I had wanted to get both of my nostrils pierced for sometime, but because it would be expensive to do both at the same time (along with the cost of jewelry), I had to put it off. I wanted to get both done because as a tribal belly dancer, looking into ethnic piercings is really fun for me and there is a tribe in India who's textiles we often use for dance costumes called Banjara, and most of the females have both of their nostrils pierced. I found it beautiful! I got some other piercings and a tattoo that my boyfriend gave me as a gift in the meantime, but I was still anxious to get my nostrils done!
At A Glance Author Parisa Contact Parisa@bme.anon IAM Parisa When Three months ago Artist Jake Studio Saint Sabrina's Location Minneapolis I talked with my 2 roommates about it, both of them work at an excellent tattoo & piercing shop called Saint Sabrina's and when I told them I wanted to go with labret posts rather then the standard nostril screw, one of my roommates offered to let me use 2 of his 14g posts he had laying around from retired piercings. He checked to make sure they would fit me and allow room for swelling and they did! I decided the labret posts would be best because I could screw any size disk or ball I wanted onto them and since I wanted jewelry that was more noticeable then the small little jewel you typically see, it was the best option. I was planning on going with 16g posts, but I wasn't going to turn down free jewelry, plus my room mates explained that with the larger gauge I would have more jewelry choices and that settled the matter!
Now that I had the jewelry, and had saved up enough cash, I was ready to set an appointment! My other roommate decided she'd also like her nostrils done so we decided to get them done together.
We went into the shop to make our appointments and drop off my jewelry to be sterilized in the autoclave. My roommate bought her jewelry, 2 beautiful small nostril screws with jade. She wanted to buy them right away so no one else bought them before our appointment, and she also bought a septum retainer. We both have our septums pierced and we figured we'd want to keep retainers in our septums until our nostrils were healed (or at least stopped being tender!). I already had a retainer, luckily. We made appointments for about a week away because it was so hard to find a day we were both free, plus I was getting over a nasty cold and wanted to make sure I was fully recovered beforehand. I checked to see which piercer would be handling our appointment. It was Jake. St. Sabrina's has 4 piercers on staff, and Jake was new. It would be my first time being pierced by him, but I knew he had a lot of experience, my roommates had said many nice things about him, and I had heard he does a great job so I was looking forward to it.
Finally the day arrived! After my roommate and I got off of work we went out to dinner (important to eat before a piercing!). I had had a bad day, I was grumpy, and was still a little sick and was considering pushing the appointment back to the weekend, but my roommate said I would feel so much better after the piercing and I decided she was right.
We headed to Saint Sabrina's after dinner, where we met up with my boyfriend.
The staff greeted us as we checked in for our appointment and they chatted with us for a little while. They photocopied our driver's licenses, then they had us fill out the paperwork which asked questions like if we'd eaten recently, drank alcohol in the last 8 hours, were healthy enough to heal the piercing and so on. We were also given a packet of good aftercare procedures, which were to soak the piercings 2-4 times a day for 5-10 minutes at a time in ¼ tsp sea salt and 1 cup water and stop half way through to clean off crusties with a Q-tip. Do NOT touch your piercing unless cleaning it and always wash your hands before you do that. Keep hair tied back, change your pillowcases, eat well, get lots of rest, take vitamins with vitamin C and zinc to help prevent infections and help you heal faster. It was nice to get the aftercare before the piercing so I cold look it over and see if I had any questions before it was too late!
Then we took a seat and waited for Jake to be ready for us. It wasn't long before he asked us to follow him up into the piercing room. I had asked to go first since I get a little too nervous if I watch someone else get pierced before my turn! Jake looked at my jewelry and I explained to him that I wanted the disks on the outside of my nostril rather then the balls, but he explained to me that it was best to have the balls on the outside while healing, but in 3 weeks I'd be able to go back and have shorter posts put in with discs on each end. I was a little disappointed and considered picking out different jewelry but Jake and my roommate and boyfriend assured me it would look just as cute and I should just do it. So I decided to give it a shot!
Jake had me sit down and he stared at my nose for a while before marking a dot on each nostril, then he had me take a look and it was perfect, he'd gotten it right on the first try! I had my friends verify that the placement was right, just in case I was too excited to notice it was slightly off. Then he cleaned my nose and had me lie down and relax as he prepared. It wasn't long before he was standing over me with the first needle. He lined it up, asked me to take a few deep breaths then pushed it through. That first one hurt, just a little bit, it was more like a pinch, my friends said I made a pretty funny face as the needle went through. Jake had the jewelry in I before I knew it and I barely felt that part. He cleaned off the blood then told me that one of the balls had stick to his glove and was dropped on the floor so he had to get another one and would be right back. I took the time to relax and glance in the mirror and I loved what I saw and couldn't wait for the other side to be done!
Jake returned soon and changed his gloves and everything before lining up the second needle. Again, I took a couple deep breaths before he pushed the needle through. That time hurt quite a bit more, I won't lie, but it was over quickly and very tolerable. I laid there quietly as Jake put in the jewelry, then he asked if I felt like punching him in the face yet. I said "no, of course not!" He had me sit up as he cleaned me off and I admitted I felt a little light headed (probably from still being a little sick) so he had me lay back down for a while until I felt better, then I got to look at myself and was in love! Even with the balls it did look damn cute and everyone agreed. Jake said he'd like to take a photo for his portfolio after the redness and swelling went down and since I'm at the shop a lot he'd just catch me on another day. My roommate was right, my bad day had melted away and now I felt happy!
Then it was my roommate's turn and she did great, she barely flinched at all, and when I commented on it she said there was a big difference between our needles (she was pierced at 20g) and she was sure that had a lot to do with it. Soon we were both laughing and admiring ourselves in the mirror and chatting a little bit with Jake before we headed down to pay for our piercings and we left Jake a nice big tip since he did such a great job!
The rest of the night my nostrils ached a little but most of the time I forgot I'd even been pierced! That pain was gone the next day, except if I yawned or flared my nostrils. After a week they didn't hurt unless I fiddled with the jewelry too much while cleaning them. I ate well, took vitamins, got plenty of rest and followed the aftercare instructions carefully to help my healing. It's very amusing to look up my nose and see 2 posts and a septum retainer filling my nostrils, there is so much metal up there!
After a month I had my posts changed (by my piercer) to shorter ones which are much more comfortable. I had the disks put on also but was only able to choose between 3mm or 5mm. I choose 3mm but think they are too small so I might try to find bigger ones. Though my nostrils were not completely healed when I changed the jewelry, it didn't hurt at all and my piercer checked them carefully to make sure they were healed well enough to change my jewelry, which is really important to do because if you change it too early it could be painful, cause an infection, or delay your healing.
The only problem I had is when one of my discs on the inside of my nostril came unscrewed and it was so hard to put back on, even with the help of my roommates. I tried flipping the post around so I could screw the disc on the outside, but it was hard to find the hole. I ended up taking a ball off the circular barbell in my septum and screwing that on until I could have a piercer put my disk back on.
As always, I am happy with the experience I had at Saint Sabrina's, the staff is friendly, experienced and professional, and I was very happy with Jake as my piercer and look forward to having him pierce me again in the future!