| At A Glance | |
| Author | Danny |
| Contact | Danny@bme.anon |
| IAM | danny.frost |
| When | A month ago |
| Artist | Me |
| Studio | My room, various other locations |
I was in class one day and had my jewelry (a 12g green titanium CBB) flipped down..I'd completely forgotten about it simply because none of my teachers really cared about it, mainly because I got good grades and I never acted up in class. The computer teacher at my school, however, saw it differently. She told the principal, who promptly came upstairs, fed me a lie about how they needed to talk to me about something. Afterwards, I was led to the assistant principal's room, and was asked repeatedly where my "nose ring" was. As it turns out, authority figures don't like to be corrected..I repeatedly told him that I had no such nose ring, and that what I had was a septum piercing. After finally convincing him to use the correct term, I willingly removed the circular barbell from my septum, placed it inside of an envelope, and was told to retrieve it at the end of the day. Luckily, the end of MY day was approximately 20 minutes later, which didn't please him. He handed the envelope over, and the circular barbell went back into my septum while I walked across the parking lot to my car.
About a day or so later, I figured something that was easily hidden would be a better choice of jewelry. I happened to be at the mall, and thusly, purchased a 10g clear acrylic plug/pincher set from the dreaded Hot Topic. Once in the parking lot, I cleaned it off, and slid it in..no problems whatsoever. It worked perfectly, and I wasn't given any trouble the rest of the year, as I generally wore the clear plug in my septum, making it completely invisible unless I scrunched my nose up to allow someone to see it. Admittedly, wearing, and more specifically, STRETCHING with acrylic, is a bad idea, but it was my main option in this case, simply because I needed something that would be practically invisible to keep the school administration off of my back.
The 10g jewelry remained in my nose for a couple of months, until one night I had purchased a new 8g pincher with the intent of stretching it. As with the stretch to 10g, the 8g slid right in, as the hole had loosened up. Unfortunately, I've got really poor planning, and I had to work at 4 a.m. the next day. I had to flip up the pincher into my nose before I was allowed to start working for the day, which was slightly unpleasant.
That same pincher remained in my nose, once again, for about 2 months, at which time I decided I would stretch it yet again. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any pinchers in this size, so I had to use an actual taper. The 6g stretch was probably my most excruciatingly painful stretch to date, and that is why I now recommend to everyone I know who stretches their septum to wait a long time between stretches, as the skin loosens up on its own and makes stretching much easier. The taper slid through fine, but I hadn't yet began to form a dent into my cartilage, so it slowly formed over the following month or so. It was horrifically painful for about 3 weeks, at which point it began to calm down.
I stayed at 6g for approximately 5 months, which made the stretch to 4g a LOT easier. Allowing it to loosen up naturally made the entire stretching experience much more satisfying. To ensure ease of stretching, I wore a 6g circular barbell for a bit of weight at night for about a month before even attempting to stretch to 4g. When the time finally came, I hung my set of keys from the circular barbell, and let it stay for about a minute. My nose was slightly sore afterwards, but the 4g pincher I'd acquired thanks to the internet slid in with no problems. The normal post-stretching soreness lingered for about a week or two, and afterwards, I had a nice upward dent forming in my cartilage. I purchased a variety of jewelry for this size, including acrylic plugs and glass plugs..my septum was incredibly happy for quite a while. I remained at 4g for approximately 3-4 months, until one day, I got the urge to stretch yet again.
At night, around the beginning of April, I decided that it was the point I would be most prepared for the stretch, and thusly, I went for it. The 2g taper slid in quite easily, with absolutely no resistance. My only problem is that I'm not the most coordinated person ever, so matching the plug up with the end of the taper was a bit of a challenge. After repeated tries, I almost decided to give up, but I finally got it. My septum was officially at 2g, and I was ecstatic about it. I wore a cat's eye plug in it for about a week, but then switched it to an acrylic plug (my septum seems to heal very well using acrylic, though I'm not sure why). The funk was unbearable for the first two days or so, but it got better after about a week.
Now, approximately 3 weeks later, I can easily switch jewelry, but I've been wearing a steel tunnel in it, simply due to the fact that it's extremely lightweight. I'll probably acquire a spring-loaded CBR at some point in the near future, to aid in the stretching to 1g, and finally 0g. After 0g, I'll debate over whether or not it needs to be stretched more..haha. Septums are basically the ONLY piercing (with the possible exception of labrets) that I would recommend weight stretching for, as they tend to make the skin loosen up faster.
As a note, my aftercare after all of my stretches consisted of carefully washing around the area if it got particularly funky-smelling, and leaving it alone as much as possible.
If any questions exist about this topic, you can either IM me on IAM, or email me, since I generally have nothing better to do.
