For the longest time I never wanted facial piercings. I didn't want to have something go wrong and end up with a bad scar, and I especially didn't want to deal with the bitchy-ness of my parents or grandparents about the whole thing. I told that to a friend of mine, and she looked at me and said "But I think you'd look really good with a septum ring." I thought about it and eventually agreed with her. I like my nose, and I could hide the piercing with a retainer if I wanted to.
At A Glance Author Victoria Contact Victoria@bme.anon IAM .vicious. When Six months ago Artist Jeff Studio Strange City Location Edmonton, AB
My general rule is that I wait a year before I get something done to make sure I really want it (and because I'm usually broke and need to save money for these sorts of thing), but I think I waited only 8 months for this one. ONWARD WITH THE STORY!In early September when I got back to Edmonton for the school year, I was walking down whyte ave and noticed a piercing place I hadn't seen before. I thought I'd check out the prices for septums just for fun. The place looked great. It looked clean and open, and with really friendly and helpful staff. I talked to the guys there about different kinds of jewelry and their prices (because the piercing is a set price, but prices in different rings vary). I decided on just a 14 ga surgical steel retainer (looks a little like a staple) because a) it was cheapest and b) I wanted one anyways just in case. They had none in stock, so I had to pay half of the jewelry price up front and wait a while for it to come in.
A few weeks past and I started to get antsy. I called the store a few times and the jewelry still wasn't in. About a month went by and FINALLY I got the call that it came in. I made an appointment for that Thursday.
On the day of the piercing, I convinced my friend Jess to come down with me. We entered the shop and chatted for a bit while I filled out the form and the piercer (Jeff) set up the room. When he was ready he came to get me, and Jess decided that she'd rather talk to the tattoo artist about getting her tattoo touched up than watch, so I went back all alone.
I was pretty nervous. More nervous than I've been for most piercings. I heard so many horror stories about how this is a crazy painful piercing and blah blah blah. I had no idea what to expect.So in the piercing room, everything was clean and ready and Jeff had some relaxing classical music playing. He explained the procedure to me and marked out a line on the front my nose. I laid down on the table and he began to clean my nose. The cleaning was strange. They stick q-tips up your nose with iodine on them, and swish around. So all you can smell is iodine. Then he made some marks on the inside. I must say, that this was the most painful part. He used a marker and a toothpick (so he could line up both sides by pushing the point on one side), and all the poking around with a toothpick made me wince. I thought, "If just marking it hurts this much, what will the needle feel like!"
So my palms were good and sweaty by the time he pulled the needle out. He used the toothpick again to line up the needle and I cracked my knuckles and squeezed my eyes shut. He got me to take a few deep breaths, and then with fair warning, he pushed the needle through. I was stunned. My eyes watered a little, but it didn't hurt at all. Just a little pop. The retainer hurt a little to get in because it had right angles, but other than that, it was relatively painless.
Jeff cleaned the line off my nose and I couldn't wait to take a look. It looked a little crooked at first, but then Jeff moved the retainer around a bit and it was better. I loved it. He gave cleaning instructions (saltwater and q-tips) and sent me on my way. I practically skipped down the hall.
For the next week or so, it was EXTREMELY tender. I could barely touch the front of my nose (which was no good since I went to a Ministry concert the next day), and you have to be really careful with kissing people, because it gets bumped real easy. You'd be surprise how often you instinctively brush your hand across your nose in a day (and it kills!). And having a cold with a fresh septum is no good either. But other than that, It healed really well and really fast. I now have a small CBR taken from my retired inverse navel and its pretty sensitive because there's a nerve that goes right along there. But I rarely bump it hard enough for it to hurt.
It was an all-round good experience! Awesome shop, awesome piercer, plus now I have a super cute septum that I can hide if I want to. My word of advice: it's not as bad as you think it'll be.