For a long, long time I've wanted to get my septum pierced. That's as simple as it comes down to. However, until recently I was still living at home being the tender age of 18, and my parents are incredibly anti-mod. It was made crystal clear to me that if I got any kind of facial (or in fact, other relatively visible mod) then I would no longer have a home. These days, things are different. I live in my own flat in a new city a long way from all those pressures and judgements. And thus my septum was born.
At A Glance Author Sam Cowling Contact Sam Cowling@bme.anon IAM Absinthe When A week ago Artist Sarah Studio Rebel Rebel Location Cardiff, Wales I wanted a way to celebrate the practical emancipation I'd gone through and the obvious answer was to finally make the trip to Carl; my regular piercer back home, on the day I was due to leave and be pierced with a retainer so that I could make it through the last night in my old house with no one the wiser. However, after speaking to Carl about the actual logistics of this I decided against it, the likelihood was that it would be noticed and I'd spend the last night in argument which wasn't really something I wanted to do. So I made the decision to seek out a studio in Cardiff which wasn't an easy thing for me to do. I'm not keen on travelling from artist to artist, I'm one of the people who likes having a rapport with the people performing mods on me. I searched around on BME looking up various experiences covering a range of piercings from the main studios in Cardiff and decided that people seemed to rate Rebel Rebel above anywhere else. I decided to check the top two most reviewed out for myself to decide on where I felt suited me the best, both studios seemed reasonable however Rebel Rebel seemed like the better option for me personally.
Around a week after the initial scouting mission I head for city centre once again and some cash burning in my pocket. I wasn't too apprehensive about the pain of the procedure as I'm pretty well versed in the trials and tribulations of piercing by now with my septum being number 23. I went and spoke to the guy who runs the studio and he said that the other piercer, who if memory serves me right, was named Sarah, would perform the piercing.
I was very set on the idea of having a circular barbell instead of a BCR simply because I don't think that a BCR would look particularly great on me and I like the look of the balls coming out relatively discretely from my nostrils. I asked about the plausibility of a CBB being used and whilst it's apparently quite rare they were happy to do it. With a smile on my face I walked into the back room where piercings themselves are done. I sat up on the table and Sarah took a large pack containing the jewellery and clamps and broke the sterile seal in front of me. The needle was inside another sealed pack and that was opened in front of me as well. She'd put gloves on beforehand and we were good to go. She placed a rubber band around the base of the clamps and explained that this part was often the worst and could take a while to ensure she got everything straight. She went on to say that if I wasn't happy then I could either wait and come back to have it redone or just go for another attempt straight away.
After around five minutes of incredibly sharp feeling from the base of my nose later Sarah seemed happy. This part was definitely the worst of the entire experience, it wasn't painful in the sense that most piercings are, it was just a very acute stabbing feeling that made my eyes water uncontrollably. Sarah picked the needle up and slid it straight through, the clamps were bothering me so much by this point that I didn't really notice the needle going through, I felt it enter and then a sharp pop as it came out the other side and I was pierced! She took a second to get the clamps off which came as a huge relief and I got to have a look at the catheter of the needle to see whether I was happy with the alignment, fortunately it was perfect. Dead straight and good and high in my nose which gives me the best chances of secretiveness where it's needed. With a small laugh Sarah announced that she was going to thread the jewellery through and try and get the ball on. Unfortunately for her the normal gloves they use weren't in so she had to use slightly larger ones that made for an interesting task when trying to screw the ball on. Luckily it went on swiftly and it was all done, a quick clean up and I got to leave.
I'm a week into the healing now and it's feeling great, the whole thing was quite tender and sore for a few days after the piercing but now I can move the ring gently after salt soaking it with no real discomfort at all.
Not only did I get to enjoy the post piercing rush that I'm familiar with but the feeling of being able to finally express myself in a way that's been put down and frowned upon for so long. It's a feeling I'm not giving up for anything, and if you're considering a step like this a septum might just be the thing for you, they have a great aesthetic appeal whilst being something that can easily be hidden if needed. Any questions, drop me an e-mail at aerynsam@gmail.com.