I always thought that septum piercings were ugly. I don't know what compelled me to pierce my own septum, but I did. I understand that I am not a piercer and it would have been a lot better and safer if I had actually gone to a real piercer. Although I didn't go to a studio I took "precautions" I guess. I would suggest that you go to a piercer to get any piercing done.
At A Glance Author Kea Contact Kea@bme.anon When Six months ago Artist Myself Studio Home Location Bay Area, Cali The septum piercing really appealed to me. It was actually cute (in my opinion) at a small gauge and was easy to hide. This was a huge plus to me since my family is pretty conservative. I stretched my ears to 2g and my conservative parents just looked at like I was from mars. I guess when you do piercings you have to realize that they are permanent or at least might scar.
I decided to do the piercing myself. Before I actually did the piercing there were a lot of things I had to do. I browsed at least a hundred stories and more pictures to determine the placement and procedure. First thing: get a clean needle. Seems easy enough seeing my father is in medicine. I couldn't actually tell you what type of needle it was but it was autoclaved (in the cute little package).
Second thing: get some jewelry. I bought a little 14G CBR assuming that I could just flip it up. So one night I gathered all my supplies and made sure everything was clean. It was all autoclaved; I didn't burn the needle, boil it, or use R.A. since those techniques don't really work. I was lucky enough to have access to an autoclave machine, but most people don't I guess, unless you go to a piercing studio. One thing I really should have done was mark dots for placement; I don't know why it didn't occur to me. The piercing went well. It barely hurt and wasn't crooked. One of my main concerns (besides hurting myself) was that the piercing would be terribly crooked. It was just luck in my case that it turned out straight. It didn't bleed either, which was very nice.
I took the needle out and put the ring in. It looked horrible. 7/16" I think is too large of a diameter for a septum ring, gah, anyways I was ready to flip it up and have all be well. That's when I realized the distance where the ball would normally go in the CBR was too small for me to flip up. I ended up having to get one of my 16Gs and put that instead. Grr, downsizing all ready.
I cleaned it twice a day with bactine/water mix for 4 months and kept it clean after that. It was sort of tedious. I tried doing soaks but septums are really awkward for soaks. The several times I tried, I ended up with salt water all over my shirt and the counter. Q-tips worked pretty well for me.
The most annoying thing about a septum piercing is boogers. Honestly. Blowing your nose is just not fun anymore. If you're a gold digger, just forget about it. Your mining days are over unless you want a sore red nose.
But, eventually I switched to a 14G retainer. I don't have a big nose at all but I had to do this little squeeze the tip of my nose to flip the retainer up. Very annoying indeed.
I ended up taking the piercing out about a week ago since someone that I'm always with got her septum piercing done. I had it about 6 months. I guess the main reason I got it done was because it was little different and that little piece of metal just made me feel really good about myself. When my best friend got it done (I know it's silly) but I didn't want us to be known as the girls with the septum piercings. I didn't want our piercings to be who we are, and I knew people would label us as that. I normally don't care what other people think about me, but when u and your best friend slowly turn into clones of each other it gets weird. Also the time I took it out, I got sick. Being sick with a runny nose with septum piercing isn't that dandy. Talk about pain and a mess.
I would not suggest that you do a septum piercing your self or follow what I did. If I had gotten it one professionally I wouldn't have had to worry about the piercing and wouldn't have had the mix up with the ring. Anyway it's a great piercing and maybe I'll get it redone (professionally) soon. I really want my nipples pierced with barbells though. Piercings are so great, but you guys already knew that. ;)