I have earlier vowed that I would never get any work done by anyone but John of Scarab Body Arts but I swear he made me!
At A Glance Author elibzab Contact elibzab@bme.anon IAM elibzab When A week ago Artist Brian Studio Sacred Location Manhatten, NY
We had been discussing the hierarchy of the piercings I wanted. We had both talked about getting our nostrils dermal punched, but I wanted to wait until late December or January. I would be visiting my parents who are living abroad for Christmas and I knew they would not react well to big chunks of metal in my nostrils.We had arranged a Labor Day weekend in New York City so that he could get his nostrils done by Brian at Sacred and poke around some other shops. As the date approached he kept encouraging me to push my nostrils up on the list and get them done as soon as possible. The original plan was for him to do them, but he suggested I get them done with him in New York. Eventually I gave in. For about three or four days before we left for New York I was really excited about my nostrils. I looked around BME more and psyched myself up. I was going to look awesome! It was totally not going to hurt.
The plan was to do mine at 4 gauge, and John at 2. We took the jewelry out and looked at it and well, we decided to do 6 and 4 respectively. But I'm going to have to tell you even 6 looked pretty big the night before.
We took a bus down and got to the hotel at 11am. We checked in and immediately napped for about 5 hours. We then went out to try some of the great Vegetarian restaurants that we just don't have up in Syracuse. Around 6 Brian called us and asked us if we wanted to come in that night to do them, instead of Sunday like we had planned. John told him we would, as we were planning on coming in to see him and the shop after we ate anyway. Over dinner, we both realized exactly how nervous we were. We had been anticipating the extra day to come to terms with the procedure, and we were now emotionally very unbalanced about it. After we ate we called him warily to check and see if he still wanted us to come in. He told us to just come at our appointed time on Sunday. Normally he doesn't work Sundays, but he had an appointment before us so would be there anyway.
Sunday, we ate a slow lunch and walked all the way to Canal street to work out some of the anxiety. I was really really nervous and the street was very crowded, which made it worse. I was a mess by the time we got upstairs to the much calmer studio.
We had to wait while he finished the appointment before us, but he came out to see us a few times and he seemed very nice. I was really nervous about just jumping in to this new artist/client relationship so quickly, as I am the kind of person who likes to know the situation very thoroughly before I just throw my thoughts or body into the mix. However, Brian was really great and fun, and he and John knew each other already, so it wasn't bad at all.
I decided that I wanted to go first, so I wouldn't know if it was going to be really bad or not by watching John (good thing, too).
Brian started by putting lots of marks allll over my face. It was great and totally unnecessary, but a very humbling experience. It made me comfortable that even though it was his day off and that he had just gone through an arduous process before our appointment he was still going to be very very careful.
He had me sit up, which I normally don't like to do, as I am very physically accommodating and will allow myself to be sort of "pushed" by someone else's presence. This was pretty evident when he was clamping my nostrils, but fortunately I have a knack for holding very still when it matters. Such as when there is a dermal punch hovering over my skin.
He had teased me earlier, asking if he should open the second punch or if I was going to chicken out after the first, but I was determined. I wasn't nervous at all anymore, as once I am settled into the marking and prep mode I'm pretty much good to go until the healing starts.
As he adjusted the angle of the punch, I could feel a slight pinching and I had the fleeting thought, "Hm, maybe I should be more scared."
After one deep breath, he pushed the punch through. For a split second, the stage where it's broken the first layer and working its way through, the feeling was shocking. There was so much pressure! Then I was hit with such an amazing sense of deja vu. Either I had EXACTLY imagined what it was going to feel like, or I had lived someone else's nostril dermal punch. Something. The taper was not so pleasant either, but at that point I don't think my mind was working. I was pretty overwhelmed. I must've had a very sad face on, but I wasn't sad at all. Jewelry insertion was not bad, I don't even remember it. I do remember thinking that putting the o-rings on would suck, but it didn't. I don't know how much time passed between the two punches. I just remember sitting up pretty quickly, worrying about fainting but not being dizzy at all. I started to get really giddy, which is what always happens after the more intense procedures I've done. I think it really stems from the feeling that I took it like a champ, combined with endorphins. I couldn't sit still. I told him the feeling was coming and that he had a window to work in before I started running around the studio like a maniac.
That was true, but I also didn't want my mind to get around exactly what that first punch had felt like and that I was going to have to do it again. For the second punch, we had more clamping issues. For some reason my body was really resisting the clamps. I was positive I was going to sneeze and I couldn't sit still. I think Brian could sense this and the second punch was a much faster process. It hurt more, but mostly because I knew it was going to hurt in the first place. I was a little less controlled in my emotions but there was no crying or anything. Neither nostril bled very much, but I don't think the second one bled at all. Brian commented that he had seen more blood from an eyebrow piercing.
Overall, the experience was positive. It was great to have someone like Brian work on me for the first time, and I'm so glad to have had the opportunity to meet and spend time with him. I would definitely not hesitate to go back to him for more work, and I'm sure we'll be heading down there again soon. I'm so grateful that he came in on his day off too!