It was my 18th birthday, and I knew from as far back as a year that it was also the day I was going to get my septum pierced.
At A Glance Author _Ann When Three months ago Artist Clay Studio Infinite Body Piercing, Inc. Location Philadelphia, Pennsylvania I remember first seeing this piercing on people when I was 12 or 13 and thinking that it looked unnecessary- like it took up a person's whole face. I told myself that, no matter how much I got into piercings, I would never go and get that one done on myself.
I obviously changed my mind after that when I started to become more knowledgeable about piercings in general. I would spend days browsing the BME pictures and stories, looking to see how various piercings looked in accordance with their face shapes, hair, etc. However, the piercing that I did consistently notice was the septum, and it was almost exclusively for good reasons. People who had their septums pierced automatically radiated a certain kind of confidence, because they were out of the ordinary and totally beautiful.
Another aspect of this piercing that I really liked was that it could be invisible if I needed it to be. I work in an area where people are not very accepting of body modifications, from hair color changes to piercings, primarily because of their age. Knowing that I could not afford to lose this job, the septum piercing idea sounded great because I could simply conceal it. I could also hide it from my father, who is very conservative and definitely not into peircings of any sort—he had a fit when I got my first ear piercings at 5.
Once I figured out that I absolutely could not live without this piercing, I started to plan. I generally don't like people who make foolish and uninformed decisions, so I wanted to make sure that I went into the piercing room with as much knowledge on the piercing, the jewelry, and the aftercare as possible.
One of my friends got her septum pierced, and she must have gone absolutely crazy with the number of questions I asked her about her piercing, the process, etc. She was lucky enough to have her parents take her to get it, and it frustrated me that I had to wait. Still, she was very helpful in giving me information about what I probably wanted (a retainer, so that I could wear it flipped up and not harm the piercing) and what I didn't want (I didn't want a low gauged piece of jewelry because I didn't want it to overwhelm my face). I even found myself talking to complete and total strangers about their septum piercings—I got into a 20-minute conversation with a man who came into my job about his and learned a lot.
So I continued to look at pictures on BME and other websites before the big day. I got myself so hyped about it that I couldn't sleep at all the night before—all I could think about was how great it would look and how smoothly everything would go.
There was no question as to where I was going to get it. I live near Philadelphia, and all of my pierced friends got theirs done at Infinite off South Street. I had done some of my own amateur piercings when I was younger (some of them to my regret) but I knew that my first professional one had to be perfect. I knew all about the cleanliness and professionalism of everyone that worked there, so I wasn't at all concerned about anything at all.
When the big day came, everything went according to plan. My friend accompanied me, since I had been there when he got his first piercing. We headed up to the shop, which luckily was not too busy, and I told them what I wanted. The only glitch in the system was that I forgot to eat—I had been so excited the whole day that I couldn't think about putting food in my stomach. They made me go eat a piece of pizza at Lorenzo's before they would do anything to me.
It was right after that my friend left me. He unfortunately had somewhere to go, and felt badly about leaving me all alone. Still, I was nervous enough that I didn't really want to talk anyways, so I say there by myself until someone called me over.
That someone was named Clay. He was very nice and very friendly, and laughed when I told him that he should check my ID because it was my 18th birthday and I was celebrating. I felt at ease with him right away, especially after I saw that he had his septum pierced as well. I told him that I wanted a niobium retainer, but that I wasn't sure of the size. He suggested I go with a 12, which was bigger that I had planned on, but I decided to go with his judgment. Unfortunately, they didn't have any niobium retainers in that size, so I went with stainless steel instead.
When he took me back into the room I was so excited I could barely hold it in. I probably looked like an idiot, chattering away about how much I had read about septums and how much I wanted one. He didn't seem too bothered, though, as he went about the procedure of unwrapping things and cleaning my nose and switching gloves 5,000 times. Once he found my "sweet spot," he explained exactly how he was going to pierce it, even though I chose not to look at the needle he was shortly going to be shoving into my face. He warned me that my eyes would probably tear, and that it was one of the least painful piercings to do.
He told me to breathe in, and as I did he put the needle through my nose. It did hurt a little, but it was only really a little sting that hurt at that moment and not afterwards—nowhere near as painful as my tragus was. The jewelry insertion hurt a tiny bit more, but again, it was nothing. Talk about low stress! As soon as it was finished, he gave me a mirror to look at. It was beautiful! Absolutely perfect and everything I had imagined it to be.
He gave me aftercare instructions, the most important of which was that I shouldn't play with it or the tissue could become inflamed. I was surprised to hear that I didn't need to salt soak it, that I could if I wanted to but it wasn't necessary. He told me that it looked great, and that he looked forward to seeing me again. I told him I wanted to wait a while until the excitement of this first one died down, but he said he was certain that I'd be back sooner than I though. I couldn't stop smiling as I gave him the tip and left the store. I kept checking my reflection in store windows to see my newest facial metal, and felt wonderful about it.
My self-confidence soared after I got it. I had always hated the way my nose looked, but with the new jewelry in it I was forced to see that it wasn't so bad after all. The aftercare was easy to follow, and although the end of my nose hurt for about 3 weeks, the piercing itself gave me little to no trouble in terms of pain. I did do several salt soaks to speed the healing process and tried not to mess with it too much, but I kept touching it because I was so excited.
It's barely been any time at all, and already I feel the urge to get another piercing coming back. I absolutely recommend both Infinite and the septum piercing to anyone who wants to go for something a little different, and I hope that you will love the results as much as I did.