At my white collar day job, facial piercings are not totally accepted. I was very excited to learn that I could hide a septum piercing even while it is still healing, by flipping it inside my nostrils. This would allow me to get the piercing without affecting my livelihood.
At A Glance Author Kat Contact Kat@bme.anon IAM KatInJudgement When A year ago Artist Andy I originally decided to go to my local piercing shop to get a horizontal surface piercing below my navel. After talking to a close friend who was coming with me, we both decided to get our septums pierced as well. We had both been considering it, but I hadn't said anything because I didn't think my friend was supportive of that type of piercing. She had previously said that she didn't like the look of it, so I was planning on getting it done accompanied by a friend that was supportive. I was happy to hear that she had changed her mind and very excited to head to the piercing shop!
We went to our local piercing shop and waited for Andy to finish up with another customer. While we waited we perused the large case of piercing jewelry Andy had on display at the front desk. I was looking to see if he had any spikes, but didn't see any.
Since I was getting two piercings, I volunteered to go first. Andy, the piercer, set up for the septum piercing first. He explained that he didn't have any 14 gauge circular barbells. So, he suggested piercing us with a curved barbell instead. Andy explained that we would still be able to flip it up to hide it and that we could change to a circular barbell once the piercing had healed. We agreed.
He spent a long time carefully examining my nose to determine where to place the clamp. He explained that a lot of people think that it is a painful piercing because they assume it is pierced through cartilage, but that isn't the case. He placed the clamp and meticulously adjusted it until he thought it was correctly placed on skin, and not cartilage. Andy asked me to breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, and breathe out one last time. On the last breathe he held the needle and touched it to my septum, but stopped. He said he was hitting cartilage. He examined my nose again and repositioned the clamp and tried again, but with the same result.
I could tell Andy was frustrated. He said he had never had this problem before. Each time he repositioned the clamp, he moved it back and forth to make sure that it was on skin and not cartilage, and it always seemed to be positioned correctly. He thought that I must have a small piece of thin cartilage where he wasn't expecting it. He tried a third time still with no success. We agreed that he would try one last time before moving on to the surface piercing. On the fourth time, after repositioning the clamp to be higher and farther forward than he would normally pierce it, he finally succeeded. Luckily for me, the other three attempts didn't hurt because he immediately realized he was hitting cartilage and didn't try to force the needle through. My friend was mortified because my eyes were watering, so it looked like I was crying. I tried to explain that it was just because he was messing with my nose and it was uncontrollable watering, not crying because I was in pain. I'm not sure I convinced her though.
After I got my surface piercing, Andy setup for my friends septum piercing. She was noticeably nervous after seeing the difficulty he had with mine. I assured her that it really wasn't an ordeal for me, since it didn't hurt. He positioned the clamp and pierced her septum on the first attempt.
I guess my nose is just a little weird.
We were told to use antibacterial soap to clean the piercing, but were also given a bottle of spray cleaner which would be a little easier to use since the piercing is in our nose. I found it relatively easy to use antibacterial soap with a cue tip.
While our septums were healing we both noticed that they were extremely sensitive to touch. Even just a slight touch to the tip of my nose produced searing pain. This was the worst part of the whole experience. Occasionally I would accidentally touch my nose or itch it, and I would end up welling up uncontrollably because the nose, sinuses and tear ducts are all interconnected. This pain decreased gradually as the piercing healed. Now it is completely healed, and I can take it out when I am working and put it back in on the weekends, or when I am going out. I love the piercing and have gone back to Andy for many more piercings since.