| At A Glance | |
| Author | Sophie |
| Contact | Sophie@bme.anon |
| IAM | MyDaydream |
| When | A year ago |
Pre Septum days.
I never liked my nose. It looks like my grandmothers, is a little red and sometimes gets freckles that just make me look like I don't wash enough. So like anything I don't care for I decided that piercing it was the solution. I had a nose ring and the septum ring came a few years later. It was well thought out, I knew I wanted it, I walked around with oversized rings attached to it on occasion to make sure I liked it. I can't say exactly why I wanted it done, I thought it looked pretty, my piercer always told me how pretty she found them, and got quite excited when I said I wanted it doing. Ultimately, like most of my piercings it came down to aesthetics, which is probably why it fell out of favour so quickly.
With the Septum
Before I got the piercing I never saw septums, apart from on the internet I don't think I'd ever seen more than a handful in my life. But of course as soon as I had mine I spotted them everywhere. Some small and delicate, the type I hoped to have eventually, and some larger gauge ones with interestingly coloured rings through them. I was surprised to see so many, but I suppose it's the same as everything. You just don't notice some things unless you're actually thinking of them.
I'd always intended to take the 16g ring I'd been pierced with down to a smaller 18g ring with a smaller diameter too. I didn't do this right away, I got myself new piercings, and they always seem to come before the jewellery I want in. But eventually I'd had enough; I hated the way the ring looked on my face. I thought it seemed bulky and made me look more masculine than I actually wanted to be.
So I went and got the ring changed to something smaller. My piercer Sarah said that it'd be no problem at all, and we chose the smallest diameter ring that she thought would work and sat me down in her chair. She took the old ring out and we tried to put the new one in. She pushed and poked with no luck, we tried this way for five minutes before we stopped to give my nose a rest so it didn't get sore. I wanted this ring in and was willing to try anything to get it. I loved my septum piercing; I just didn't love the diameter of the ring I was wearing. I wanted a small delicate ring.
She had a new idea, she'd put a taper smaller than the ring through my nose to give her an idea where she should be aiming. She got out a taper and held it in her hand, reassuring me because I looked quite scared about what she was holding. Looking at it before lubricating it to slipping it into my nose she saw what I was scared about, she was holding something at least ½" in size. We had a good laugh about it and she picked out a smaller taper instead. Lube, and she felt around, eventually finding the hole she pulled it out and made me tip my head right back.
It didn't work. So she said that she'd twist the ring open a little more so there was more space to put it in. A few more minutes of messing around and the ring went through. My nose was a little sore, but now I just needed the little clasp put in and I was good to go. Well, of course it wasn't that simple, but it was a lot more simple than getting the ring in! It had taken 15 minutes, but I had a newer, cuter ring in there. I was happy, I paid and went out into the waiting room where my boyfriend was waiting. Sarah's parting words to me were "now don't ever think of taking that out!" I laughed with her, but honestly, I was happy again, so the idea of taking it out never even occurred to me.
It was going well, my mum had noticed that I'd had the ring changed to something smaller and I thought I looked more ladylike with my smaller ring that sat comfortably against my nose. It was cute.
The removal and the following days
My love of the piercing didn't last very long after I had it changed though. I'd had it in maybe 6 months now, it was summer and I was feeling particularly unattractive since it was so hot and I was feeling sticky and nasty all the time. My septum piercing once again looked too big but I couldn't bring myself to go through another fifteen minutes of discomfort to have another ring put in there.
And then I was asked to read a poem at my aunts wedding. My family didn't like my mods but they accepted me, but I thought that this was a sign that I should take the ring out. So in August I decided I wanted the piercing removed. But I couldn't bring myself to go to my usual piercer after what she had said a couple of months earlier about taking it out.
So I made sure my breath smelt minty fresh and went to see Paul in Bradford. I explained what I wanted doing, and he tried to get the ring out. The clasp came off easily, but the ring just wouldn't come past my septum. I explained how Sarah had got it in, but he ignored me and instead tried again to pull the ring past my septum, which was obviously wider than the gap in the ring. Eventually he opened the ring a little and it slipped right out. I thanked him and left, septum piercingless but happy.
Over the next few days I found it weird that it wasn't in. A few people didn't actually notice that it was gone until I pointed it out, and the only thing I missed was being able to play with it with my top lip. I'm sure my lip ring got less hassle when I had the septum piercing than now since I have a tendency to play with my piercings when I'm nervous.
The weekend after I became septum piercingless I went to a music festival where I saw lots of piercings, I saw so many rejecting surface piercings I wanted to cry, and also quite a few septum piercings. Each one that I looked at I decided that I had made the right choice removing mine, and decided then that I would never allow myself to get it repierced. I knew that it would be a mistake, and it just wasn't a piercing for me. I would never be one of those girls who could look delicate and ladylike with a ring in her septum.
I have had a few problems with my nose since removing the piercing. Occasionally it stings like when I first got it pierced, and if I have a cold blowing it so much can irritate it slightly. Mostly I notice that my septum is a little crooked, something that I had never seen before but now notice every time I pay close attention to the mirror. I can't decide if it's always been like that or the piercing has done something, although sensible me knows that it's just my imagination.
Now
It's been seven months now since I took my septum ring out and I'm so much happier with my appearance. I now put me not liking my piercing down to a lot of changes that were happening in my appearance at the time that I got it. For years before I had the piercing I'd been dying my hair black, and I'd had enough. So as more blonde started appearing the less I liked my septum. Now when I look back at the photographs where I have my septum piercing I find that on most of them I look odd. I do like a few photographs of me with the ring in my nose, but not enough for me to consider getting it repierced.
I was asked the other day if I missed my septum, and without even thinking about it I said no. There was nothing to miss, it was a brief love affair, but like all love affairs it had to end somehow.