Now why don't we start with a little background here? I think it might help to explain a few things. Things like why I ended up getting pierced in a studio over 4,500 miles from my hometown.
At A Glance Author Andy Contact Andy@bme.anon IAM Metalmorphosis When Three months ago Artist Brent (Iam: Hookboy) Studio 23rd Street Body Piercing Location Oklahoma City I've been a member of IAM now for about 8 months at the time of writing this and have had the pleasure of befriending many awesome, like-minded people. One of these people happens to be my girlfriend, Carrie (IAM Kisstheviolets). She was one of the first people to speak to me on IAM and we just hit it off from the start. To cut a log story short, after a few months of email, IM's and phone calls, we ended up together. Now the major problem with this is that she lives the other side of the Atlantic, talk about long distance! We needed to meet up; we wanted to meet up. When the BMEfest came around we had the perfect excuse to send me flying across the sea! Needless to say, we both had an awesome 4 days in La Paz and where then left with 10 days to explore Oklahoma and Dallas.
Carrie has been pierced exclusively by 23rd Street Body Piercing and prior to our trip I'd been there to buy a new circular barbell for my PA and really liked the place. I knew a long time before the BMEfest that I was going to get something done, it was just a case of deciding on what. Work and home life limited any piercing I decided to go for. It would either have to be below the neckline or very, VERY easy to hide. Now one of the people Carrie and myself were chilling out with at the BMEfest was Diana, another IAMer who was sharing a hotel with us. How surprised was I when I discovered she had a 4ga septum? We'd been hanging around with her for 3 days before she pointed it out to me; it was so well disguised! Now I have always wanted a septum piercing, I just figured that I wouldn't be able to hide it very well (I'd heard some horror stories about people who've had their retainers spotted by angry parental units) but after that my mind was made up!
Fast track six days after the BMEfest and we're back in Oklahoma City staying with one of Carrie's friends. I've decided that this piercing will be mine! I don't just want the piercing; I want to have a large piercing. I'm a bit of a gauge-queen... nothing particularly large, I just like my piercings a little bigger than "normal". So after lunch we tracked down to 23rd Street to speak to the guys about it. Now I was set on getting the piercing done at 10ga with a retainer. I didn't want to go any bigger because that would kind of rule out retainers and move on to flipped up circular barbells and I wanted to see how the retainer sat on my face before going any further. Unfortunately all the 10ga retainers had sold out so I decided to go with 12ga, a nice starting point even if it wasn't exactly what I wanted.
Now like I said, I'd been to the studio before and Carrie was a regular so the staff knew us. This included Brent (IAM: Hookboy), the guy that was going to pierce me. After picking out the jewellery and sending it to be autoclaved we exchanged some friendly banter, chatted about the 'fest and so forth. Now as hardcore as I may come off as (or pretend to be at times!), I was a little worried about the pain. I'd had zits in that area as a teenager and they hurt like hell, I was about to have a 12ga needle pushed through there! That's right, I'm a bit of a wuss! I was assured that the procedure was far less painful than my industrial would have been which kind of put me more at ease.
So there we are, stood in the studio chatting when one of the other piercers came out and tell us the room is ready. The moment of truth is upon us! I was lead to the clean room where Brent asked me to lay on his piercing table with my head angled backwards while he cleaned me up. Kind of an odd sensation, having another grown man cleaning your nose for you. After the cleaning was done he marked me up with Carrie stood to one side. Thinking back it would have been nice if we'd had a camera with us to take pictures of the procedure. Back on subject, Brent was soon standing over me lining everything up. I was expecting clamps, after all apparently septums are notorious for being pierced at an angle, but it turns out that Brent is a freehand piercer. I was told to relax, inhale and expect a little pressure. I felt the needle damn near glide through my skin! I couldn't believe how little pain I felt! I exhaled, opened my watering eyes (I said I was put a little more at ease, not totally!) and looked down to see the needle through my nose. A fraction of a second later and the retainer has been added, taking the place of the needle. I sat up to see Carrie smirking at me as I wiped my eyes dry and then turned to face the mirror. I slipped from the table and stepped forward to see a perfectly placed retainer! Turns out that Brent isn't just a freehand piercer, he's a damn good freehand piercer!
After thanking Brent and walking out of the piercing area I was handed a set of very detailed, almost personalised aftercare details. I am highly impressed with the quality of the store and the staff. I have been to many studios in my time for various things and I can truthfully say that I've not received treatment as high as theirs.
So fast track to the night after the piercing. The staff of the studio told me that retainers had a nasty habit of shifting if left down (which mine was), especially while sleeping. This was the moment I was worried about (ok, the second moment), shifting the retainer into its hidden position. I decided that after bathing it with saline solution, which was no easy task, that a pair of Q-tips would probably be the way to go. After barely a second's discomfort the retainer was flipped and hidden from view. Incidentally if anyone reading this is healing a septum piercing or due to get one, I'd recommend mixing your salt-water soak in a mug and then actually placing your nose into the mug and angling the mug so the water covers your nose. After soaking it for a while, take it out and use q-tips that you've soaked with your solution to wipe away any dried blood or crusties. I know that it's likely to get messy but I felt it cleansed the area better then just using soaked q-tips alone.
Now fast track once more, this time to the point in time when I'm writing this. If I didn't know better then I'd say I was fully healed. I can remove the retainer to clean it, flip it when ever it needs to be flipped and put small amounts of pressure on my nose. I can say without a doubt that this has been a dream piercing for me. It's discreet if I choose it to be, it suits me, it was relatively painless, the healing was awesome and most importantly I love it! Eventually I'd like to get up to a 6 or an 8ga but at the moment I'm very, very happy at my 12ga.
Once again, a huge thanks to the staff at 23rd Street Body Piercing, Oklahoma City!
Anyway, I've much work to do. This is Invader Andy, signing off!