At A Glance
Author	kyo
Contact	kyo@bme.anon
IAM	kyo
When	A month ago
Artist	André
Studio	Rebel Studio
Location	Campbellton NB, Canada

About two weeks after DIY piercing my septum I got in touch with my piercer, wondering if he'd do my septum with a punch. He told me he has never done it before but he would give it a try.

I ordered a 3.5mm punch from BMEshop and received it two weeks later. I had it in hand but I couldn't call him right away. Something was stopping me. Something greater than me, and so about 2 weeks passed before I finally got my chance. He was in the lobby, and I had to go clean it, so what a better chance to get in touch? We agreed that he'd call me on the weekend so we could set an appointment.

No call on Friday. No call on Saturday. On Sunday I took things in my own hands. I called André and ask him if he wanted to do the procedure, or he preferred not to. Since he's never done any, I thought he might not want to proceed. But he said he was willing to get trough it, and he gave me a time.

>From the previous piercing I had, I was scared of what was about to happen. But instead, it was really calming. I walked in and we moved right away to the piercing room. He asked for the punch, and looked at it almost as if he was hypnotized by it. He then told me about the danger of the tool. But sadly I had more information about the procedure (because of BME) than he could give me! So we talked about the placement and the previous attempt. He explained me why my septum piercing was crooked and why it was hard to get it straight.

We agreed on placement, and moved to the actual procedure. I was sitting down; I tilted my head back so he would have a better sight of the area to pierce. He lined the cork and the punch. My heartbeat started to speed up, my hands got sweaty. He was about to do it, when he asked if I preferred to lie on the bed. This is when I switched from the "calm down" mantra to "he won't do it".

I lied down and tilted my head as far back as possible. He lined up the cork and the punch... almost there, but waits! He decided to move from the cork to a popsicle stick. At this point I got bored and I really didn't believe I was getting it punched. So he came back, got the whole thing lined up, and waited! He dared to ask if I was ready! I opened my eyes to see that I was perfectly calm (well, almost) and he was shaking pretty badly!

I decided to close my eyes and told him to go when he was ready. It took about a minute before we finally moved on. I felt the examination stick up in my nose. The stick was pinching me more than anything else. It was like a pinch on my septum. But I was so bored, and started doubting in the success of the procedure. Finally he lined the punch for the thousandth and so long awaited moment arrived: He pushed the dermal punch.

This felt as if I pinched my septum real badly with my pointy nails. Or like when I took the tweezers and tried to pull out about 50 hairs at one time. I could feel the punch rotating and cutting the layers of skin. I could clearly feel that André was shaking, so I tried to relax the tension and asked if he had started. I heard giggles as an answer. I then told him to punch it all the way if he had started. I could feel the layers being cut apart, rip off from the septum. Finally, after good 5 seconds, a final sigh of accomplishment was released.

I opened my eyes, the punch in one nostril, a Popsicle stick in the other, and asked André what was his next move. He seemed to be dazed, as if amazed by what he just did. At this point I realized I was not in a situation where I could take over. But André was uncertain of what to do. I was scared, but calm. The several experiences I read on BME gave me some assurance about what to expect. And the help of a friend to psych myself helped me to go on with the situation.

I told him to remove the punch and to take a second to stop any bleeding. He refused, saying that it would be too hard to insert jewelry. He said he would remove the stick, and slide the jewelry in, so it would do like a needle. I objected. Even if I'm lying down, with the punch in my nose, I don't agree with him. I suddenly had a flash; I thought he had a hard time because there was no easy way to insert the jewelry! But I had brought along my taper. Now we agreed on a plan: he removes the punch, I stop the bleeding, he inserts the taper, followed by jewelry. (It's sad we didn't get to plan this ahead)

So we proceeded along with the plan. The funny thing is that with a 3.5mm hole and with a 1.6 mm taper tip, he had a hard time to find the hole! But he managed to get to it, and insert the jewellry quite easily! The taper was giving him a closer feeling of a needle. (I'm glad I've done several stretches before, and I'm used to the stretching sensation) The jewelry was inserted, and it was over! No light head feeling, just a huge feeling of accomplishment.

I asked him to flip the CBR up, so it would be less appearing (I'm 20, but still live in my parent's place and I have to respect them a little). The hole is quite in the middle of my septum, so flipping the CBR was quite a task. When I finally gave the last push, I had this heavy light head feeling. The whole room was spinning, the tunnel effect, nausea... I couldn't believe I got trought the removal of a piece of skin so easily, but couldn't handle to have a CBR flip!

It's now over, and I had good 3 hours walk home. And I just sent an IAM before I wrote this. I'm happy with the procedure. I'm also glad that André accepted to do this procedure, and I'm happy with the collaboration we had throughout the procedure. I enjoyed the dermal punch; it's less stressful than a needle piercing. I had less pain from the punch than I had from the needles. I do plan on having more dermal punching done! I still have a pair of 4gauge tunnels, a 5mm dermal punch, and intact lobes. And hopefully André will accept to do them!