I had decided I wanted my nostrils punched about a little over a year before I actually got them. I had been surfing around BME and noticed how much I liked the way it looked on other people, and I had seen it on a few people face to face and just grew more and more to liking it. When I decided to get them done, it was initially hard for me to find an artist that I would trust with the procedure to do it. I had a few recommendations to some artists from friends and other piercers that I had gone to asking about getting my nostrils punched, but they always fell out of reach for me geographically or financially. So I waited.
At A Glance Author jO5h IAM leviticus When A week ago Artist Steve Studio Capre Fear Piercing Location Greenville NC
I started talking to Steve on IAM a while ago and he became a good friend on BME. I was really excited to hear that he was going to be coming to do a guest spot in Michigan and asked him if he'd do my nostril punches for me. I was well aware that he had done a lot of dermal punching in the ears but had never done nostrils before. We were both ok with this. Eventually my search for an artist I trusted and hopes to get my nostrils punched had turned into just a wait for Steve to come to Michigan.
The day of getting the punches took forever to go buy. My friends and I had originally planned to leave for Detroit (which is an hour away and where Steve would be doing the procedure) at around 3pm, but a lot of things got in the way and we didn't end up leave my house till around 6:30. That just added to the already anxious and nervousness I was already experiencing. We finally arrived to the shop and it was time for me to get some holes!
I was nervous! I was very nervous! I wasn't really worried about the actual punch but the tapering really freaked me out. I believe we used a 3.5mm punch and then tapered to a 4g hole. I had seen a lot of pictures on BME and I knew it was going to be bloody, and from the people I had spoken to with punches, I knew it was going to hurt. I also knew I could handle it though. So we began.
Steve took a long time marking my nose, which is good because I wouldn't want to have big lopsided holes in my face. After we got the marks correct, I lied down and we were ready to punch.
I was really trying to concentrate on going through with it. I didn't have any doubts in my mind if I would or not, I knew I could handle it, but I was still pretty nervous. Steve used clamps on my nostril to keep the punch from hitting the inside of my nose. I just lied there while he put on the clamps and brought the punch up to my nose. I took a deep breath in, and let it out. Another deep breath in and OOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUTTTTTTTTTTTT. WOW! It hurt. It hurt a lot. I yelled something, I pulled my legs up, I clenched my fists and tears ran down my face, and Steve hadn't even ran the taper through. He waited a minute before he did that so I could collect myself, and when he did put the taper through, I realized it was the punch that hurt and the stretch wasn't bad at all.
So my left nostril now had a 4g tunnel shining light and glory through it like I had wanted. I drank some water, ate some glucose, and decided it was time to do the other one. Steve clamped me and I told him to take them off. A couple minutes later I told him to put them back on and that I was ready. Again it went clamp, punch, yell, clench, and cry. This time though I told him to put the jewelry in right away because I was ready just to take it all at once.
So I was done. Braved it out like the slugger I am. Steve did a great job, he was very nice and very professional. I am pleased to have some of his work on me now and would defiantly go to him in the future and recommend him to my friends.
The aftercare to the punches is just like standard piercings. I use PROVON antibacterial soap to clean them with and use sea salt treatments daily. The first couple days was very painful healing. I woke up the in the middle of the night the first day I had them because they hurt so much. Ibprofin worked pretty well for the swelling and the pain. I've had them for a week and I am fully happy with them. The healing is going along great, my nose is a little dry and flakey around the punches, but that's to be expected. I'd say my favourite thing about having 4g nostril tunnels is the way the water flows through them and onto the inside of my nose when I'm in the shower.