First of all I just want to say some things about self piercing. I really don't recommend anyone to pierce themselves without the right knowledge and equipment. Doing this can be a risk for your health and sometimes be life threatening if done wrong.
At A Glance Author blackline Contact blackline@bodymodification.se IAM blackline When It just happened Artist blackline Location Sweden
If you still chose to pierce yourself then at least use autoclave sterile equipment and study a lot before. It's your body, take care of it.
Once again I determined that it was time for a new piercing. The question was what I should pierce this time because I wanted something that both should be nice to stretch while not screaming for attention, something discreet. Perhaps a septum piercing?
If someone by any reason doesn't know what a septum piercing is, it is a piercing that passes through the nasal septum. Also known as a "bull-ring" piercing.
And a septum it should be
I decided to go for a septum so I ordered septum clamps and a piece of jewellery suitable for the piercing. As said, I wanted a discreet piercing so I choose a straight septum retainer (a.k.a. septum keeper). The gauge I ordered was 12ga.
As always nowadays, I plan my modifications well before doing them. My wish is to only have large gauge piercing because I think they look a lot better, and this includes the septum piercing. I wish to reach at least 6ga, even more if possible.
The main plan was to start of with 12ga to get a lead in compared to starting of at 14ga.
Jewellery arrival
After waiting a short while I finally got my septum retainer by mail so now I just had to wait for the right opportunity to get pierced. I had already got the clamps about a week before so everything was ready.
My thought was to wait until the right day when I knew I had time to heal the piercing. I had a birthday coming up and also the school recess coming up so some partying might be coming up.
Of course, I and my restless soul could not wait until school was of for summer so I decided to give it a try a day after school.
First try
There I was in my caravan with a friend named Jonas who was there to mentally support me. I set all my equipment ready for use. Everything was in place and I started out with disinfecting the septum.
After cleaning up I took the sterile piercing needle and broke the package. I took the clamps to hold the tissue steady and then got ready to pierce.
Now I sat there with my nose stuck in the clamps and with the 12ga needle ready to go. I just poke carefully with the needle and that was not a good thing to do because after that I chickened out.
I came to the conclusion that piercing my septum with a 12ga needle was not a good idea and that it should be a lot easier if I settled for starting of with 14ga instead. Perhaps I could have managed to get it done at 12ga if I really tried hard but it's hard enough to pierce my septum by myself so I waited.
Getting new jewellery
I still was sure that I wanted a septum piercing and I still wanted to do it by myself so now I had to get thinner jewellery.
One day when I was with my girlfriend at her school in Gothenburg we went to a well-known studio there called Tribe. I got my new thinner septum retainer, this time at 14ga. After that I went home.
Second try
After getting my new septum retainer I went home ready to finally get the piercing done. I first of all ate a big supper so that I would be physically ready to get pierced.
After eating I went down to my caravan and once again got everything ready to get pierced. The equipment I used was:
Septum clamps (Picture)
14ga piercing needle
14ga straight septum retainer (Picture)
Single use latex gloves
Disinfection alcohol
Sterile wipes
When I had everything ready for use I once again started out with cleaning out the septum with sterile wipes and disinfection alcohol.
After cleaning up it was time to use the clamps. This time I was sure that I actually was going to manage this, so I took the 14ga needle and put it in place. When I knew exactly where to place the needle I got my act together.
The piercing moment
Slowly, step by step, I got the needle through. In my opinion it's better if I do it slow and get it well done than if I try to do it fast and it ends up all crooked or something.
Finally the needle was through and then I was surprised that it did not hurt more. It was mostly mentally hard, but of course, it hurts a lot to put a needle through the septum, or at least I think so.
As usual, I have to meet some kind of problem. And this time it was the power in my caravan that went off, so now I was sitting there in the dark with a needle going through my septum. I had to get in the house to get the septum retainer in place and this without touching any handles and soil my gloves. Anyway, I got in the house and got the jewellery in place without any problems at all.
Finally
Now I had my septum piercing in place, after all. It looked just terrific and perfectly straight.
It was a different feeling than most other piercing I have got before because it was a more burning sensation.
Aftermath
When I'm writing this, I have had the piercing for about 24h but it already feels much better. It feels kind of awkward to have something in the nose but of course I'll get used to it.
I'll wash it twice a day with "Antiseptic Aftercare Solution" until it's fully healed. When it's fully healed I'll stretch it. We'll see how all that goes, I'll be back with a report.
The whole idea with this piercing was that it shouldn't be visible in first sight and that is how it turned out so I'm really happy with it.