At A Glance Author katie Contact katie@bme.anon When A month ago Artist Jerry Studio Shiva's Location Fresno, CA For probably a couple of years I've been wanting a large gauge septum piercing, but sadly the highest gauge I'd been able to reach was a 4 gauge (my nose has very tough cartilage, so it had proven very painful&difficult to stretch). As well as it was hard to wait at the individual gauges because I didn't WANT a small gauge septum, I wanted a big one. And I wanted it NOW.
After letting my second regular gauge (especially frustrating and disheartening) septum piercing close, and after sitting around seriously marinating in the idea in my mind for a few weeks, I decided it was a great decision to get it done nice and smooth and clean, and all at once, and dermal punch it.
I called my one and only trusty piercer, Jerry, who also performed the dermal punch in my ear cartilage approximately 3 months ago (he also happens to be the only piercer in my city of Fresno who isn't scared to death over dermal punches), and told him I was going to bring in some jewelry for the procedure, a 0g double flared stainless steel tunnel. I decided on this jewelry because A) I hate to hassle with O-rings, and B) due to it being a tunnel there'd be no worries about having to remove and re-insert a fresh piercing, when in certain unfriendly environments.
I biked to the shop (in retrospect, this was not my brightest move), we chatted for awhile, and Jerry told me he was going to use a 00g taper to insert the jewelry, due to the flare, which sounded like a good idea to me. I layed down, scooted back, and Jerry cleaned me up and placed the dermal punch. This time around the punch was much more painful, it was mostly through the membrane but also he nicked a little of the cartilage, to prevent the jewelry from being pushed downwards. It bled very little, but after getting up I felt a little lightheaded.
Looking in the mirror, I was a little taken aback. My nose looked totally fucked up, it was crooked and very swollen (that took almost a week to subside). There was pain, but I had already accepted the fact this was going to be a painful piercing, and took it in stride. Like always, the endorphins were there to help my body through it.
As I mentioned briefly before, I'd biked to the shop and well the ride home was a little more rough. It was cold outside which was totally murdering my fresh dermal punch. You can bet that I felt every bump in the road.
Honestly, I only cleaned this piercing once, with saltwater, then decided to just let my bodies natural healing powers do it's job, which seems to work best for the numerous septum piercings I have had, assumingly because they are surrounded by mucous and are pretty well shielded by the rest of your nose (hey that bump on your face is good for something!). Two weeks later my nose was feeling pretty good and was already producing that funky smell which means that new skin cells are generating, and that your piercing is very healthy. I took this as a great sign.
The only real complaint I have about this piercing, and it's not so much about the piercing, but that is there really isn't a lot of jewelry that works well with this piercing, assumingly because not very many people are host to this piercing, in this larger gauge. I discovered that I couldn't wear septum spikes because my nostrils are even with my septum, so the spikes just push my nostrils up and it's totally ridiculous. And with my small face, It's impossible to find any rings in such a large gauge but with a small enough diameter. Not that the tunnel is treating me badly, the tunnel is great, but I definitely want to change jewelry sometime, as soon as I am able to find something that will work with all the components of my face and piercing.
Approximately one month later it's just about the same as it was before, minus some of the crust, but that was to be expected as dermal punches seem to crust for an infinite amount of months before giving it a rest, it just seems to be natural, so I let it do it's thing. My opinion on dermal punches in general is that they are far superior to needles in terms of firstly the initial experience of the piercing and also in the end result, after the piercing has healed. I am currently planning another dermal punch of my conch, likely in a size 00g, but first I am going to settle in and become familiar with this new addition to my face.
Thanks again Jerry.