I went very quickly from thinking that septum piercings on girls where the ugliest thing I've ever seen and couldn't possibly look good on anyone...to getting it pierced. It started when I saw some pictures on bme (surprise, surprise) where it looked really cute on some people. I actually tried to convince my friend Alex to get it done because she had a really sweet little button nose that I thought it would suit. I thought my nose was too big and ugly to accentuate it with such a heavy piercing, and I already had my nostril pierced so I honestly didn't think about it.
At A Glance Author maya Contact special_stuff_@hotmail.com IAM punksnatch When Three months ago Artist Jesse Studio Cold Steel Location London/England Then a while later I had a boyfriend who had his septum pierced and he was trying to convince me to get it done. I was like, no way dude I'd look like a bull. But he kept on and produced this little ring that he shoved up my nose to give the effect of a septum piercing. I actually quite liked it and it got me thinking a bit. We split up a while later but his insistence that it would look really good stayed in my head. I then decided to remove my nostril stud to give me even more incentive to get it done as I thought it would be too busy with both. One weekend I decided to get it done.
All my piercings tend to be done very spontaneously which I think makes them more exciting. I usually brew for a few months deciding if I want it and then just wake up one day and say, "I feel like getting something pierced". And off I go. So off I went, to Camden and cold steel, the longest standing piercing studio in Camden and there are quite a few. I met a few friends I hadn't seen in a while and went to pick up El from work as she was coming with me. We went to the studio and Jesse the piercer said he could fit me in at about 4.30 which was about an hour, he asked me how old I was and I lied (said I was 19) and told me to go get something to eat but not to drink any alcohol.
I was a little nervous because a couple of people I'd spoken to about it had said it really, really, really hurt. I went and got a crepe and just smoked cigarettes until the time came. I returned to the studio and started to fill in the papers. The girl on the till asked me again how old I was and I said I was 19, she asked if I had any ID on me and I said I didn't but that I had a student card with my date of birth on. She obviously didn't doubt that I was that old as she was like, "yeh, that's fine". (I'm a good liar!) I never feel bad about lying about my age, as I know I'm one of the most responsible people I know with my piercings. I make sure I know everything I need to before getting it done and I'm totally anal about aftercare. I can understand their reasons for having to instate age laws but I just don't abide by them.Jesse came downstairs and asked me what jewellery I would like, I explained that I needed to get it pierced with a keeper as I couldn't have the piercing on show for work as I work with food. He said this was fine and that I could flip up the keeper and no one would see it at all (this was perfect for school as well!). We went upstairs to the piercing room and he got me to hop onto a leather nurse's bed type thingy. I voiced my only worry at this point and I said to him "this ones really supposed to hurt isn't it?" he was surprised that I thought this and assured me it was almost completely painless as there was no cartilage involved, only a little spot which is just skin.
This guy really knows what he's doing and you can tell just by the way he's so confident in everything he's doing. He chatted to me about what I was doing that night, I thought he was genuinely interested at the time and was kinda playing up to it as I thought he was kinda hot, I realised later that this is just a ploy to get the piercee to relax, but I'd rather kid myself :D. I wasn't nervous at all after he told me it didn't hurt and I lay back and let him poke around my nose. He said there wasn't any point in making marks because he wouldn't be able to see them, he then put a receiving tube on one end, I squeezed my eyes shut really tight, and he slid the needle through and put the jewellery in. it was so quick and honestly completely painless. I'd heard so many horror stories of people weeping and crying and mine was perfect! He had me sit up and look at it in the mirror and then with much face pulling he flipped it up into my nose. I couldn't see it even if I wanted to.
He went over aftercare and said that to stop it healing crooked that about twice a day I should flip it down, take a hold of both ends and just wiggle them back and forwards alternately about 20 times. This really works, DO IT!
I couldn't even feel the jewellery in my nose unless I pressed it, which stung a little. I found cleaning it properly a little difficult and doing salt soaks even more problematic until...I had an epiphany. I ended up getting two wads of cotton wool, soaking them in the salt solution and sticking them up my nose for 15 minutes. Taken care of properly the piercing felt healed in about 6 days.
The other problem I came across was that, having been free of colds all winter I suddenly developed a streaming one as soon as the piercing was complete. My nose was running constantly and I couldn't blow it as pressing the my nose really hurt and when (sorry to be unpleasant) the mucus got into the hole it stung like a bitch. I managed to get over this problem somewhat by just blowing as hard as I could and then wiping up the mess carefully. This was disgusting but as long as it wasn't performed in public didn't prove too much of a problem. In four weeks I went back to have the jewellery changed and I now have a curved barbell that I love to pieces and can still flip up if needs be.
Beware; if you get your septum pierced you will undoubtedly be inclined to make unattractive faces in public (on the bus is a good one) trying to straighten out your jewellery using your upper lip. I also love to attract people by licking mine, always very sexy, and by doing so have found out that I can in fact touch my nose with my tongue!
Have fun kids, and remember, try not to get smacked in the nose in a mosh pit a coupla days after being pierced.