This is my experience about getting my nostrils punched and the subsequent customer service that I received after the initial punch. I've been meaning to write this experience for a while, but I figured I should let my emotions cool down before I try and write about my experience objectively.
At A Glance Author Chez Contact Chez@bme.anon IAM magneticdistortion When A month ago Artist Phish Studio Slave to the Needle Location Seattle, Wa Well, that said, let's get on with this.
I've wanted nostril piercings for a long time. For some reason or another I never actually got around to it getting them done. Mainly because standard nostril piercings just weren't all that exciting to me anymore. I hadn't had a lot of experiences with large gauge piercings other than my own lobes and I was starting to get curious to see how it would look. I debated between getting my lip scalpeled and my nostrils punched for quite sometime when I decided that I should just go get it done.
I posted my intentions on my iam page and got feedback from some of my friends that had large gauge nostrils, some stretched some punched. I wasn't concerned with pain necessarily; I was concerned with the permanent ramifications of having large gauge holes on my face. I talked with a few people that had healed 8 gauge nostrils without much scarring and that reassured me that if I didn't like it that I could either take them out and have a pox like mark on my nostrils or downsize them to a more "normal" size.
That decided, I had moved on to the next step. Who was I going to have punch my nostrils? Living in Seattle we have a few shops that have great reputations and I have patronized most of them at some point and had experience with getting pierced at all except for Slave to the Needle. I had a friend that was also a piercer that had her nostrils punched and she recommended that I go to Slave, saying that her artist, Phish was great and would do an excellent job. Coincidentally, another friend of mine had recently obtained a counter position at that shop and said she would pitch in on my jewelry costs if I went to that shop. I was apprehensive because at this point, I had been cut only by Rion (Rion) and that was my only real experience with more "extreme" modifications. I checked out the Phish's portfolio and felt pretty comfortable, especially given the gleaming reputation of Slave.... So I went for it.
All in all the actual punching experience was pretty quick and painless. He marked my nostrils and had my above-mentioned friends give them their thumbs up. He cleaned my nostrils with technicare and clamped my first nostril. I breathed; he punched, tapered, and followed through with the jewelry. It definitely wasn't as bad as I had anticipated. My friend took a few pictures and we moved on to the next nostril. This time before the jewelry transfer I had my friend take another picture. Then he finished putting the jewelry in and before I knew what was happening I was eating my own flesh with a grin on my face.
I checked them out in the mirror and was happy. My left nostril was beginning to swell and I kind of had a headache from the piercing room light. I was ready to get home and chill with my new nostrils. He went over some aftercare with me briefly and asked if I had any questions. I asked when I could expect to be able to change my jewelry (to 8g ss tunnels, single flared). He told me to come back in 4 weeks and we could change them. I paid the man, tipped accordingly and left.
Four weeks later I came back to the shop with my friend that had her nostrils punched; she was going to get a cutting done that night. I asked Phish about the jewelry change and without even looking at me he said, "four more weeks". I kind of laughed and said, "No, really... Can I get them changed?" and he just looked at me. At this point I was a little annoyed, but what was I going to do? I sat with my friend while she got her cutting and asked her later how long she had waited on her jewelry change. She told me that she had Phish change them at 3 weeks because the glass tunnels were too long. When I heard this I was a little pissed off because that's why I wanted them changed and so I went back to the shop a week later and asked for the jewelry change. Again, he did not look at my nostrils before he said, "four more weeks". I called him out this time and said, "Uh, yeah, you said that last time." and he got a little indignant and said, "fine, 8 more weeks." I felt like I was getting punished for something that I had done, but I didn't have any clue what it could have been.
When Phish said that I should have walked out and taken my business elsewhere, but I didn't. I complained to a few friends and ranted about it on my iam page and general consensus was that he was just being a jerk for whatever reason, maybe having a bad day. I am still not sure why I gave him another chance... but I did. I went back to the shop a few weeks later and asked if they could change them. He looked for the jewelry and said they didn't have it but he would pick some up for me at APP that following week.
APP came and went and he didn't get my jewelry. Again, I should have just gone back to Rion and had him order jewelry for me but I didn't. I let him order the jewelry for me. Slave called me a few weeks later and told me that my jewelry order was in. I was so excited. There could be no excuses this time. I was getting my jewelry in! I went back with my friend (the one with the cuttings and punches by him also) that night. This friend had also just gotten a job at the new Slave Shop as a piercer and was always interested in observing him in action.
Phish gave me the jewelry to check out before we went in the room and I was stoked. They were exactly what I wanted. I hopped up on the table and he started to pull the o-ring off of my left nostril plug. Just so you know, the o-ring was on the inside with the flare on the outside. He pulled the o-ring off after struggling with it for a minute and pulled my plug out. There was a ton of resistance and it hurt more than any piercing or jewelry transfer I have ever had. I started fanning my nostril in a lame attempt to cool the burn. He started messing with my right nostril and was cursing the o-ring. He said something about not being able to get at it and then pulled the plug out of my nose, using my nostril as the resistance to hold the o-ring in my nose as the plug slid out.
This hurt more than any million times I have stubbed my toe... or broken a finger... or ate shit on a skateboard. Immediately my right nostril started bleeding. My friend was looking at me worriedly because I had tears in my eyes. He grabbed at my new tunnels (which I realized later had NOT BEEN AUTOCLAVED! ewwwwwww!) and proceeded to try and cram it into my left nostril. He mumbled something again and started thumbing through a box of miscellaneous tapers and jewelry... He looked up and said; "I can't find an 8 gauge taper. We're going to have to put your plugs back in." I was very upset. My nostrils felt like hell, I had blood running out of my right nostril and he was telling me that after all this I still wasn't going to have MY jewelry?! I said, "Fine. Just do it."
And I paid for the jewelry and walked out. I've never felt so brutalized in my entire life. I felt violated, hacked and worst of all betrayed by the client/piercer relationship that I had been accustomed to and had experienced with every other piercer I had ever worked with. I've been pierced by apprentices, friends and all sorts of professional piercers and had never felt so violated as I did that day.
My nostrils swelled up and oozed blood and boogery stuff for about a week and I got some hypertrophic scarring, but that faded after a while. I had my jewelry, but at this point I was so worried about getting my nostrils raped again that I just kind of looked at them every now and then and got sad because I was too scared to change them out. After doing a million sea salt soaks and talking with my friends I decided to go back to Deep Roots (Rion's shop) and have Mitch (painisjoy) change my jewelry. He knew all that I had gone through with Phish and wanted to make my experience better. He autoclaved the jewelry for free and took extra time making sure all my boogers and crustiness were cleaned off the jewelry in my nose before he pulled the plugs out... something that Phish hadn't done. He had no problem getting my tunnels in and didn't need a taper. I'm not sure why Phish had been so adamant about having the taper to complete the transfer, but it seemed to work fine without. I had no pain associated with the jewelry transfer and it restored some faith I had lost in the piercing community.
I think that the lesson I have learned in this situation is that you can't always base your decisions on reputation or portfolios when it comes to deciding your piercer. I should have stuck with my piercer Rion because I was comfortable with him and his technique. I doubt that I will be returning to Slave to the Needle anytime soon, and I will probably stick with Rion for all my modifications from now on.
Note: While I don't have any reason to believe that the core facts of this story are inherently false, there are extenuating personal circumstances that are not mentioned in this story that cause it to be told with a great deal of malice and with the intent to harm.