It was a moderately cold day in early March, 2003 when I decided to get my septum re-pierced. I originally had it pierced in April, 2002, but somehow my septum retainer came out in my sleep and the hole shrank within the 8 hours of me being asleep. After about 4 months of pondering I decided to get my septum re-pierced.
At A Glance Author Chris Contact chrisbmeemail@aol.com IAM COvertonGvilleNC When A week ago Artist Steve Studio Cape Fear Tattoo & Piercings Location Greenville, NC Then came the day of fun. I brought my girlfriend and a couple of friends along for the fun journey down the road to my local shop and then I talked to my piercer, Steve, who was excited at the opportunity to pierce my septum. Steve had not pierced a septum in months and he needed the practice. Since I still had my previous septum jewelry, which was a 10g stainless steel septum retainer, Steve told me that all I had to pay for was the cost of setup and a little bit extra.
So I give the jewelry to Steve and he goes into his piercing booth and prepares for the piercing. He took my retainer and sterilized it and then he proceeded to take out his autoclaved utensils that would be used for the job. Steve does not prefer to use clamps on septum piercings. He's not a freehand piercer on all piercings, but on the septum he prefers to line the needle up and push it through without a clamp. I have seen him use this technique on several occasions, so I was confident at his ability to do the job correctly.
Ten minutes pass by and then Steve walked out of his booth and told me that everything was ready and that I could come on back and have a seat, which I did quickly. I was just ready to get the whole thing over with, because the septum piercing was pretty painful, but not my most painful piercing ever. So I sit down and he goes over all the guidelines on aftercare, which I had forgotten since it had been almost a year since I had a healing septum. From there I was told to look straight towards him and to keep my head balanced, so he could mark the entry and exit holes for the piercing. He checked over himself to make sure the markings were perfect and then he picked up the needle. That's when I knew it was time. He told me to take a deep breath, which I did and then he told me to breathe in and before he said out the needle was pushed through.
It was quite an experience. I imagined that the re-piercing would be worse than the original piercing, but amazingly it was a little bit easier even with 11 months of having no septum piercing. At that point I told myself I was happy with the size of the hole and that maybe just maybe I'd go to an 8g one day, but I was not sure about a septum stretch.
A month passes by and I get up enough nerve to try a septum stretch. I had previously stretched my nipple piercings, so I had jewelry for the stretch. I used a piece of jewelry called a pincher to wear. A pincher is pretty much just a ring that tapers off from the selected gauge and may I add that a pincher makes a great stretching tool. After getting all prepared mentally I decided to go for it. So I take my 10g retainer out and start to slowly slide the pincher into the hole. It was going good until it started to get bigger than a 10g. That's when I started to feel it. I did not want to stop though, because I knew if I stopped that I'd just give up and put the 10g jewelry back in. I went ahead and pushed a little harder and quickly my septum was at an 8g.
So I kept my septum at an 8g for about a month and then I decided to get brave and try to stretch my septum to a 6g. I did not just decide to stretch up to a 6g because I thought I had the 8g in for long enough. I chose to stretch up, because my nose felt perfectly normal and it had not given me any trouble at all. My friend, Pixie, had given me a 6g taper pin about a month earlier, which I used to taper my nipple piercings to 6g. I decided to use that same taper pin to stretch my septum to 6g. It felt very similar to the stretch from 10g to 8g. The only exception is that it hurt a little bit more as it stretched. I had a 6g septum retainer, which my piercer had sold me, and I decided that I would use that piece of jewelry, since I really had no use for it besides for my nose. Then it was official. I had a 6g septum.
A month and a half later I decided to make the jump to 4g. I thought my septum was ready for the stretch, but I was wrong. I went to my piercer and purchased a 4g plug and then I asked Steve to taper my nose up from 6g to 4g. The taper went halfway through and then I felt nothing but pure pain. It was terrible, but I did not want to stop. I asked Steve to stop for a second so I could take a breather. So he says ok and then a minute later I tell him to slowly slide the taper through. Eventually the task was accomplished and I walked out of the piercing booth with a 4g septum. It was really sore for a few days and I had migraines for a couple of days, but after day 3 of having a 4g septum I knew I did the right thing, because I love it. It seems perfect on me. I will never shrink my septum down back to 10g. Maybe I will get to a 2g one day. We will have to wait and see.