As much as I would like to be a carefree and original 18-year-old college student, I am not able to. I have bills to pay and a job to therefore keep. The job I work at has a strict policy of no visible body piercings, and a maximum two piercings per ear. In the 10 months I've been working there, I have stretched my ear lobes to 1/2" with no repercussion from work, and much interest from the customers. Despite the growing ears and ink, I still haven't felt like I was "finished."
At A Glance Author Sarah Contact Sarah@bme.anon IAM arpeggiated When A month ago Artist Kim Bumpus Studio Lou's Tattoos and Body Piercing by Kim Location Lemoore, CA In the middle of June, my life changed suddenly and drastically. Through a great deal of fault of my own, most of my friends became mad at me, and stopped talking to me. During all of the drama, I spent a night cutting myself. I knew before, during, and after that it wasn't going to solve any of my problems, but it was something that would help me at the time.
The next morning, I decided I would get a new piercing. I'd been craving some type of modification for a while, using my pattern of getting something after selling back books at the end of a semester. However, when this semester ended, all the piercers around here were in Vegas for the APP convention. I had been wanting a septum piercing for at least 4 months, and so I decided to get it done.
I drove over to Lemoore, and parked in front of Creative Designs. Then realized that they're closed on Mondays, the day I always seem to want something pierced. Luckily, Lou's Tattoos and Piercings by Kim is open on Mondays, and they're right around the corner. When I went over there, Kim was on hold with someone on the phone, so I looked around in the jewelry case and talked to her apprentice about what I wanted done that night. Kim tried to tempt me with new plugs for my ears, but I resisted.
Finally, she gave up on whoever she was talking to, and we started figuring everything out. I told her I needed a retainer for work, and she grabbed one of the Anatomental niobium ones out from behind the counter, sterilized in its autoclave bag. She had me sign the release form and checked my ID, and then we talked about aftercare and other related things.
She started writing down all the information on my aftercare sheet, and when she got to the gauge, she wrote down 14 gauge, then exclaimed, "I didn't even ask if you wanted 16 gauge!"
I told her I was probably going to stretch it a bit, and 14ga was fine. She then asked if I wanted to start at 12, but I demurred and said that 14ga was fine. She looked at the retainer she had grabbed out, and it was a 12ga anyway. So I bowed down to Fate, and we went to town on my nose.
She put her first pair of gloves on, and started digging around. She said it was going to go great. She said I had a perfect nose for this piercing, because my nostrils flared out at an identical angle, and so I could have it pierced actually straight, not just straight in comparison to my face. She started marking everything with gentian violet and a toothpick, and then started to arrange everything.
She changed her gloves a lot, so many times I don't remember where they all occurred. I remember laughing a few times, because she would put on a new pair of gloves, then grab something out of a cabinet, and then have to change gloves again.
She checked all of her marks, checked for blood vessels, and then grabbed the receiving tube, putting it in straight side toward the septum. I closed my eyes and started breathing deeply through my mouth. On the second deep breath, she pushed the needle through. It felt like it took a few seconds, and I made lots of moaning and grunting noises. She put a cork on me and told me that the worst part was over! Although it hurt while it was sliding through, no tears came from my eyes and after that it felt just fine.
Then she picked up the retainer and slid it in. The gap between the two ends of the retainer were too small, so she had to adjust it with some ring opening pliers. She had to adjust it twice before it would turn up into my nostrils. With it in my nose! It didn't hurt much, but it was just annoying to have this tugging feeling on my face. It finally flipped up, and we left it there.
For aftercare, I used just hot water and Q-tips to clean the crusties off, and otherwise left it alone. The crusties diminished entirely by the fourth week, until I couldn't tell if it was crusties or snot, but I had strong suspicions of snot. I stretched it to 10 gauge very easily and comfortably, and I will continue to stretch it until it feels "done."
When I was younger, I would never have imagined myself with a septum piercing, but I also never would have imagined the way my life has turned out so far. My septum piercing brings me strength to continue changing the way I thought my life would end up.