At A Glance
Author	Alyssa
Contact	o0osnapitszlyss@aim.com
When	Three months ago
Artist	a girl
Studio	Tattoo Lou's
Location	Babylon, New York

My love for piercings started at a very young age, around 7 or 8. I always loved the idea of metal in your head. However I am completely terrified of needles and pain, so I have always tried to stick to the less painful piercings. My mother is dead set against piercings, but my dad likes the idea of me decorating myself any way I please so he always takes me for my piercings. I never really liked the idea of a nostril piercing, but in my sophomore year of high school I decided that I would conform and get it done.

I had asked my dad numerous times before if he would take me to get a facial piercing and he would always say no, I usually stick to my ears. So when I asked him if I could get my nose pierced I half expected him to be like NO, Absolutely No. But, he surprisingly had no problem with it at all as long as I paid for it myself.

So on Tuesday, May 8th, 2007, my dad took me to get it done. I had to of course pick up the notary and get it notarized, which is by far my least favorite thing about piercings. I went into the parlor feeling a little sick and incredibly scared and the piercer asked me to sit in this big really comfy chair. I sat down and closed my eyes and she went about sterilizing my nose. First, she put this like jelly stuff on it, which I later found out was neosporin and then she told me to breathe through my mouth and she swabbed the inside of my nose with alcohol, that was very uncomfortable. She put the dot on my nose and then I had to open my eyes to see where the dot was and to check her placement and all that. She then explained that she was going to use a needle guide and that I would feel hard plastic inside of my nose. She took the needle out of the packaging and told me to take a deep breath and let her know when I was ready for her to do it. I told her right away and she did it. There was minor pain, nothing too major the only bad thing about it was that the alcohol on my nose didn't fully dry yet and it stung in the newly pierced hole. Then came the fun part, putting the stud in my newly pierced nose. That was probably the most painful part about the whole thing, but that is always the case, the jewelry always hurts the most. It really didn't hurt that much, just a little bit of uncomfortable pressure and it was all over.

I didn't bleed that much at all and it healed up well, except for a small keloid about a month after getting it pierced, but a little bayer cleaned that right up. Now it has been changed from a little silver ball to a diamond stud, the changing process was slightly painful, actually it was probably more painful than getting it pierced. I went back to the same place that I had it pierced to get it changed, but the girl that changed my nose ring wasn't the same girl that had pierced my nose and I am always a little skittish around new piercers whether they're piercing me or just slightly touching me. I went into the same room where I had been pierced and sat in the same chair. The girl cleaned my nose with alcohol and sprayed the new nose ring with some solution stuff that I guess was meant to sterilize. It took her a good five minutes or so to get my original nose ring out of my nose, because it had never been taken out or even really played with, except for when I cleaned it. I had a spin in my nose so as she was pulling it out, she was twisting it as well, and then she got to the right angle bend in the spin and had to turn it almost upside-down to get it out. At that point I was as white as a sheet and about five seconds away from passing out. She finally got the spin out and put the other one in. Everything was going smoothly until she hit the right angle curve again. She got the new stud into my nose and then spent about 10 minutes bending and twisting and moving the new stud to make sure it was completely hidden inside my nose, until at last it was. I walked out of the parlor ghostly pale and passed out when i got into the car.

My only advice when dealing with a nostril piercing is to change it yourself, it will most likely be a lot less painful.