For almost 2 solid years, I had been looking at the stretched nostril page on BME every single day. I would look and look at all the same pictures, and never get tired of them. And so finally, I decided to ask my mother to take me to get my nostrils pierced, for New Year 08, and she said yes.
At A Glance Author Eric Contact alchemy_pirate@yahoo.com When A month ago Artist Michael Studio No Regrets Tattoo Emporium Location Memphis, TN Initially, I had asked her in September 07, to a resounding no, but I didn't give up. I knew that it was something I needed, so I was going to get it, no matter how I did. Eventually, I got the awesome idea to sit down and really talk to her about it. When I first began stretching my lobes a long time ago, she was very disproving, but soon she began to warm up to them, after I told her my reasons for wanting to stretch. So, I figured I could do the same for my nostrils. :P and it worked
I sat her down, and told her that it wasn't just to be "cool" or so my friends would say "ooooh!!", but it was for myself, and that I knew that it would help make me feel more complete. Of course, said talk was much longer, but I don't need to bore you with the details. :)
And so, on December 21st, 2007, she finally said yes. I was so ecstatic, and even better, they were to be part of my Christmas presents. BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT, EVER. haha. So the next day, I called the best studio in Memphis, No Regrets, and set up my appointment for Saturday, January 5th, 2008. I was finally doing it, and nothing could've made me happier.
Since I was enrolled in a public high school in the South at the time, of course, facial piercings weren't allowed, so I knew I had to work with that. Because of that, I've actually had a really good healing time so far because I was pierced with 14g GWS retainers. My body has always preferred glass for healing, so I knew this would be good for it, and it would allow me to have said piercings at school. Little did I know that later that next week, my mother also surprised me with the news I was going to be changed to home-schooling, after years of asking, so I wouldn't have to worry about piercing rules.
Fast-forward to the 5th of January. I woke up, basically spazzing out, in the good way. My appointment was set for 6 o clock, so we swung by around 4 to drop off my nostril retainers, along with my septum retainer, which was also pierced that day (previously removed for bad placement.) We went to Huey's across the street to eat, and I had Memphis's supposedly best burger, and it honestly was, and I knew it was a good pre-piercing meal, especially since i was getting 3 piercings in one sitting.
5:45 rolls around, and we're done eating. We walk back across the street to the shop, and I'm beaming. We go into the shop, and we're lead back into the piercing room. Of course, everything was very clean, and very well organized, and I was calmed down a little by this. I wasn't so much anxious, but excited. I knew that I would soon be one step closer to the real me. I sit down, and have a really good chat with the piercer, Michael (superb, by the way), and he's really awesome. We talk about the order in which we're going to do it, and ended up deciding Septum, Left Nostril, Right nostril. We decided we were ready, and got down to it.
The septum piercing was so fast, it was almost like it didn't happen, so we immediately move on to my left nostril. I was really nervous at this point, because I had heard that nostrils either hurt like hell, or are painless. Of course, I had bad luck, and mine hurt like hell. :) But hey, no pain no gain. We took a really long time to mark the spots for the piercing, and I told him of my plans to stretch them, so he erased the old marks and put them a little higher. After 10ish minutes of placement markings, we were ready.
My heart rate was increasing, and I was ready for it. He decided to use a cork, and I can tell you, a cork up the nose is probably the most interesting sensation ever. Anyway, he pierced it really fast, and my eyes were streaming. I already had some flow from the septum, so it basically tripled. I had to ask for a second before the jewelry change, because I couldn't open my eyes a first. They were stuck shut with the sensation of being hit in the nose with a baseball bat. Fast forward about 2 minutes, the first retainer is in, and we're done.
Luckily, I got a break here, cause my sister had decided on getting a microdermal, so I got a 10ish minute break, during which my nose settled down really well.
She was done, and it was time for my number 2. He made sure that I was ready for it, and I told him I was, and he placed the cork. Apparently, my nose had already swelled a bit in the 10 minute downtime, so this one was especially hard, and hurt really badly. Being the idiot that I am, I moved a little bit, but Michael moved right with me, and nothing went wrong. I needed a little bit of a longer break this time before the jewelry, and all was well. We got the jewelry in no problem, and thank god! I was done. I walked out of the shop nice and teary eyed after giving a nice tip, with congrats from the staff for getting a big amount of work in such a small space. :P
A month later, I haven't run into a single healing problem, and I'm still wearing all the same jewelry I was pierced with. I don't intend to change the jewelry for at least another month. At the moment, I'm waiting for June. I'm already extra excited for my 12g stretch. It's possibly the greatest feeling in the world.
Overally, my piercing experience was amazing, and definitely life changing. Since i began my mod journey, I've reached a new level of self awareness, that only fellow modded people can understand. The supreme peace of feeling a needle cut through your flesh is indescribable, and I can't wait to reach my goal of 6g for my nostrils. Thanks for reading, and here are the youtube links to the piercing vids:
Video 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxFh3rg8s2Q
Video 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxFh3rg8s2Q