I've always been a big fan of piercings, and a few months ago, I decided to go ahead and get one. I used it as a reward for myself – if I didn't eat any sweets until my cousin's wedding, I would use the money I saved to get my nose pierced. In the meantime, I looked up places to get it done and visited them to check out the conditions. I also checked out aftercare procedures on the net. I decided I wanted to get my nose done, because it's a fairly tame piercing to begin with, and I didn't want to scare my parents too much. After reading some people's stories about nose piercings, I started getting a bit nervous – I seemed to have picked one of the tougher piercings to start with. But I stuck with it. I'd already had my ears pierced when I was twelve, and passed out – turns out they were one of my 'special areas'. So I figured it wouldn't be any worse than that.
At A Glance Author popecatapetal When A month ago Artist nerves made me forget Studio Celestial Ring Location Dublin, Ireland I picked Celestial Ring in the Stephen's Green Centre in Dublin to get it done in because the staff there had been very friendly when I had gone in looking for information, and also because the place looked absolutely spotless. I brought my boyfriend along to use as a squeeze toy in case the going got rough, then I filled in the forms, picked out my pretty little captive bead ring, and we all squished into the piercing room.
In my nervousness, I didn't catch my piercer's name, but he was a very friendly chap with impressively stretched lobes (which freaked me and my ultra-sensitive ears out a little). He gave me the spiel about the procedure and the sterility and the aftercare, all of which I knew from my research, but which he did very nicely – not too bored, even though he'd probably done it a few thousand times by then. I sat up on the bed and he cleaned my nose and marked two possible spots that would suit. I picked the one I preferred, and he clipped the ring to it to check that it looked right. And then away we went.
First of all he pushed a piece of metal pipe into my nostril, which would stop the needle from giving me a septum and right-nostril piercing all at once (which I had been quite worried about). He said this was what most people found to be most uncomfortable about the whole process. I found this unlikely, seeing as the rest of the process involved a needle piercing cartilage, but I said nothing. He then told me to close my eyes and take a deep breath in, and that he would push the needle through as I breathed out. It went in very easily, and the metal tube worked its magic and stopped it going any farther. It wasn't much more painful than the needle going into your arm when you give blood. My boyfriend said he was pleasantly surprised that I hadn't cut off the blood supply to his hand.
The piercer then turned back to his desk area to prepare the ring to go in. I'm not too sure what he did to it, because his back was to me, but I do know that he just left the needle hanging in my nose while he did so. At this point, I still had my eyes closed, but my boyfriend had to excuse himself and walk around the shopping centre for a while to stop himself being sick. (Since then he's tried to give blood and fainted, so he seems to have a pretty bad subconscious fear of needles). The piercing chap and I had a bit of a giggle about him while he was gone, and then he got back to the business of exchanging the needle for the ring. It was surprisingly not painful at all. The clamp he was waving about in front of my nose was quite intimidating, but it was just used to hold the ring steady, so I was very grateful for it.
Then we were done, and the piercer and I chatted about orangutans for a while until my boyfriend returned. I then paid and we headed home. It wasn't really painful at all at any point during the healing, even that first day, although I did notice myself unconsciously wiggling my nose a lot, which made it feel quite weird. Also, for the first few days, I kept on thinking there was a drop of water on the bottom of my glasses and taking them off to clean them, only to realize that I was just seeing the captive bead out of the corner of my eye.
A couple of notes:
1. If you, like me, are prone to colds, be warned – things will get messy. It's tough to blow your nose when you're worried about tearing your nostril. And snot tends to build up on the ring and make it very tricky to turn when you're cleaning it.
2. If you, like me, enjoy playing with things when you are bored, try to break the habit before you get this piercing. You'll just end up twisting something into the hole and getting lots and lots of goo coming out for the next few days.
Other than that, it's a brilliant piercing. I really love mine. I feel so confident with it. Before I got it done, I kept asking my boyfriend if he thought it would suit me, and he always said it would. Then when I came out of the studio and he saw it done, he said "wow, it actually looks nice!" which is high praise from him! My family didn't particularly like it, but then I wasn't expecting to. I think they'll get used to it in time. And also the lip ring I'll be getting in July:)