I had been getting antsy for another piercing (or even a tattoo) for a while. My biggest concern with whatever I did next was ease of healing. I had previously had a bad experience with the healing of one of my earlobe piercings and didn't want to replicate that.
At A Glance Author Shane Contact Shane@bme.anon When It just happened Artist Lysa Studio Industrial Strength Location Berkeley, CA The other day on my daily commute I got to talking with a guy who had a septum piercing. I chatted with him for a while about his experience and aftercare. He said that it barely hurt and that his aftercare was a cinch. I previously hadn't been too keen on septum piercings, but the piercing looked really good on him.
My biggest fear about another piercing was getting it caught on something, but the septum piercing seemed like a tough place for something to catch on.
Since I am a dork about these things I hit bmezine reading over people's experiences, especially those local to me. After reading this post about her septum-piercing abilities, I knew I wanted Lysa at Industrial Strength in Berkeley to do my piercing.
As usual I started calling up all my friends I knew were free on a Saturday to see who would be the lucky one to come along and watch me get my septum pierced. I couldn't find any takers. Finally I called my friend Claudine who was willing to hang out with me immediately after I got my piercing done (she didn't want to watch). I took what I could get.
After getting a huge slice of pizza I jumped on MUNI, and then on BART, and finally found myself in Berkeley. I was still hungry, so I found a hot dog. Finally I screwed up my courage (seriously contemplating getting a touch of the liquid kind first) and walked into Industrial Strength.
Industrial Strength is awesome. It is huge and inviting. It has a variety of display cases with some really amazing jewelry, great tattoo art on the walls, and an old-school dentist's chair in the waiting area.
Having called the previous day to ask when Lysa was working I walked up to the woman at the counter (a cute blond/brunette w/ dreads and a multitude of facial piercings) and said: "Hi there, I'd like to get my septum pierced by Lysa."
The girl kind of stared at me blankly for a second and then said "well, I'm Lysa... and as soon as I put this woman's jewelry in I can help you out!" I felt like a bit of a dork, but started filling out the paperwork she handed me anyway.
After filling out the paperwork I perused the display cases a bit trying to walk off the quickly-tightening knots in my stomach. I noticed Lysa was back at the counter so I walked over and saw a great little information sheet taped to the counter. Basically it said: External threading is Bad! Internal threading is Good!
I thought to myself: "Wow! We have come quite a long way with regards to piercing if there is now an argument raging between external and internal threading for jewelry! Awesome!" I would prefer internally threaded jewelry myself, but could never find it anywhere when I was looking. I asked her about it and she said they only carried internally threaded jewelry. I so knew I came to the right place!
I had earlier told Lysa that I wanted to get pierced with a retainer, so she pulled out a box of different gauge retainers. She asked if I was thinking 14, 12, 10... I told her I wanted to see what my "sweet spot" would handle, but that it was probably somewhere in there. She said that she would take one of each and sterilize them all just in case.
Lysa and I started to chat about where I was from and about the fact that I was moving soon. As we did this, she took me back to one of the piercing rooms and started prepping. She asked why I had come "all the way" from San Francisco to get pierced in Berkeley. I told her I had read a really great review of her abilities regarding this piercing on bmezine. She smiled.
She said she was an avid reader, but stayed away from reading anything about specific piercers, especially herself. I told her the review wasn't so much about her, but that the reviewer had had a really positive experience with her. She was happy about that.
She started to sterilize the jewelry and folding gloves. I was a bit confused as to why she was folding gloves until I noticed that she was laying them in the sterilization container. "Wow! They even sterilize the gloves they are going to wear! This place rocks!" I thought to myself.
Lysa then gave me the "schpiel" about septum piercings: they are hard to get straight, normally don't hurt too much, and that I would get teary-eyed. She also said that she wouldn't let me leave with a crooked piercing and would repierce it then and there. I let her know that I knew that was the case and wouldn't have it any other way.
Lysa then had me lay back on the table. She tore open a couple of sterilized probes and told me that she was going to "dig around" in my nose with them in order to get a feel for where my "sweet spot" was and how big it was. After she found it she would mark it with a dye-covered toothpick. She said that people often said that this was the part that hurt the most. She changed her gloves for what by then had to be the fifth time and commenced "digging." After about five minutes or so, she found the "sweet spot" and had marked it, as well as a line across the bottom of my nose for lining things up.
After getting a few more things set up and changing gloves a few more times as well, she took out a guiding tube and put it up against the septum. She told me I would feel a bit of a prick (I did) as she lined the (12 G) needle up. She then told me to take a large breath in...
I knew what was about to happen now, so I cleared my head and took a deep breath in. She then told me to slowly let it out. As I did so I could feel the needle starting to go through. I was pretty excited because up until midway through it barely hurt. Once it got midway though I got hit by some pain and my eyes started tearing up. The pain wasn't the worst I had ever felt, but it was pain. I breathed through it until she got all the way through. (There was a little extra pain as she pushed some more of the lengthy needle through the opening.)
Since I had my eyes closed at this point due to their having massively teared up I assume at this point she got the retainer and lined it up. She then told me to "wiggle my toes." Being in a somewhat "altered state" due to the piercing I just kind of dumbly did so, during which time she slid the rest of the needle out and followed it with the retainer.
And we were done!
I sat up, after wiping my eyes off with some gauze she gave me, and laughed about the "wiggle your toes" bit. She said "yeah, I learned it from someone a bunch of years back and thought I was the only one out here who used it, but then a little while ago we had a piercer come in who used it, and I was like 'That's my line!'"
She started telling me about aftercare: that I should gently clean it at the end of my showers, sea-salt soak it before going to sleep, and flip it up while sleeping. She said to be careful both when washing and sleeping - it can fall out somewhat easily.
About that time another guy came into the room (I am assuming another piercer) and Lysa showed me how to flip the retainer up - by kind of lengthening my nose and pushing it up with my fingers. She did it for me. I looked in the mirror - couldn't see a thing. Then again, the piercing is so high up that only the ends of the retainer are visible when it is flipped "down." I asked how to get it back down and she said just by pulling it down (and did so for me - thought with some ). The guy mentioned that when he had a retainer he would just push the flesh of the nose to get it down - especially if you didn't want to be sticking your fingers up your nose. She told me also that I should wait 6 months to size up, if I wanted, and to wait 6 weeks before changing the jewelry.
We then headed back out to the counter to "settle up." She asked about soap and I said I just had body wash, so she gave me some peppermint Dr. Bronners. She said it was concentrated; so I should build up a lather in my hand first before using it in my nose. I also asked for some sea salt - which she gave me a little baggy of and with a sheet saying how much to use.
At that point I remembered I wanted to size up my ears, so asked for some 10G circular barbells. She showed me the different diameters and gave me a hand mirror to model them. I picked a pair out and added them to the bill.
I had mentioned that I was going to OR soon for a vacation and would soon be moving to NYC, so she offered to give me the names of a couple good piercing places in each state. She also suggested I go to one place in Philly that she thought was piercing nirvana.
I paid the bill and tipped her generously, since it was an awesome experience and she was damn cool. As I was about to walk out, she asked me what size shirt I wore. I told her and asked her why she wanted to know. She said she wanted to give me a shirt! I was floored! I came in here to get a piercing, and I was going to leave with a piercing, a t-shirt, and a new friend! No wonder I still had the goofy "I just got pierced" grin on my face!
She then gave me an awesome looking black shirt with an Industrial logo on it and the word "Berkeley." She also told me to come back again before I left for New York. I told her I most definitely would. I then walked out and walked around with a grin on my face for another 10 minutes while I waited for my friend.
On my walk home this evening I started thinking about why we (or at least I) get pierced. Sure, there is that awesome adrenaline rush and the goofy "afterglow," but I think there is something more. Maybe these thoughts come to me because I have just started reading Geek Love, but I think we do it because we know we are different. We know we are different and instead of wanting to be normal (like we do when we are children) we embrace our differences, so much so, that we want to put them on display. We want people to see that we are different - but also to know that we are proud of our differences, not ashamed.
I plan on getting more piercings in my life; this I know. Each piercing seems to signify another step I have taken towards embracing my difference, my "otherness." This is a journey I want to continue on.
Thank you Lysa, for helping me take another step on this journey of mine.