I've been thinking of getting my septum pierced for a while now, but I haven't had the funds (damn you, unemployment!) so it has been put off. But, lo and behold, everything changed last week.
At A Glance Author Hel Contact Hel@bme.anon When A week ago Artist Stephen Studio Evolution Tattoo & Piercing Location Santa Rosa, CA
I arrived in Santa Rosa to visit my boyfriend, Glen, on Wednesday night and he greeted me with a bottle of tequila. Who am I to shun such a warm welcome? Needless to say, we got rather drunk. I mentioned to him that I wanted my septum pierced and, in that strange manner I have of fixating on my desires, would not shut up about it. I even told him that he should get his done too. He, being drunk, agreed and even offered to pay (woo hoo!), and we wrote ourselves a little reminder on some notepaper that we'd go get it done the next day. (It was in fact surprisingly legible.)
The next afternoon, we woke up and found our little reminder paper, which we had not forgotten about despite the inebriation. We cleaned up, had breakfast/lunch, and headed out into town, proving that my boyfriend is a man of his word, despite being to this point mostly anti-piercing. (I also quoted at him that "You should always do sober what you said you'd do drunk - that will teach you to keep your mouth shut." Hee hee.) The one piercing place in town that we knew of was Evolution Tattoo & Piercing, and they've been around a while and are pretty well-known so I figured it was a safe bet. So, in we went.
I was first struck by the cleanliness of the place. This was my first piercing (other than gunned lobes from years ago), so I wasn't too sure what to expect, but I haven't been doing research for nothing, right? Nice atmosphere, lots of tattoo flash on the walls, lots of little curtained rooms along one wall. Rock station on the stereo, loud enough to be noticed but not loud enough to impair conversation. There was a fantastic selection of jewelry in the display cases at the front. A fellow came up to greet us, whom I later found out was Stephen, the piercer. I asked him how much it would put us back, and he said it normally costs $50 including jewelry and after-care stuff, but he has a 'happy hour' on weekdays from 5 to 6 when it only costs $35. Glen and I immediately decided that we were coming back for that.
We went to the theater and saw the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie to kill time, then went back at just after 5. I filled out the form and waited while Stephen set up for me. At this point, Glen wasn't sure if he actually wanted to go through with it or not - he'd been going back and forth all day. When Stephen called me back, Glen came with and stood in the door to watch the proceedings and help make up his mind.
Stephen had me hang up my jacket and purse on a hook on the wall and then had me sit down sideways in the burnt-orange dentist's chair and lean over the arm rest. He wanted to pierce me at 16g originally, but I told him that I wanted to stretch at some point and would it be possible to do 14g, which of course it was.
All the stuff was in sterile bags. He put on a pair of gloves, answered my questions and made idle chatter, got the Vaseline and Dial soap, put everything on the tray, then swapped into a new pair of gloves. I'd told him that I wanted to be able to flip it up, so he opened up the circular barbell and bent it out a bit so it fit my nose. Then he felt around for my sweet spot, cleaned me up with Dial, and broke out the septum clamps. They looked like they'd hurt, so I asked him, but he said they shouldn't. He wrapped a rubber band around them and had me lean forward so he could position them. He took his sweet time finding the right place, but once he found it (with some guidance from me), the clamps closed and hung there with only a small amount of pressure. It barely hurt at all.
Time for a new pair of gloves, and then Stephen lubed up the needle, told me to get ready, and just popped it through. It didn't hurt much - I mean, yeah, it's a needle going through flesh, but I was expecting a lot more pain than I got. After corking the needle, he put some Vaseline on the CBB and put it up flush with the needle, and WHOOSH, with just a flick of his wrist I no longer had a needle in my nose but a brand-new piece of jewelry. He screwed the ball back on, cleaned off the blood with more Dial and q-tips, then asked how I was feeling. Since I wasn't dizzy or light-headed or anything, he had me stand up so I could look at it in the mirror on the wall. It was GORGEOUS! It's perfectly straight and it hangs just right. We headed back out to the front so he could give me his aftercare instruction sheet and a little bag of sea salt. He showed me off to one of the tattoo artists, saying it was "the best septum I've ever done," which made me a very happy girl.
Of course, at this point Glen decided that he would go through with it after all, so he filled out his form and we went back to the room. His was not as easy as mine - the jewelry didn't follow the needle and got stuck halfway through, and it bled like madness until Stephen could get the CBB back out and use a taper to feed it through again, but it came out just as wonderful as mine, if a fair bit more painful.
For the two piercings, it came up to $75 including tax, which is not bad at all. I was very impressed with Stephen and the shop in general. I'll definitely be going back there, especially since he wants us to come back so he can take pictures.
The first couple days it was very sore, and I kept accidentally bumping it on things. I've had it for five days now, though, and the soreness has gone way down. It's healing very nicely and continues to look lovely. I am so very pleased with my septum! The only bad thing is that my friends keep trying to poke it (grr). My reflexes have been getting a workout.