I'm a 16 year old girl with 5 lobe piercings, 3 in my right lobe, 2 in my left. To the outside world, I look normal, perhaps a little 'ned-ish'. But this facade masks the real me, the old me, the 12 year old me who used to jump about in lashings of black eyeliner and lipstick, listening to Staind and Korn, and was fascinated with body modification. Back then, I wanted a gazillion ear piercings, 3 eyebrow piercings and a labret. Thank god my mother wouldn't allow it, because 4 years later, and I don't want any of those piercings anymore.
At A Glance Author Rona Contact Rona@bme.anon When A week ago Artist John Studio Nirvana Piercing Location Trongate, Glasgow On the 9th of June, 2006, I was planning to go and get my tragus pierced the next day. A nice, inconspicuous piercing which was becoming quite popular with the girls in my area. A piercing which wouldn't earn me gawks, stares and taunts. I had been reading the experiences on BME for a while, felt confident that this was the piercing for me, and that it would fit in nicely on my left ear. There was one problem. I had never had a cartilage piercing before. And as the tragus is a fairly thick piece of cartilage, I chickened out. Too painful, too scary, too hard to heal, I thought.
But I wanted a piercing, not just for the sake of it, not just to annoy my parents in my oh-so-wild 'teenage rebellion', but to mark the beginning of yet another new era in my life. I thought hard about it, and all of a sudden, it came to me. The septum. This piercing had never particularly appealed to me, but I always thought it looked lovely if you wore the right jewellery in it. The fact that it could be hidden sold it to me. I sadly waved goodbye to my idea of a tragus, at least for the moment, and turned my attention to septum experiences.
The next day, the 10th, and my little brother's 9th birthday, my boyfriend and I got the bus into town. I hadn't talked to him about what I was getting done, because I knew he wouldn't like it, and would almost certainly try to talk me out of it. We walked around for a while, I was getting pissed off because it was too hot and I couldn't find the shoes I wanted. Eventually I traipsed into Nirvana piercing for the first time, asking the boy to wait outside. I was kinda starting to get nervous at this point. The guy at the desk said they could do my septum that day, so I booked an appointment for 5 o'clock, 45 minutes away, and walked out. The boyfriend and I went to sit in Glasgow Green. He kept trying to guess what I was having done, but I wouldn't tell him.
When we got back to Nirvana, I filled in all the necessary paperwork etc, with shaking hands. Eventually it was my turn to go into the piercing room. Everything was clean and white, like a hospital room kinda. The piercer's name was John, and he was really friendly, putting all my nerves at ease. He cleaned everything down, changing gloves and washing his hands a ton. Strangely I didn't mind having a stranger feel around in my nose and clean it. Eventually I lay down on the bed, and was told not to move my head, which I got anxious about. I felt the needle poke against my nose, and was told by John to inhale, then exhale. I tried to, but I don't think it was very noticable, my lungs had apparantly siezed up with nerves.
I felt a small stinging in my nose, and realised that the needle was through the first layer of skin and bit in the middle. Another second later and it was out the other side. I was amazed, it had been practically painless. It didn't hurt when he put in the retainer and flipped it up either. My eyes watered like crazy though. John went over aftercare etc., and I paid and left.
My boyfriend wasn't too happy about the whole thing, and it caused some arguements, but that's a story for another time. For the first 3 days, I felt like I'd been punched in the nose. I couldn't move the lower half of my face very much, laughing too hard hurt and forget kissing! I was panicking slightly, as this is my first proper piercing, and I wasn't sure what to expect. I thought this pain meant that my nose was going to fall off or something. Then on the 4th day, I suddenly realised that it didn't hurt too much. Now, just over a week later, it only hurts if I push up on the tip of my nose. I've been cleaning it twice daily with salt water and cotton buds, and have surprised myself by not touching it too much. I haven't flipped the retainer down yet, but by the looks of things, it's pierced straight, which I'm happy about.
All in all, my septum experience so far has been a positive one, and I'm looking forward to having it healed and wearing it down.