So, my name's Jenn. As a little background, I moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, from Colorado Springs, Colorado. For those of you who know nothing of the Rocky Mountain Region, know that you would be hard pressed to find two communities that are more different. Colorado Springs is home to the Air Force Academy, Peterson Air Force Base, Fort Carson Army Base, Focus on the Family, New Life Church and has been called the Holy City of the United States. Conservative? You might say that. I was not ME until I moved to Santa Fe and found a culture that, for the most part, embraces art and individuality in all their forms.
At A Glance Author skittles aka. Jenn Contact maclynn9@hotmail.com When Six months ago Artist Kitten & Jeff Studio Aware Location Santa Fe, NM I began to let my personality show through my physical appearance - clothes, hair, décor as it were. Now in my opinion, there are certain piercings that flatter some faces/bodies and do not flatter others. For myself, I never thought I could have a septum piercing. I loved them on certain people...one of the hottest guys I'd ever seen had probably a 6ga, large diameter circular barbell in his. Taking advantage of my newfound freedom, I started branching out. I'd made good friends with Jeff, Kitten & Weston at Aware Piercing and Tattoo after moving to Santa Fe, and to their credit, they loved me despite my endless questions about technique and jewelry options.
At the time, I worked 2 jobs. Both allowed the pink faux hawk, but one required staff to removed/hide certain piercings including septums. After determining the easiest way to hide it for work, I decided to challenge my opinions on my own physicality - a subject on which I've been sensitive and a bit dubious in the past.
Kitten was wonderful and walked me through the steps of this "blind piercing". She explained that, because you can't really see what is happening, it sometimes comes out crooked and has to be redone. So with the joy in my heart that we may be stabbing my poor little nose repeatedly, we began.
First of all, it turned out dead straight and beautiful the first time! And secondly, it was my favorite piercing to date. Yes, naturally, it hurts a little. It definitely makes your eyes water, but their is a fullness to the sensation and literally a rush of blood to the head that I hadn't felt before. Despite the mascara leaking into my eyes, I loved every minute of it, and aesthetically speaking, it turned out to be one of my favorite mods.
So now I'm in piercing mode right? Maybe a month later, we're hanging out in the shop, and I get to brain-storming. In the middle of a conversation about, oh I don't know, our favorite M&M flavor, I pipe up with "Can you do a multiple septum?" Jeffy said sure. She'd seen them and seen them done, but had never done one herself. After some poking around in my nose for a second time, we decided it wouldn't be a problem. Unfortunately, the first hole was now in the wrong place because there wasn't enough room to get a second one in that web of skin.
The next step, then, was to remove the first piercing, let it heal up and start anew. During the down time, I start to get all excited..."If I can do two, could I do three while I'm at it?!"
Jeff did the new front piercing first which turned out to be the most interesting. It is very high and forward in my nose, so the spacing would be nice. Because of this, it went through a great deal more of ME than the others did. That one bled. Bled quite a bit now I remember it. So now I'm tearing AND bleeding. While we waited for the various leaking to subside, we left the needle in, and I had the whole '80s London punk look goin' on - a perk no one expected!
(By the way...as a side note...I want to encourage people to take the time to notice and appreciate the steps of piercings. Notice your body's reactions. Take a look in the mirror as you're flinching and drooling on yourself. If you talk to people who get pierced a lot, you'll find they do it for the experience as much as for the result.)
To continue. After letting the front piercing heal for a couple weeks, I was back to finish the project. I still had to hide them for work and flipping two freshly acquired circular barbells past one another was not a thought I relished, so I chose a circular for the front and the teeniest tiniest barbell you've ever seen (with pink jeweled ends of course) for the back. Not being able to appreciate the beauty of something I'd looked so forward to was a bit disappointing, but it would only be for a couple weeks.
Sooner rather than later, I was back in Aware. This time for a minor problem. While washing the second piercing I'd discovered the hard way that one of the beads on that oh so pretty teeny tiny barbell was cross-threaded. When I pushed it to the left, it was fine. When I pushed it to the right, the threads got caught inside the web of skin. Again the eyes spring a leak. With a good deal of fiddling, Jeff got it on there straight. Now, you don't realize how little space you've got to work with there, but YOU try shoving four fingers in one nostril and accomplishing anything let alone manipulating a bead you can't see!
A month or so down the road, I decided to try new jewelry options and finally see what I'd ended up with. I love them so much I can hardly stand it! It is exactly what I pictured. (Sadly, it was a no-go on the third hole because it would be through cartilage and I've tried and tried but my body dislikes healing cartilage.)
Instead, I have a pair of circular barbells, 2 snug gold seamless rings, just came back from the APP convention in Vegas with a couple bone pinchers, and of course I needed something pink, so I'm getting a pincher for the front and an arc for the back both in pink titanium. So excited!
I continue to get more and more creative about possible piercing options. The majority get discarded, but it's fun to think about. Jeff and Kitten, like most good piercers, love a good idea and a new challenge.
A note about Jeff, Kitten, Weston (aka the Aware crew): they are fabulous both on a professional and personal level, and as long as I live in this region, I will get pierced by no one else. If you're in the neighborhood, you should definitely stop in!