time will tell.
Cheers.