| At A Glance | |
| Author | Jason |
| Contact | Jason@bme.anon |
| When | It just happened |
| Artist | Me |
| Studio | My house |
| Location | Richmond, VA |
I thought about actually going somewhere to get it done, but then I said fuck that, it cant be that hard to do, it wont cost much to do it myself. Also I felt more comfortable doing it anyway; I live in a city overrun with "bod-mod scenesters" with enough nautical star tats to fill a galaxy, and the whole "lets chill at the piercing place" thing isnt really my thing. Being able to say I did it myself is way more hardcore in my opinion anyway.
I bought a 14 gauge needle and retainer from BMEshop, and figured I'd do it on a Friday morning since I would have 3 whole days to let it settle a bit before going back to work. Im an electrician so I'm in a lot of dust and shit all day, and this was what I was most worried about.
The first weekend I was mildly sick and my nose was running and such so I put it off till the next weekend. Unfortunately I spent Friday getting drunk, and was busy all Saturday until the evening, and I decided it was worth a try even though I had wasted half the weekend already. I took a couple bong hits to get my mind in the right place and it was time to begin.
I washed my hands and cleaned up my nose with alcohol and Dial soap and began trying to find the exact best spot for it, as I wanted the hole itself to be just slightly above the edge of my nostrils. The right side where I was starting the needle from was easy because i just stuck the tip of the needle where i wanted the hole and when i moved the needle to a horizontal position it pushed the side of my nose up enough to be out of the way, but getting my fingers right for where the needle was going to come out was almost impossible, and I didnt want to jam the needle into the tip of my finger. Obviously i didnt have any corks or anything so I stuck a folded up piece of paper towel against the other side and held it in place with one finger at the very tip of my nose and the other against the side of my nose.
The needle was sharp as fuck and I had no problem pushing most of the tip through. I was pushing pretty slowly, it probably took 30 seconds to get it in that much, but about halfway through that I closed my eyes really tight to stop them from watering, because at that point they were streaming. When I did that I think it probably made my hand move and the needle started going crooked, though at the time I didnt notice. I felt it go through and into the paper towel, and I pushed it a bit more and wiped my eyes so I could see how it had come out. It was fine as far as the hole being perpendicular to my septum, which is what I thought was going to be the hardest part of getting it straight. However, looking at the front of my face, the needle was far from being perfectly horizontal like i wanted it. I figured it was way too crooked and there was no point in trying to get the retainer in, so i reluctantly pulled out the needle. It bled for a few seconds and then stopped, and it really didnt hurt at all afterwards. As far as the pain was concerned while I was actually piercing it, I can honestly say that it didnt hurt at all except when the end of the beveled part went through, and it was very minimal, much less than say cutting your lip shaving or something.
The worst part was pulling the needle back out because it was really tight, I hadnt thought to lube it with anything. Even that was less than painful though, and i decided to give it a couple weeks to heal up properly before trying it again.
About two months after I tried it the first time, I didn't have anything to do, and I had by no means given up on the idea, so I decided to try it again, this time with a different approach. I had ordered the septum clamps from BME after the first try since they looked like they would help in getting the hole where I wanted it.
In addition to the clamps I got some Neosporin to lube up the needle with since it was so hard to pull out last time, and I pulled the ends off a plastic pen to use for a receiving tube so I would have something on the other side to push against and so I didnt stab the needle through the rest of my nose.
I didnt do much for sterilization, just cleaned all the stuff off with alcohol and laid it down in a clean area, and washed my hands and nose off. I took one of those rubber bands for braiding hair with and doubled it over and put it around the handles of the clamps, and moved it to the point where the tension was enough to hold it in place, and carefully moved it around till it felt like it was in the right spot, and I checked as well as I could by looking in the mirror. Then I put the pen tube on the left side and lined up the needle on the right. I put the tip of the needle as high and as far forward in the hole of the clamps as I could get it, with the beveled side towards my face, and when I felt it was as good as it was going to get, I pushed gently, then a little harder. I could only faintly feel the needle go through, and I actually thought only part of the tip was in, when I looked back at the needle I saw that there was only about an inch left, and it was all the way through. I took the tube down, and the needle looked almost perfectly straight. I pulled the clamps apart and slipped them off, one side at a time, being very careful not to snag them on the needle and pull it out.
Seeing that the needle was in as good a place as it was, there was no way I could fuck up now. I kept my left hand on the needle as I used the end of the retainer to push it the rest of the way through, and the side of it was in before I knew it. I straightened it up so it was properly positioned and it was done. I had been worried about fishing the little bent end through and about not being able to get the retainer through, but neither was a problem.
I figured it should probably be turned up for right now, but when I went to flip it up, the part of my septum closest to my face was to wide for the sides to get past. At first I tried to bend it open a little with pliers ( I did tape up the ends so they wouldnt scratch the retainer) but I found that I couldnt put enough force on them to open it while it was in my nose. Just trying to get two pairs of pliers on tiny little pieces of metal in my nose was hard enough just by looking in the mirror. Then I thought of trying to put a barbell I had through the hole while I bent it open a little with it out of my nose, but I figured this would be too much fumbling around with it, and there was the risk of not being able to get it back in. Finally I tried to get it flipped up by twisting it slightly sideways with one side of it past the wider cartilage at the bottom of my septum and up where it was thinner, and then twisting it back straight kind of rolling it around the thicker part so now both sides were inside my nostrils, parallel to my septum. I pushed it up a bit further and that was it.
It didn't hurt AT ALL. I seriously didnt feel any of it other than the feeling of pushing the needle and retainer through, which wasn't painful at all. Poking the needle around to find the right place hurt more than anything, which was just a little annoying like pulling a hair out. It didn't bleed at all either, and my eyes didnt even water up.
I've been leaving it the hell alone although I have soaked it a few times, more to keep my nose clean than anything. At this point I dont think the usual blowing of the nose is going to happen... When its flipped up it doesnt show at all, even looking almost straight up my nose. When it heals up a little I plan to stretch it at least to an 8.
I took .5 mg of Xanax before I did it, which kept me focused and calm throughout the whole thing, and maybe that was also why it didnt hurt. I don't condone doing anything to yourself while under the influence of chemicals, it worked for me but I dont endorse it or recommend it. It is especially dangerous if you are not experienced with them, and by no means should you get fucked up beforehand "so it don't hurt." Also, whatever the official stance on self- piercing, if you dont feel confident you can do it properly, suck it up and pay a professional. Confidence is not the same as false bravado. Just use common sense.
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Hopefully someone learns what I did right and wrong here and is helped by this information, any questions feel free to email me.