*warning:this is about self piercing which in most cases,including this one, is a poor decision. If you are not a professional piercer yourself than you should make the healthy choice of going to a professional or be prepared for a bad outcome.*
At A Glance Author Jennifer Contact Jennifer@bme.anon When A week ago Artist self-done Studio my house Location N.B., Canada I have not always liked septum piercings. I first saw one when I was around ten years old. I could not believe that people actually could get that pierced (not just cows!). When I saw Janet Jackson with one I was astonished. I had never seen a girl with one,especially not a celebrity. I thought that they were quite weird.
I don't think that septum rings look good on everyone. Though now that more people are getting them done I have noticed how beautiful they look on many girls. I love piercings for many reasons but the aesthetic nature of them is why I get pierced. I often contemplate which piercings would look good on me and I figured that the septum just might. Also, I figured it was a great facial piercing because if I didn't like it years down the road, I could take it out and not have a visible scar.
Now that I had decided that I wanted one, I knew there was a problem. My parents (well my mom) absolutely object to any piercings other than ones in the ears. Yes I am 16 so I could go on my own to get pierced here in Canada but I had no way of getting to the piercing studio without them because I can't drive yet. That's when I decided that I would be an idiot and pierce myself.
I found a sewing needle in my house that looked around 14 gauge (it was a big sewing needle!) and I boiled it. I new that this wasn't completely clean but I figured it was the best thing I could do to clean it. I washed my hands and felt around my septum to find the "sweet spot". It only took me a minute to find it, it was a lot more squishy than the rest of my septum. I lined the needle up and began to push. It went through quite easily until I got to the last layer of skin. I pushed again but it was stuck.
I have heard of this happening to many people who have done self piercings so I knew that an easy piercing was going to get harder. I pushed again and put my fingers around where the needle was to come through. I twisted and turned it while still applying pressure and it finally popped through. It did sting and I had the infamous nose piercing tears running down my eyes.
All that was left to do was put in the 16 gauge cbr that I once had used in my snug piercing. I went to take the needle out but it was STUCK. I had to pull very hard to get it out and it hurt a lot. By the time I had gotten the thing out I was in tears from crying. I was fed up and decided that I was being stupid and shouldn't bother with the septum until I have a way of getting it done professionally.
I gave up on my dream for a septum piercing (for about a week). I was back at it again with a new plan. I found an old earring stud that was used to pierce my ears gun-style when I was seven. The stud was dull but considerably sharper than the other studs I had. I thought that it would work because the septum isn't very thick anyways.
I went through all the same steps of "cleaning" and lining up. The stud went through a lot harder than the needle, but it went. I stuck the ugly butterfly back on it and decided to leave the stud there until the hole loosened up in a few weeks, then I could switch to the cbr.
My nose was very tender especially at the tip. I knew that this was normal. I did salt soaks for five minutes twice a day to make it happy but other than that I left it alone.
A little over a week went by and I became depressed. I just wanted to be "normal" so I took out my 8 gauge earrings and my septum stud. It was hard to get out and it hurt.When it finally came out I was disgusted. There was a big build up of gunk on the ends of the stud.
A few weeks went by and I was feeling better. I wanted my septum back! I took out the matching pair to the stud that I had used to pierce it before, cleaned it and then lined it up. There was some scar tissue from where I had pierced it before and I didn't want to pierce that so I lined it up a little bit higher to avoid it. I pushed it through the same way and snapped the back on and decided that this time it was staying no matter what.
It has been eleven days now since my last and final septum piercing. It was very tender around the third to sixth day but it seemed to be getting better until I switched the stud to the cbr last night. It went through easily so I tried a 14 gauge instead. That slid through easily as well but it wouldn't stay flipped up in my nose so I switched back to the 16 gauge.
I have stopped the salt soaks because I found they were irritating my nose so now I am just leaving it the hell alone. I have had no problems with it besides the tenderness and it is completely hidden unless someone purposely looks up my nose, ew.
I would have rather gone to a professional to get this done. I still wish I had but I do have a certain pride to say, "Yeah I did that" and it isn't even crooked :).