I have always loved piercings. I love how striking well placed jewelry can be, how it adds beauty and an aura of indestructibility to its wearer. My past has been littered with piercings, and all but one, has been self done. But my favorite of all is the piece of steel that sits directly between my nostrils.
At A Glance Author Morrigan Contact Morrigan@bme.anon When Two years ago Artist me Studio my bed Location my house I was on a piercing "roll". I had recently done my two lip rings and my Monroe, but I still felt like I was "missing" something. I wandered around for some time, very unsure of what I wanted done next. Another lip ring? An Industrial? I just couldn't decide.
I had bought this book a few months earlier called "Urban Primitive" and it's about being pagan and living in the city. Well it has a really fascinating section on the magickal aspects of piercings and tattoos. I was casually flipping through it and came across the septum piercing. The book mentioned how it represented being "ring-lead", by not only the piercing, but by your code of ethics. As a religious person, that meant a lot to me, and I decided this was the mod for me.
So there I was, sitting on my bed, brain clouded with boredom, and ready for my next piercing. I got out my box with all my needles, jewelry, plastic gloves and my clamps. I put on my gloves and dug around for the right ring. I settled on a 14g steel horseshoe. I picked out a 14g needle and made sure the seal was still closed because I have the awful habit of keeping old needles.
This could be a good time to mention that these aren't actually body piercing needles, but hollow needles that I bought from the feed store. I hear that they are supposed to be used for putting tags in cows' ears. They are pretty cool, because they come in little individual plastic tubes that are sealed, so I don't have stray needles floating around. Plus they are like 79 cents a piece, and hell, you can't beat that....
Anyway, back to the piercing. So I got my jewelry and my needle, both 14 gauge. And I picked up my clamps, but then put them back and decided to use the tube my needle came in as a receiving tube. For a second I wondered how well it would work, because I never used the receiving tube method, but I through caution to the wind and went with it.
So I got out my mirror and pinched my septum to see where it felt "right" to pierce. I put the tube in one side, and brought the needle up to the other side and applied slight pressure. I'm one of those scaredy-cat kind of people that does piercings really slow. On first contact to my nose, the needle made my eyes water just a little. So I pushed just a little harder and *pop* it went all the way through. It was so smooth, it made me jump, and I just couldn't believe it was done so fast.
Over the next couple days whenever I wrinkled my nose it felt like I was going to sneeze. The healing was fast and there were no complications, even with the fact that I went on an all day trip to Louisiana the very next day and couldn't clean it. I figure the main reason the healing went so well was because it's such an out of the way place, and because I hardly touched it, because I didn't want people to think I was picking my nose. Ha-ha.
I have had the piercing now for about 2 years, and most of the time I completely forget it is there. I have had my eyebrow, my nostril, my Monroe, 8 lip rings, 6 earrings (2 stretched) and my septum, and my septum gave me the least trouble and pain of the lot. I usually only remember when little kids walk up to me and with their mouths held wide open ask, "Did that hurt?" I also love my piercing because my best friends' daughter calls it my "ring-nose", and that is just too cute.
Now I have two things to say about this whole experience. If you can, please go to a piercer. Your health is important, and even if you are not worried about that, improperly pierced body parts can leave nasty scars. If you can't go to a professional, really, be safe. Safety pins and a lighter are not appropriate for piercing ANYTHING. Also, use good jewelry; it will save you a lot of grief later.
Second, if you are considering a septum piercing, go for it, I have never once regretted mine. And there are a lot of "pros" to a septum piercings. You can hide them, for school, work, parents, what-not. And some of the looks you get are priceless, if you find that kind of thing funny, like I do.