No Bliss in Ignorance
At A Glance Author tribalartgirl Contact tribalartgirl@bme.anon When Ten years ago or more Artist Myself Studio Home Location Bradenton, FL Years ago, before I learned the safe and proper way of obtaining a body piercing, I had decided to have my nose pierced. Instead of going to a reputable piercer, I made the mistake of doing it myself. Big mistake!!! In preparation, I went to a beauty supply store and bought a cheap little plastic piercing gun, and some piercing studs. I figured, "How difficult could this possibly be?". I had my ears pierced in that manner, as a child, so why not do my nose the same way. Besides, I had no needles to work with, and no access to any, at that time. With my piercing gun in tow, I was ready for my new nose piercing.
After opening the package of piercing guns, I should have realized that the plastic that they were made of was definitely not sturdy enough to go through the tissue involved in a nose piercing, but I thought that I had nothing to lose, so I kept on going. I cleaned the area with rubbing alcohol, and proceeded to load the piercing gun with the new studs that I had purchased. Once loaded, I took a minute to prepare myself, for I had no idea what kind of pain to expect, and positioned the gun where I wanted the piercing to be. Clue two, that this was bogus, was the fact that the piercing gun was not even wide enough for the nose. It was a very tight fit, just to get the stud lined up. Next, I just went for it, and pressed the trigger on the gun. I got half way through and it got stuck. Stuck! Oh, no! What could I do? I had already gotten myself half of the way there, so I could not just chicken out now. I pressed and pressed on the gun and still it would not go through, so I had to pry the gun off of the stud, and continue to push the rest of the stud through manually. During this time, my nose was burning so much, that I actually had tears rolling down my face, but with some persistence, I finally reached my goal, and got the stud completely through. I was glad that I had not chickened out, but my poor nose hurt like hell, and the stud looked ridiculous. Since it was so new, I decided to wait a bit, before changing to another kind of jewelry.
Mistake number two: I became rather impatient, with this ridiculous looking piece of jewelry in my nose, so I decided to change it the very same day. When I took the piercing stud out, my nose gushed forth enough blood that I thought I must have really done some damage. In all reality, it did not bleed that much, but it seemed like a lot at the time. When I went to put the new jewelry in, it once again got stuck half way, and I was once again forced to push it through, despite the pain and bleeding. I finally prevailed, but it was a mess! Unhappy with my very, very sore nose, but happy with my new, better looking jewelry, I went on my merry way through the rest of the day.
When I woke the next day, my sore nose was visibly swollen, and no matter what I did, it would not go down. At the time, I had no inkling of using sea salt, or antibacterial soap, and my ignorance was, at that point, certainly not bliss. Instead of going to a piercer for advice, I decided to ride it out on my own. For nearly a month, my nose stayed swollen and sore. Once again, I did something even more stupid, and decided that antibiotic ointment was my best way of healing my nose. Every day, I cleaned my nose, as best as I could, and slathered on the antibiotic ointment. Over time, the ointment began to make it worse, because all that it did was trap more dirt and bacteria into my piercing. I did not realize that, at the time, but common sense eventually won over, and I stopped using the ointment. Next, I tried cleaning it with alcohol, which burned my poor, sore nose to death, so I switched to iodine. The iodine worked great, but it stained my nose yellow, along with my nose ring, so I eventually gave up on that as well. While using all of these products, time went by in months, until I finally got a grip, and quit using them, and left my sore little nose to heal on it's own. It took quite a long time, but it finally did heal. In all, it took nearly a year for it to heal, which would have been far less time, had I gone and had it done by a professional.
The moral of my story is: do your research!!! Do not do what I did, and try to pierce yourself, when you have absolutely no clue what you are doing. For me, that was a long time ago, and I do not regret having my nose pierced, but I very much regret not having it done by a professional, who knew what they were doing. I certainly paid the price for my ignorance, and hope that my story will help others, who are considering going down the same road. Please, leave the piercing to those who know what they are doing, and always follow their instructions on aftercare. Do not make my mistake.