I have gotten plenty of piercings. Tongue, multiple ear piercings (conch, tragus, anti-tragus, 1/2 inch lobes, plus two other simple 14g lobe piercings.) I had never considered piercing my septum. If anything, it was the one piercing I said I would never get, mainly because it just looked painful. The image of it made me cringe.
At A Glance Author Courtnie Contact stfu_kthx@cox.net When N/A Artist Corey Studio Effum Location Baton Rouge, LA My boyfriend had once had his septum pierced and decided he wanted it done again. The more he talked about it, the more I decided I wanted a new piercing too. I was considering adding to my ear piercings because my left ear had more piercings than my right ear, and I was going to get a snug piercing to balance things out. But, I did not have any facial piercings and wanted one. I really wanted a labret or monroe piercing but those cannot be hidden.
My boyfriend and I both work at a correctional facility that was very strict on piercings and tattoos of course, so a septum piercing would be ideal because it is easily hidden. We discussed it and had decided that on a Friday we would go get it done together.
Friday finally rolled around and I was nervous as hell. I usually do not get nervous about piercings but I was scared of the pain. I kept telling myself that when I got it, it would hurt but it would only hurt for a minute, as piercings usually do. However, this was not the case.
After work I went to his house and we then decided to find a tattoo studio. We had decided to go to my usual place, American Tattoo and were informed that my piercer no longer worked there. Uh oh. On to the next studio. We went to Wild Things, but they were closed. So we went up and down Government Street trying to find an open shop and decided on Effum. I had not heard much about the shop, but we had always seen people hanging out in front of it so we figured why not?
We would soon figure out exactly why not. We went into the shop and there was a girl getting a tattoo finished. None of the piercers seemed very anxious to pierce our septums, and most seem even reluctant, but another artist convinced Cory to do it. This was a sign that we should have left. We paid for the piercing and filled out the paperwork. My boyfriend decided he was going first. We asked if they could pierce it with a retainer and they said they did not have any. They also did not have much jewelry for us to choose from. Another sign of a bad shop. We should have left then and waited until the next day when more shops would be open, but we both really wanted it done. So we picked our jewelry and Zeke got his pierced first. His went smoothly and then it was my turn. I sat in the chair and closed my eyes. In went the needle. It burned. A lot. But I dealt with it and we left. As soon as we got in the car, we both agreed we were never going back there again and that we should have waited.
My nose hurt pretty badly the next day. We went to Atomic Tattoo to find septum retainers. This shop didn't have them either, but the piercer, Margaret, agreed to change my jewelry into something smaller so I could flip it up into my nose. She changed it and it didn't hurt as bad as I thought it would. The next week at work, it was rough. My nose was always irritated. My nose is so small that I had problems getting the jewelry into my nose and flipping it back down. I ordered retainers online for my boyfriend and myself that weekend and we changed it on a Sunday night before work. My nose was still very sensitive and his had healed fine. I think mine is a little off-center, and that might explain some of the pain.
It has been about a month or so since we got our septums pierced and my nose still hurts sometimes, like if someone hits it, even lightly, but I have heard that septum piercings can take 6 to 8 months to heal, which means I still have a while to go. His does not hurt at all. For me, putting jewelry in for a while is generally uncomfortable. I definitely do not recommend Effum. They were not very professional at all and if a studio is not anxious to do the piercing, that is not a good sign. I am having surgery September 21st and have to take all of my jewelry out. I decided that I am going to take it my septum piercing out and let heal and then get it repierced after the surgery, hopefully by a more professional shop.