I originally got my septum pieced at NEXT! studios by Mikah, about 4 years ago. I had been interested in piercing and tattooing for a few years, and I had already had my nipples pierced, but I wanted to get something more visible. Before I went in to NEXT, my friends and I were just browsing around downtown, and when we walked by the shop I felt compelled to go in and get something done. I had been thinking of a septum piercing for a while because I find they look good with a variety if different kinds of jewellery, and I thought it would be a good first facial piercing since it is nearly invisible with a retainer.
At A Glance Author shadowbringer Contact shadowbringer@bme.anon When A week ago Artist Jody Studio Anatomic Adornments Location Vancouver, BC I walked into the shop and proudly announced "I would like to get my septum pierced" and the guy behind the counter asked me "What gauge would you like?". I realised I hadn't thought of that before, so I paused for a moment and asked "What's the biggest gauge I could get it pierced at?" and he replied "8 gauge". "That sounds good" I said with a smug grin, and he gave me a concerned look realising I had no other visible piercings, and I appeared rather young. "Have you ever had any other piercings?" he asked and I replied, "I've had both my nipples pierced" (by Jody and Jacob at NEXT!). He suggested that I start at a 10 instead, and if I wanted to go bigger I could always stretch later, so I decided to heed his advice, due to his greater experience. The he asked me what type of jewellery I wanted and I chose a retainer, hoping that I might keep it a secret from my parents for a while. He had me fill out the necessary information before the piercing, and I was entirely ho nest except for my age as I was concerned they wouldn't pierce me without my parents permission, and I knew they wouldn't approve. Then I handed him the form back and waited for them to call my name.
When it was time for me to go into the piercing room I was a little anxious but mostly quite calm. I was looking forward to the endorphin rush following the procedure, as I had quite enjoyed it when I had my nipples pierced. Mikah explained that this was the "most exciting" piercing he had done all day, as most of them were navels or ear lobes. He also commented on the gauge I had chosen, since most of the people he's seen have their septums pierced have had it done at a 14 or a 12. I didn't realise it was bigger than usual until this point, and that worried me a bit, but I tried to stay calm thinking it couldn't be that bad. Then he cleaned the area and set up the clamp, and had me do some deep breathing. He explain he would count to four along with my breathing and on four I was to exhale very deeply and he would pierce me.
When the needle went through the pain was much more intense then having my nipples pierced and I could feel that the tissue was much denser and the piercing much tighter. He was very professional though, and it was all over in a few seconds. My eyes watered quite a bit but I barely bled at all. When he showed me what it looked like in the mirror I was quite pleased with myself and excited for the day when I would buy some more protrusive jewellery. Of course it swelled up enough that I couldn't flip up the retainer for a few days and my parents knew immediately but they didn't react as badly as I had expected.
I took very good care of my new piercing, cleaning it 3 times a day and doing salt soaks at least once a day, and it healed up without any problems. Then I bought myself a smooth tube bead ring and a crescent ring to wear in it, and I was quite pleased with the way those pieces of jewellery looked, but I also admired people with larger gauge septum piercings. I was reluctant to go any bigger until I was sure I wanted to stretch my septum, as I realised the resultant hole would never close up entirely, and it was more then another 2 years before I finally decided to start stretching. By this time I preferred to have Jody as a piercer, as she was my very first piercer, and I was always happy with her work. She has also done piercings for my sister and some friends of mine, and she has been ever helpful to them as well, so I reward her quality work with my loyalty. She had opened up a new shop called Anatomic Adornments so that's where I went to ask about stretching my se ptum. They were very informative, taking the time to articulate their answers to my questions in detail. I decided to stretch with a retainer as my job at the time didn't allow visible facial piercings.
I originally thought I would only stretch to 8 gauge, so I just bought the retainer and stretched it myself, which I wouldn't recommend unless you're trained and have a sterile environment to do it in, but it worked out just fine for me, I just lubed it up with some KY jelly and in it went. A few times when my septum was newly pierced at 10 gauge the jewellery had fallen out, and I had to force it back in, and stretching it felt much the same. Unfortunately the retainer was a U shape unlike my usual staple shaped retainer, and it fell out quite soon thereafter and I had to force it in again. Soon the stretching bug had caught me, and I thought I'd go up one more gauge, so a few months later back to Anatomic I went, and this time I made sure to get a staple shaped retainer. Jody did the stretching for me, and since the jewellery itself was tapered she opted not to use an additional taper. My eyes teared up much like my original piercing, and this time the pain was about the same, but soon enough the piercing was feeling quite loose and comfortable. My girlfriend had some big 4 gauge CBRs from her ears lying around, and I thought one of them would look really cool in my nose, so I asked her for one and she gave it to me, so I had it autoclaved at Anatomic and made an appointment to stretch for the next day.
When I arrived the next day, everything was ready to go and I jumped through the usual hoops filling out the pre procedural form, and I hopped up on Jody's piercing table. She lubed up the 6-4 gauge taper and my septum, and we did the usual deep breathing and counting. When that taper went through I got a huge rush. She got the jewellery in quite quickly and I immediately felt the need to lie down. I lied on the table and enjoyed the aftermath for a while, and Jody got me a cold cup of water and some candy, and in a few minutes I sat up and had a look at myself in the mirror. I was ecstatic. I couldn't believe I had a septum that big, I hadn't even seen any visible jewellery in my septum for a long time and I just thought it looked awesome. The diameter of the CBR was a little too big and got in the way when I was eating so I ended up putting in an old tunnel I used to have in my ear, but I am still very pleased with my stretched septum. I can't wait to see how a 4 ga uge crescent ring looks in it!