Back in December of 2003 I had my septum pierced at a 6 gauge using a needle. This was back home in Denver. I wrote an experience about it, and I'm sure you could find it if you really wanted to. However, what I'm writing about now is my stretching process; from 6 to 0.
At A Glance Author Jhonn Contact Jhonn@bme.anon When It just happened Artist Myself Studio In my bathroom Location Waltham, MA And how much it hurt.
Going from the 6 gauge to a 4 I used a small, black, acrylic septum claw I purchased online. It was cheap, and since I knew I'd be changing it to a 2 soon enough, I figured the acrylic couldn't hurt. The piercing itself had been healed for about a month or so when I stretched it. I did it in the bathroom, washed my hands and everything else, etc. I lubed the claw with calendula homeopathic medicine (it's for cuts, bruises, and other such things, and is all natural). It slid it no problem, and after about five minutes, I could take it in and out easily.
Needless to say, I got pretty bored with the 4 gauge claw. I could hide it easily, but it still didn't look that big. Plus, it was pretty smelly, and I had to clean it a lot. So I ordered the same claw in a size 2 gauge. It came really quickly, but I let it sit in my bathroom cabinet for a few more weeks while I let my septum rest. Originally, I was going to wait until after my wife and I had gone to Miami for a week to stretch (since we'd be swimming). However, the urge to stretch came again, and as I was playing around with the 2 gauge claw in my 4 gauge hole (just to see how far it would go), it popped right in. No lube, no nothing. It did fine in Miami since I cleaned it every day and didn't submerge my head underwater.
After returning from Miami, I began to notice that the claw was kind of annoying. My wife would always bump it when we were kissing, which really hurt, and it was really big and really black, so it drew attention away from my other lovely features (that means my face). Not only that, but the gap between the ends of the claw was pretty small, so I couldn't flip it up easily, and when I did, it hurt to smile or laugh or be human. So I ordered a 0 gauge acrylic taper.
The taper came within a week, and the day it came, I was ready to stretch. My piercing wasn't, but I sure was. Who cares what your piercing wants anyway, right? For jewelry, I was going to use a (rather short) clear pyrex plug that is no longer of use in my 7/8 inch lobes. I cleaned everything, lubed up the taper, and set about to working it in. It got about halfway before it started to hurt.
Not good.
I sat there pushing it in for about five or ten minutes, bit my bit. By the time I had gotten to the level 0 part, I was in tears. I tried to follow through with the jewelry, but I messed up. I took the taper and tried again since I already had the adrenaline going. After I got the taper in to the end, I sat down on the toilet. I was really dizzy and I couldn't keep my eyes open from the tears. My nose was in agony. After another few minutes of me wallowing in pain, I followed the plug through. The o-rings were a pain in the ass to get on, mostly because the plug was even shorter now that my septum was all swollen.
It was 3 p.m. when I was done, and for the rest of the day, my septum was throbbing with pain. It felt like someone whapped me in the nose, and clear snot was running out until the wee hours of the night. I had to blow my nose every five minutes, it seemed.
Anyway, the moral of the story is that it was a killer stretch, especially since I stretched pretty quickly (from a 6 to a 0 in five months), but my septum is one tough cookie. As I'm writing this, it's been more than 24 hours and two salt soaks since the stretch. It doesn't throb, and there was only a tiny bit of dried, crust-blood the morning after. It's sore to the touch, but that's it. Best of all, there's no more huge claw in my nose. Hopefully it will heal soon so I can take it out to put Vit. E oil and some other natural, nice-smelling oils on it to keep it from being so stinky. It's too bad stretched septums have that problem, too.
Also, I would've used electrical tape to stretch, but with a claw for jewelry, it was next to impossible. At least I didn't skip sizes, for those who like to err solely on the side of safety!