After getting my labret pierced for my sixteenth birthday I was starting to crave more piercings. My nose, my tongue and my ears seemed like obvious choices to me because I think they are the most suited piercings to girls. I finally decided on getting my nose pierced. My mum was fine with the idea because she knew that I would go to Metal Guru – an extremely clean and professional studio not far from my house! She also made me promise that this would be my last facial piercing!
At A Glance Author Jilly Bean Contact vampyre_peaches@hotmail.com When Six months ago Artist Mrs. Metal Guru Studio Metal Guru Location Margate, Kent, UK So, I made an appointment to get pierced again. Mrs. Metal Guru was really cool about it, asking me if I understood all the aftercare, which I thought was strange because I was getting pierced for 3 weeks! But, she explained that a nose piercing isn't worth the possible risks if you are not prepared to clean it regularly etc. I said yes, and arranged a time.
So three weeks later I walk into Metal Guru and wait around for Mrs. Metal Guru to set up her back room. I bought some new jewellery for my labret, and two nose studs for when I could change the jewellery. I signed the relevant forms, showed my I.D and then chose my jewellery. I chose a cute little nose screw with a blue gem, because blue was my favourite colour at the time. I was led back to the piercing room and was told to sit back and relax.
Mrs. Metal Guru gets quite annoyed with me when I go in there to get pierced because I always cross my legs and sit forward, she has to yell me for a bit to get me to sit back and relax! She talked me though the aftercare twice, and then she started telling me about the procedure. She told me that she would need to put a plastic tube inside my nostril so that I didn't get any extra, unwanted piercings. This made me laugh, the thought of walking out of Metal Guru with a new nostril piercing and a septum piercing all in one session!
At this point she started talking to me about the risks involved with a nose piercing, and how people very often fall asleep with their nose studs falling out. I didn't want my hole to close up overnight! She recommended that I get my nose pierced with a larger gauge piece of jewellery, which she knew I could take! So I agreed, and my jewellery was probably about 2mm thick – OUCH!
With a new piece of jewellery (still with a blue gem) and a new needle, I sat back in the chair and waited for her to start talking to me about my breathing. "Okay honey, start taking deep breaths and then take one HUGE breath! On your exhale I will pierce you." I was really nervous, because I knew that ordinarily nose piercings hurt, so what about having a larger gauge needle? I was almost ready to say "No thanks." And I was thinking all of this as I was exhaling, and she was piercing me!
"Was that it?" I was shocked at the lack of eye-watering pain. "Yup, that's it!" How could I be such a hard-ass? I didn't understand why it didn't hurt, then she explained that I was concentrating too much on something else - a technique she uses on all large gauge piercings is to try and distract the customer with questions and music. That's when I realised that Radio head was playing in the background! Ha ha.
I walked home, after yet another walk through of the aftercare, and kept looking at my nose in shop windows. I wanted everyone to think it was cool and pretty, but I also wanted to show myself that I did it! My nose was bleeding more than I remember my friend's nose bleeding when she had hers pierced, probably because mine was a larger hole. I couldn't wait to show my boyfriend and my mum, they thought I was crazy to have it done, but I knew that they would like it!
People at college were really surprised that I had my nose pierced; in fact they had very mixed reactions. Some people were saying, "That's such a poser thing to do!" but others were saying "How bohemian! Cool dude!" I didn't expect anyone to like it, because only 2 people at college have mods. So I guess I just did it for myself in the end.
6 months on, my nose was infected twice, and I now have a perfectly healed piercing that looks and feels great. I definitely recommend this piercing to anyone who wants it, or those who don't know what to get and want an easy to care for, fun piercing. I think it was less painful than my labret – but then I didn't actually feel anything so that might be why! Any questions you have will be answered with complete honesty through my hotmail address above.