I have a number of piercings. It began with an ampallang several years ago. That was the big one so I thought my obsessional desire was satiated. Instead, a guiche soon followed (a pesky free second piercing deal offered at the piercing urge in Sydney, just perfect for ensnaring the newly addicted like myself). A lorum was next, then the move to self piercing and piercing play ended up yielding more guiches a few frenums and a pubic.
At A Glance Author addictedtosteel Contact addictedtosteel@bme.anon When A month ago Artist self Studio home Location Canberra, Australia Can you see a pattern emerging here? None of these piercings are visible to anyone but my lover. I am certainly erotically inspired by piercings, both in their aesthetic look, and in their actual functionality, well, particularly when it comes to the ampallang.
With this in mind, my nipples were next...and, of course, they then had to be stretched. For the first time I would be exposing what to me is a sexually charged aesthetic choice to others (on occasions that I go to the beach, pools etc). I am not an exhibitionist and I am therefore somewhat reluctant and hesitant to show these adornments to the rest of the world when I have harboured them as a focus of sexual auto-eroticism. Oh, I don't mind the odd sassy gal seeing them but there are those who I'd just rather not include in my private little fantasy world, you understand?
This is why I have long resisted the urge I've had to put a large tusk through my septum. It has just crept up on me to where the desire to have a thick ring or tusk through my nose was un-fightable.
There is a certain link with bondage and submission, a giving oneself over to the desires of another, that I, for some reason have manifested in my thinking and attached to a septum ring.
Maybe it comes from childhood images of pigs and bulls tied by these rings. One thing is for sure. Those rings are never thin and dainty. They are big and thick. A septum piercing for me had to be thick.
For some reason I associate the thinner ones with femininity. In the same way that I personally feel that navel rings are a feminine piercing.
The final piece in the puzzle was spending some time in the Papua New Guinean Highlands where many of the older men still have septum piercings of a very large variety. Bones, sticks and pig tusks all share a place in the Highland ornamentation. In the back of my mind I also thought that the ability to put a tusk or quill through my nose would add a great deal of mirth and levity to future encounters I might have on a return trip to PNG.
So..Having performed a number of self administered hole punching sessions, I sharpened up my old faithful needle (Sounds brutal but on the right whet stone I can get it like a razor). I soaked it in a solution of sodium metabisulphate (food-grade sterilizing bleach) and then boiled the needle and a 16 gauge curved barbell bought for the purpose.
I scrubbed my hands with detergent and went to the bathroom mirror with my pot of boiled water with the accoutrements in it.
I have in fact successfully pushed the needle through my septum a number of times and found it best to use a thimble with my needle..(I know. It's ridiculous. I should at least get proper piercing needles..but these things always strike me as a "must-do" late at night on the spur of the moment...usually the result of extreme sexual frustration..but that's another story.)
Positioning the piercing is the hard bit with a septum both the staightness and the foward and backward placement is aesthetically crucial. For me, I've always liked them further back, sitting more snugly against the face rather than toward the tip of the nose.
This doesn't really align with my thin, easy to pierce "sweet-spot" I have to push through a little more flesh further back.
Anyhow, I've probably pierced my septum four or five times, trying to get it to look right over the last year or so. It's never bled and I rather like the sense of triumph as you slide the needle home. I had never been able to get a 14 ga cbr to find the hole so I'd always given up. This and the placement issue were probably good excuses to back away from my first "out" piercing. It always felt a bit like I'd blown my nose raw after a cold or perhaps been mildly punched in the nose, if there's such a term, the next day and it was a small price to pay for the play session.
With a new 16 gauge circular barbell I found the hole quite easily on my latest foray. It was far back, straight and located just below the cartlidge. A fair bit of eye watering but a big clean mirror and plenty of light sees things going alright.
I have always found it best to do the septum slowly and look for the small whitened bump in the exit side before pushing the needle right through. My nostrils are fairly large, easy access type holes so a finger each side of the needle's exit tragectory gives me something to really push against.
I slid the 16 gauge circular barbell in with a bit of an accompanying triumphal endorphin rush. Pretty soon it was "Yuck. That is so thin!" With the 16 ga home, I used it as a guide to immediately follow it with a 14 gauge circular barbell which I also immediately flipped into its disguise mode as a retainer..(Ahh. much better.) It stayed crusty for a week or two but never gave to much grief. An egg cup full of sea salt and water became a three times a day ritual.
It all went bad when I got a cold. (blowing your nose very very gently is an art and, at the end of the day, it's also pretty ineffective, damn it. A week later I managed to get myself into some warmer weather at Byron bay and get into the surf. My sinuses cleared right up and so did all my crusties.. So of course it was time to stretch (Arghh. Already?! You fool.) 12 gauge went in without noticing so I immediately went to 10. This happened without feeling much so, experimentally, I kept going and ended up forcing a knitting needle through at 6 gauge. That was a little much ( I backed off and it felt pretty sore for two days afterwards..nor was I able to find a retainer in town.)
I've settled on a ten guage circular barbell for an every day retainer and find I can easily slip in an eight ga. cbr that I like a lot. Perhaps it is thick enough. It's certainly convenient for going from incognito to pierced and proud quickly....Then again I've got some great old six gauge rings sitting 'round from when I stretched my nipples so who knows?
For me this has been a trouble free, easy to heal piercing, less painful than most. I am loving it.
Just remember that piercing is a serious health risk if safe sterile conditions are not maintained. Go to a professional piercer. Do as I say not necessarily as I do.
Cheers.