My Mother has a tendency to sneak up on me when I'm in the computer room. One day last year in about August I was at her house for the weekend, browsing BME and separating myself from the outside world by listening to music in my headphones. I was startled when she tapped me on the shoulder with a disgusted look on her face. Her gaze was fixed harshly on the screen of the computer - on which a page of septum piercings was shown. "You know you're not getting that done, right?" she asked rudely, and I nodded. My desire for a septum piercing wasn't too strong during that August. I had just gotten my lip pierced, and my piercing needs were sated for the time being.
At A Glance Author Meghan. Contact Meghan.@bme.anon When Six months ago Artist Mati. Studio Sudio Zee. Location New Haven, Connecticut. Skip to December 3rd. My lip piercing has gone crazy, and after being smacked a tad too hard at a concert, it's time to take it out. The hypertrophic scarring just wouldn't go away, and frankly, the piercing had just begun to bore me. I was at a point where it was causing more harm than good, so I took it out. End of that. Only now I felt... empty. No metal on my face, anywhere. I scrunched up my nose. I wanted something there, I decided, somewhere on my nose. I de-scrunched it, and decided that my nostrils were weird and I didn't want an 18ga nostril piercing, anyway. What were my other options? ...Septum?
Yes. I've wanted a septum piercing for a long time, but it's never been a real big deal - that is, until right then, standing in front of the mirror, scrunching and de-scrunching my nose. I didn't care much whether it would suit me or not, I just knew I wanted it. It was a very internal feeling, something I felt just had to be done. I was 14 at the time and I realized that with a Mother who greatly disliked septum piercings, my getting one would probably not happen. Hell, I was lucky that I had gotten my lip done, but now that it was gone I figured she may be a little more receptive to considering letting me get another piercing.
I called her later that night and asked if maybe I could get another piercing. She doesn't like piercings so much. She would have preferred I get a tattoo instead of any of my piercings, she once told me, even though I told her I'd like to wait until I'm older than 18 to get a tattoo. She still bugs me about it. Anyway, I could hear the exasperation in her voice and she asked me what I wanted. I stammered the words "septum, maybe?" She was thinking. She was thinking! She didn't just say no outright which gave me some level of hope. She asked me why I wanted it and it was impossible to answer. It was a deep longing, something I felt that would be good for me, and something that I felt I needed to have done. I didn't feel like myself, I've never felt like myself, which is why I'd begun getting piercings in the first place - to feel like myself, and to feel really good about the person I am. I'm not there yet, but I'm trying. I couldn't explain that to her, because... I don't know. They just didn't seem like concepts and feelings that she'd grasp very well, and they're very personal feelings that I didn't want to tell her. So I told her I just liked it. She continued thinking for another few minutes while I sat there, flipping through a book, becoming increasingly more anxious. She sighed and I let the book close, anxiety mounting and threatening to cause my chest to explode. "I suppose," she said, and I thanked her 4 billion times in my highest pitch voice (which is pretty high - I'm surprised she didn't lose hearing in that ear) before hanging up. Then I sighed, completely contented and decided to wait until the next morning to talk to my Father about it.
He didn't care, of course, he never cares. I ended up waiting until December 19th to get the actual piercing, though. I needed time to think and research a bit more. It was very close to Christmas, and the only thing was, I had to have it hidden. Alright, I could deal with that. I already knew the studio, and I already knew the piercer. I was excited and gathered my birth certificate and photo I.D. while Father warmed the car. I danced (and tripped) down the stairs and out the door, my nerves going absolutely insane. The ride was somewhat long, and on the way there I eased my nerves by tapping my foot incessantly and humming. When we arrived I had calmed significantly and the promise of pain didn't bother me so much. Father and I signed some things, handed over I.D.s, and I waited around while he went outside to smoke.
Mati, the piercer, came out to the front. He wasn't the person who pierced my lip, however. We talked about jewelry. He had no flip-up septum retainers, so my only choice was a bullet retainer, if I wanted to hide it. I went with the bullet retainer because it would mean even easier healing. I wouldn't be able to play with it at all, hell, nobody would know it was there. It would be done at 14ga. My goal then for my septum was 10ga. I didn't want it pierced too big because my parents would flip, and I wanted to experience how it felt to stretch a septum. I like to experience everything, and I thought stretching my own septum would be interesting.
I was called into the back room a few minutes later. He continued readying his things while I took a look around the room. He turned around then, and with a little awkwardness, began feeling around inside of my nose (wearing gloves, of course - he changed them at least 4 times throughout the whole procedure). He'd found what he was looking for a few seconds later, and after apologizing a bit for the awkwardness of having his fingers up my nose, got to work. I told him I didn't mind, in fact, I loved having people dig around in my nose. First he cleaned the inside of my nose with something that didn't smell too gorgeous. Next came the marking stage, which stung a bit. He was using a toothpick and gentian violet to mark, and the little jabs of the toothpick weren't pleasant, to say the least. I didn't want to look at the marks, I didn't need to. I'd felt where the toothpick jabbed me, and I knew it was good placement. The clamps were on my nose, and after a few minutes lined up perfectly. My heart was beating a bit faster now. He picked up the needle and lubed it. Okay, now my heart was going crazy. I kept telling it to calm down, but it wouldn't. Now the needle was in front of my face. I calmed down a little. This was going to happen, I decided, and it's not going to kill me. It's just a 14ga needle, now shut up, I told myself. I didn't close my eyes, I wanted to see the needle going through as much as possible. He lined it up at my nose and asked if I was ready. There was this nervous lump in my throat, so I gave a tiny, "mmhmm," and it was all set in motion.
I'd been expecting some enormous, horrible pain that would make me cringe and jump. I don't have a problem with pain (I'd be lying if I said I didn't like it at times), but from what I read this was supposed to be horrible. I swear, it wasn't that bad for me at all. It was this tiny burning sting, and then the needle was through. The throbbing began almost instantly, but even that wasn't too bad. He left the needle there for about .2 seconds while he got the retainer. It was a really quick transfer, the needle was out, the retainer was in and now the only problem was the o-ring. The first time he tried to get it on, I breathed too hard and it blew away. It was some nice comic relief, because even if it didn't hurt too much, the piercing is very intense. He got another, and got it on without any problems. I took a nice, deep breath and stood up to go check it out in the full length mirror. I tilted my head back and looked. It was amazing, I'd actually done it. It looked very straight from what I could see, with it being up my nose and all. I was very happy. I tipped, and went out into the waiting room. One of the tattoo artists at the counter commented on how I must have "felt that," as I was showing my Father, who cringed and raised an eyebrow. After paying and saying thank you again, we left. My after-piercing-high lasted the rest of the night.
It healed completely and without problems in about 2 months. Aftercare was simple, and rather fun. I'd make a sea-salt solution and dip my nose in it. I like to do 2-5 minute soaks, so I'd blow bubbles to the tunes of different songs into the water. My family thought I was insane. At about 2.5 months I changed the jewelry to a simple, 5/16" SSS circular barbell. I wore that for about 2 months and played with it constantly. Eventually I realized that my constant playing had stretched the piercing out a bit. I was pleased, and decided I'd give proper stretching a try. Stretching a septum, I found, is a very different feeling than stretching your ears, but that wasn't horrible, either. Writing this at the moment, I'm wearing a 12ga 3/8" CBR with a hematite bead, which is my all-time favorite jewelry. In a few months I plan to order the same jewelry, only in 10ga. My new goal for my septum is 6ga, although I've got this strange feeling that I won't be stopping there.
My family's reactions weren't nice and still aren't, at all, so I choose to ignore them. If I feel better about myself with this piercing than without it, I am not giving it up for anyone. My friends, as usual, are supportive, although some were surprised after the 12ga stretch, and asked how far I planned to go. I'm very happy with this piercing, and that is an understatement. I know that this is a piercing that I can keep forever and at the moment, I can't imagine myself without it. It probably seems silly, but as a 15 year old girl with a whole lot of bad/emotionally draining things going on around me, having something that I can like about myself has made all the difference.