I guess that I had always known that sooner or later I would get my septum done; not because I liked the look of it, but because I was absolutely petrified of having it done. I'm sure that I'm not the only one who, during particularly boring moments, does a mental inventory of everything I've had pierced, everything I would pierce, everything I might pierce and everything I could never pierce. Well, my septum was firmly in the last category.
At A Glance Author John Contact John@bme.anon When A month ago Artist Dan Studio White Flame Location Bournemouth It's just one of those things, you know how some people can't stand to have anything drawn across their wrists or their neck? Well for me the thought of anything actually going through that part of my nose was like the mental equivalent of nails screeching down a blackboard....all in all, just not a pleasant thought.
But when I realised just how afraid of it I was I started to become fascinated with it. I would spend a long time just looking at all the pictures on this site, staring deep into the septums of some of my friends who had it done, and I still found it....well...ugly. All of my other piercing decisions have been made on the spur of the moment, but this one was different.
Every time I went into a piercing place I would think to myself about my septum, wondering whether or not I was ready for it yet, but it took a while and so I kept getting other things pierced as an excuse to keep my mind off that. 12 piercings later I decided that this was getting a bit silly and if I was going to get anything done, it was going to be my septum.
I would love to say that I had a great moment of spiritual euphoria and suddenly I knew that it was the right time...that I was meditating and God came down and pierced my septum for me....but it didn't really happen like that. Although the piercing itself now means a lot to me, I figured there was never really a "right time" for me to put another hole in myself and there would never be a time that I was truly ready to have it done, I just decided one day to get it done and...well..I did.
I decided that Dan would be the one to do it because his "bedside manner", as it were, is excellent, he is very professional while he is piercing, always manages to make you calm before he pierces you and for some reason the piercings that I've had by him tend to have hurt less than I expected and healed quickly.
First of all Dan cleaned my nose for me and generally felt around in there, then I guess he found whatever he was looking for and told me to lie down on the piercing table/bed thingy (to use the scientific term...). I did so with no small amount of anxiety and waited as Dan opened various packets of needles and jewellery. And then it was time.
By this point I was feeling pretty sick in my stomach and I could feel my heart racing but by that point I had passed the point of no return; I knew that I would be getting my septum pierced in a matter of seconds and there was no way I was backing out now (for one thing I wasn't sure how many more "instead of my septum" piercings I could afford...) Anyhow Dan started telling me to take deep breaths "In...and out...and in....and its going to happen.....now" And, in the biggest anti-climax of my life to this point, it happened. My septum was pierced. It didn't hurt, my eyes didn't water (they had gushed rivers both times I had my nostril pierced) the feeling of the jewellery going in wasn't particularly uncomfortable and then it was over.
I stood up and looked in the mirror and...yes, it was as ugly as I had always found it to be. But it was a special kind of ugly, the kind of ugly that says "Yes! I finally did it!". A girl who was watching said "wow, your eyes didn't water at all", but I don't think she was half as surprised as I was...
However if I didn't feel any pain during the event, what I felt the first time I accidentally knocked it more than made up for that..it hurt. A lot. But I didn't care, my septum was pierced, and it healed in about 3 weeks, which was a record even for me.
Almost everyone I showed it to hated it, but as time went on I loved it more and more, and now its one of those piercings that I can't imagine (or would prefer not to imagine) my face without.