At A Glance
Author	anonymous
Contact	anonymous@bme.anon
When	It just happened
Artist	Elby
Studio	Captive Elements
Location	Blaine, MN

Over two and a half years ago, in October 2001, I got my septum pierced. I'm still pretty amazed that I did it, and still amazed that in all the time that I had it, nobody that I wanted to hide it from ever found out about it. My parents, grandparents, family, etc...none of them ever knew about my septum piercing. I'd wear it so it was visible when I was in certain places where I was sure to never get caught (out of town, etc) but otherwise, my septum piercing was my secret. I did it for me and I was the only one who knew it was there.

However, one day at work (which bans all piercings on male employees), my retainer flipped down on me. By some incredible luck, it happened at the best possible time. We don't get many pierced customers at my work, but it just so happened that I lucked out and had my septum retainer flip down in front of: a guy with paired lip rings and a girl with pink hair. Anyone else and I likely would have lost my job. Realizing this and overreacting, as well as for other reasons that I'm still not entirely sure of, I removed my piercing shortly afterward, in March 2002. I'd only had it for about six months (in which time I had stretched up from the original 12 gauge hole to a 10 gauge), and at the time I had apparently decided that I'd had enough.

Over the next two years, from time to time I realized that I missed having that piece of metal jabbed through my nose. It seemed like every time I saw someone with a septum piercing I would think "that used to be me" and wish I still had mine. For the longest time, and for multiple reasons, however, I put it off.

Then, two days ago, I'm not quite sure what brought it on but I suddenly decided I should get my septum re-pierced. I hadn't even been thinking about it. It just seemed like, out of the blue, I had made up my mind to do it again, without even having considered it. So, happy with the work I'd gotten from Skot at Captive Elements the first time around, I drove to Blaine to do it again.

You know it's been a long time since you've been pierced when you go to the same piercing shop and not hardly recognize the place. They'd knocked out a wall and had expanded into the space next to their original store, and moved their piercing area to a room in the back. I checked in with a cute girl at the desk and mentioned that I'd had my septum pierced at this shop before. She had me fill out the paperwork and informed me that Elby would be out shortly. I was a bit disappointed that Skot wasn't there, since he had done such a good job the first time, but Elby turned out to be excellent as well.

Finally, it was my turn, so I followed Elby to the new piercing room in the back. We got talking about what I was looking for, and I just happened to mention that I had had my septum pierced before. I didn't realize it would make such a difference. Immediately, Elby switched gears from preparing to pierce me to suggesting we attempt to re-open the old hole. I assumed that after two years without jewelry, this would be impossible. Elby informed me that septums were notorious for staying open for long periods of time, and thought that it would at least be worth a shot, rather than try to go through and heal another new piercing. I went with his judgement, and he began by attempting to insert an 18 gauge taper into the hole. After searching for a few seconds, in which I assumed that I was right and the hole had closed up, he suddenly was able to slip the taper right through. Amazingly, it didn't even feel like there had been any resistance... as if the remaining hole was 18 gauge or larger to begin with. To achieve the original plan of being pierced at 12 gauge, as I had been the first time, he then inserted 14 and 12 gauge tapers. The 14 felt a bit tighter, but still relatively little resistance going through. Finally, the 12 felt a bit more like what I remembered a stretch to feel like. He inserted a 12 gauge retainer and we were done. I was amazed by how easy it had been to re-open a hole that I had assumed was lost nearly two years ago. I don't intend to try to take the jewelry out for extended periods of time, but it gives me a bit of security to know that if I run into the same situation again where I need to make sure the retainer doesn't flip down in front of certain people, that I can take it out completely for a short period of time and still have the hole there when it is "safe" to put the jewelry back in.

So far, it's just as good as I remembered it. I plan to stretch it back up to a 10 gauge sometime in the near future (I even still have my old retainer and jewelry), and possibly as high as 8 gauge. I don't foresee myself ever going larger than that. I'd love to go larger than that with my earlobes, but not with my septum. Speaking of earlobes, I'm still stuck in that same job that doesn't allow any piercings on male employees, so my wishes for stretched lobes and a labret remain on hold.

Finally, once again, Captive Elements gets an A+. Elby could have very easily just gone ahead and re-pierced me, charged me the $45 and made some money. Instead, he saved me a lot of difficulty healing a piercing on top of quite a bit of money. I believe the jewelry cost $6, and the stretching was free. I ended up tipping him more than I paid for the actual work. I would not hesitate to recommend the piercer and shop to anyone looking to get work done in the Twin Cities area.