I had my septum pierced at a 1.6mm about seven months ago (as a birthday present from my brother) with the intention to stretch it up to an 8gauge.
At A Glance Author wizard_of_Oz Contact wizard_of_Oz@bme.anon When A week ago Artist piercing=Louise, stretching=myself Studio Tattoo Crazy Location Cambridge The actual piercing itself was nowhere near as painful or time consuming as I had first thought it would be. I had been told and shown a video of a giant biker guy having his done and then crying from the pain, which as you can imagine made me a little apprehensive about the whole idea. However, I didn't let this feeling get the better of me and had it done.
I waited for about 4 or 5 months before stretching it up to a 2mm/ 12gauge. The black CBR went straight in without a taper or any lubricant. I was seriously surprised at this and so the following day I decided to try to jump up to the 2.4mm/ 10gauge. Bad idea! Although I used lubricant (still no taper) I found it extremely difficult to put in and the pain was virtually unbearable. However, after about 10minutes of forcing it, it finally went in and I was sporting my new Blackline 10 gauge CBR. As I have my medusa pierced I don't wear the ball in the ring and so when I walked/ cycled and slept it would nearly fall out and on occasions it did.
I then waited for about 3weeks for the next stretch as it was really painful for the first two and I spent the third gently pulling on it so that it was used to being stretched in preparation for the procedure. Finally I felt that it was ready for the new 3.2mm/ 8gauge acrylic claw I had bought along with a curved taper and a tube of KY jelly.
I ran a very hot bath and placed a flannel with hot water (as hot as I could take) on my nose to loosen my septum up as much as possible. This was the most painful stretch that I've done so far. My eyes were gushing like a waterfall and my nose ran like a mad man on speed. After about 30minutes I had put the taper the whole way through, but then I couldn't feed the claw into the whole, and so I slept with the taper in my nose. The morning finally came and my septum had loosened up enough to put the claw in with little discomfort.
I was ecstatic with the 8gauge claw, and showed it off to all my friends. I cleaned it with salt water soaks for 3 weeks, which helped the healing and eased the pain. About 1 month later I looked in the mirror and realised that it wasn't big enough for my liking and I had the stretching urge once again. So the following day I went to the local piercing stand in the market and bought a 4mm/ 6gauge CBR and another curved taper.
That night I went into my bathroom and sterilised the taper and CBR before starting to stretch. The KY came out once again and I lubed up the taper and put a little on my septum so that it wasn't too dry. This time the taper went through pretty easily and although painful it only took about 5 minutes. As with the previous stretch I left the taper in whilst I slept and then replaced it with the jewellery in the morning before I went off to college. I was so surprised when in the morning I was no longer in any pain or discomfort. I think it had something to do with me using an acrylic CBR opposed to a titanium one.
I took pleasure in watching people clutching their noses at college when they saw the 6 gauge ring. Some people even said how they couldn't look at me without wanting to be sick. How I laughed, hehe.
Well Christmas was fast approaching by this time and my brother kept asking me want I would like as a present. We have this tradition to get new jewellery or a piercing for each others birthdays and Christmas, so I suggested a 5mm/ 4gauge taper and pincher. So Christmas morning came and there beneath the tree was a little package with my name on it. I opened it and there they were in all their glory. Just staring at me and begging to be put in.
I resisted the temptation for two more days, but I couldn't hold out any longer and they had to be put it. This was by far the easiest stretch to date. I didn't have to sleep with the taper in this time as the pincher is tapered. So I just left the taper in for 30minutes or so to allow my septum to adjust to the size and then slid the pincher in without any problems.
I've been cleaning the piercing for a couple weeks now and it's feeling great. There have been a couple of problems with it, such as bruising. This is due to me hitting myself in the face at night when I'm sleeping. Other than that it's been fine.
I'm now waiting for the right time to go up to the 6mm/ 2gauge as I've seen some beautiful pinchers that'll look amazing.
I'm not sure where I'm going to stop. I doubt if I'll go past a 00gauge. But that's going to be a long way away from now, so I'll come to that decision when the time arises. For now I'm happy with how the whole process has gone and how it's looking and feeling.
I think I'll concentrate on my lobe and medusa stretching for the time being.