On a ridiculous whim I went and got my septum pierced last night. I made an appointment for 6:30 at Laughing Buddha on Capitol Hill in Seattle. Right after work I collected my boyfriend from his happy hour revelries and checked in at the shop. It was pretty busy, bustling with people buying jewelry, looking at portfolios; I could hear the familiar and comforting buzz of tattoos in progress behind the screens.
At A Glance Author ingopixel Contact ingopixel@bme.anon When It just happened Artist destination Studio laughing buddha Location seattle, WA I filled out the necessary paperwork, chose a 14g stainless retainer and wandered about until they called me up. A stern looking woman, about 5'3" with pink hair, lots of tattoos and piercings approached me and said abruptly, "are you... septum?" I said yes and she asked me to follow her as she turned on her heel and began to walk briskly for the back room. I quickly tapped my boyfriend on the shoulder and we rushed to keep up with her. She instructed me to take a seat on the table and told my man to have a seat on the chair in the corner. He asked if she would mind if he took a few pictures, she said, "yes. It's very distracting. please have a seat in the corner sir." at this point I was a little uncomfortable and wondered if I should call it off and find a piercer I was more comfortable with. But honestly, I was a little frightened of this woman and knew that if I didn't do this now I never would. So I stuck it out.
She looked dup my nose, told me it looked pretty straight, and asked me if I had any questions while she got set up. I asked her name. Destination. Yeah, okay, I can't see why someone would make you a destination, but hey, if that's what you're going for, whatever. I really had no questions considering I had been doing some pretty intensive research on bmezine and the like over the past couple of days. I just sat and watched her set up. She had me lie down with my head just barely off the table to get the right angle and started probing around in my nose for the sweet spot. once she found it and knew she could successfully pierce me, she changed her gloves and started swabbing my nose out with some really strong soap that stung like hell and made the inside of my nose raw.
She then drew a straight line across my septum to act as a guide to keep the needle going through straight. I appreciated that. She then marked one side with some purple dye and then probed around with a broken q-tip stick to get the other side marked correctly. This hurt a bit. She got everything marked and showed me the clear receiving tube and explained how the whole procedure would work. She then held the tube on one side and pushed the other side with the broken off q-tip to make an indent with the receiving tube so it would stay in place better when she did the actual piercing. This hurt like hell. My eyes were watering like mad and my hands were clenching into fists. Man that hurt.
I wanted to ask if my boyfriend could come over and hold my hand, but I got a strong feeling she would say no and I would feel like a jackass. Grrrr. i would have to be tough on my own.
She picked up the needle, ready to pierce; I felt the cold metal against my nostril and was breathing calmly, ready for the big poke. She pulled it away and looked into my nose again, tugging here, prodding there. She removed the tube and stuck her fingers in both my nostrils again. She said that the cartilage in the tip of my nose was a little wider than the sweet spot and kept kind of falling back and pushing the mark she had made into the wrong spot. She finally got it all lined up, more pushing with the tube and the q-tip, more pain, more eye-watering. I closed my eyes; she told me to keep them closed and keep breathing slowly and calmly.
I felt the needle against my nostril again and knew it was coming. I don't really know what happened here. It happened really fast. I'm sure my breathing sped up and I probably clenched my eyes shut and curled my fingers and toes. She shoved the needle through, it really didn't hurt too badly, it was mostly just lots and lots of pressure. Everything slowed down and it seemed like the needle took forever to get through before I felt it pop out the other side. I think I just said "whoa, that was intense" or something like that. She said, "Yeah, it's just like getting punched in the face." I've never been punched in the face, but I've been elbowed and jostled in mosh pits and she was right, it was that slow, dull ache of getting hit in the nose, but in slow motion. Really, getting hit is worse.
She punched the retainer through like nothing and that was it, I was done. I could hardly wait as she washed the marks off my face and handed me the mirror. I looked and could hardly see the retainer at all, even flipped down. She had to pierce it so high up that it barely hung out of my nostrils and looks like two tiny silver boogers. Looks like I'll be keeping it flipped up most of the time until I can change it to a horseshoe.
Next day... it really doesn't hurt at all. It bled a bit last night, I cleaned it up, it's all good. It's tending to slip over towards the left, but there's no way I'm getting this done again. Once is definitely enough. Besides, I have read, and was told by destination that the septum is one of the hardest to get straight and one of the easiest to correct with just a little pressure every day to put it where it should be. I'm not worried. Like I said, I won't be displaying it much anyway. It's for me.