This tale mainly began a few weeks back, when I became determined to get a piercing on my 18th birthday, which was 2 days ago. I originally had been contemplating getting a vertical labret done, because those had appealed to me ever since I discovered BME. Knowing how my school is (conservative and strict), I determined that I would just wait and do that for a graduation present. I soon came to the conclusion that I would get my septum pierced as my present to me.
At A Glance Author danny Contact danny.frost@airhop.com When It just happened Artist Chad Studio Tommy's, formerly Sacred Ink Location Avon, Indiana Once the big day came, I was more determined than ever to get my septum done. I talked to my girlfriend and explained that we would be going to Tommy's in Avon, after a debate about whether to go to Brazil or Avon was settled (we decided on Avon because we wanted to get White Castle afterwards, and Avon is extremely close to Plainfield). I called at about 2 pm that day, ensuring that Chad was going to be in at the time I planned on arriving, and that they had the jewelry I desired on hand. Unfortunately, he had no 10g circular barbells, so I had to settle for a 12g, which wasn't a huge problem, because I could always just stretch it up to a 10g in the future if I still felt that I wanted that size.
At about 5, I arrived at the shop, ecstatic that it was finally my birthday, and that I could officially get piercings / tattoos if I wanted them. At this point, I wasn't the least bit nervous, as there were two other people in line before me, both of which were women in their 30's or so getting their navels pierced. I was asked to wait by Chad, because he decided he'd do the navels first. About 15 minutes later, once the women were both finished, Chad told me it was my turn, and that he'd be upstairs in a couple of moments, as he had to go talk to one of the tattoo artists. This was of course when my legs started shaking a little bit as I anticipated a lot of pain. Around this time, my girlfriend decided that she didn't want to go up with me to watch, as she knew that my eyes would water a lot, and she didn't want to see me wince or anything.
He joined me in the upstairs piercing room, and began explaining the process to me as he opened the autoclave bags that contained the clamps, the needle, and the jewelry. Soon after, he was marking my septum with some gentian violent, and informing me that my nose, as many others, was not completely straight, and therefore it COULD end up slightly crooked, but it wasn't likely. My septum was marked up, and he slowly put the clamps up onto my septum. This, as I'd read in many experiences, tends to be one of the most painful parts..for me, however, that was completely incorrect. While they were a bit uncomfortable, it wasn't all that unbearable, and I got over it pretty soon.
He instructed me to breathe deeply now, as he placed the needle up against my septum, informing me that he would be piercing it on the count of three. Once two arrived, the needle was on its way through, and tears instantly filled my eyes. He told me the ride was halfway through, and the next part would probably be the most uncomfortable of the entire procedure. At this point, the needle was halfway through, and tears were running down my cheeks. He pushed the needle the rest of the way through, and told me it was through, and the jewelry was the only thing that remained. He removed the balls from the CBB (thankfully, it was internally threaded, or I would've been moreso uncomfortable than I already was), and slid it through, followed closely by him screwing the ball back on. I got up and looked at the mirror, and I instantly loved it. He opened the CBB a little bit with some ring openers so that I could flip it up into my nose if I had to hide it at any time. I paid him his fee, plus a $10 tip, coming to a total of $50, which was easily worth it. I went downstairs and showed off the new decoration for my face to my girlfriend, and she proclaimed how odd I looked with the piece of metal through my nose. By this time, my nose had bled slightly, so I made my way back out to my car, and wiped the tiny amount off with the q-tips Chad gave me. I began making my way to White Castle, and my night had been awesome.
The aftercare has been pretty routine so far, salt soaks and warm water soaks occasionally, and wiping off crusties with a warm water-dipped q-tip. My only fear about this piercing is my mom discovering it, hence why I always flip it up while I'm at home. This is my birthday present, and she's not making me take it out if I can help it. This will hopefully be a piercing I keep forever, because it is a special piercing to me, it is my first official mod.
This should be the point of this experience where I tell you to get the damn piercing if you want it. I'm not doing that, because I don't want to tell anyone they should do something. It's a fun piercing, and the pain wears off soon, but the healing so far has sucked since the CBB moves around a lot. I'm just waiting for the wonderful "septum stench" I've heard about from people, because that oughta be lots of fun.
As an interesting and humorous note, I was in Wendy's earlier this evening (a couple days after I got it done) and due mainly to the fact that my small town is conservative as hell, one guy walked by me and exclaimed "WHAT THE FUCK?" as he was about to leave the building. Hehe, I love people and their stupidity.