I've long admired septum piercings and occasionally toyed with the idea of getting one for the past few years but I didn't think it was something I would want to wear out too often and would mostly just use a retainer, so it didn't seem worth it. I have a few others, my nipples and a PA (now up to 0ga) and liked that they weren't readily visible. I suppose the thought of having the septum ring in public would have made me too self conscious. But after taking my bf to get a PA a few weeks ago it really sparked a renewed interest in getting something new done, since my other piercings were almost 10 years old and I starting itching to have a piece of metal somewhere new.
At A Glance Author B.W. Contact B.W.@bme.anon When A month ago Artist Pete Studio LeRoi Location Lower East Side, NYC After thinking about it I decided I would like to get a septum piercing and that I liked them much more that I really had realized. I photoshopped a ring onto a picture of myself to get an idea of what it would look like and really liked it. Once I decided for sure I made plans to go get it done about 3 days later. We went to leRoi in the Lower East Side in NYC from a friend's recommendation. And it is a very nice space, very high-end, kind of like a doctor's office crossed with a piercing salon. I told the piercer Pete that I eventually wanted the ring to be either a 8 or 6 ga and wanted to get it pierced at the largest gauge he would recommend. He said 12 and I said "what about 10?" and he thought for a second and said that would be fine, and that the larger size of the ring would actually stop it from bleeding as much due to the pressure of the larger gauge of metal against the wound.
I picked out the circular barbell I wanted and he took it and the other equiptment off to be autoclaved and we went into the piercing room to prep. Nice room, large, very clean and "sterile" looking, very much like a doctor's office. I sat in the dentist's-type chair and he leaned me back and felt around with his fingers then marked the spot with a toothpick and ink. To my relief, he raised the chair back up to do the piercing, which was much more comfortable. I was getting a little nervous in anticipation as he went to retrieve the needles and ring from the autoclave. He came back, positioned the clamps on the septum told me to take a breath and on the count of three pushed the needle in. I was surprised at how little it hurt, after the initial burst of pain there was really nothing else. (Although I have a pretty high pain tolerance since I badly fractured my elbow when I was 8 and had to go through 2 surgeries - that taught me to deal with pain!) It did take him a little effort to work the needle all the way through, but I honestly couldn't feel any pain from it and he soon got it through and the ring was in place! The piercer was very nice and made me feel comfortable and explained every step of the process as it was happening and made a point of showing me the new needles and gear as he unwrapped them.
When I got home I noticed the piercing was a little crooked, sadly, and was hoping it was just due to swelling. After a couple of days it was the same so I tried a home remedy I read about online by tying dental floss to the ring then tying the floss around my neck to put constant pressure on the ring in the direction it needed to go to straighten out. Not entirely comfortable, but not that big a deal. After 5 days of doing this at night while I slept I noticed it had indeed worked and was noticeably straighter. I had never really examined my nose in great detail and now I can see the skin in there is naturally a little uneven and that is why it came out that way, as I have been told it is one of the most common piercing to come out crooked because of that. So anyone whose piercing came out a little crooked it can be corrected to a degree.
It was healing well and not giving me any problems. For cleaning and aftercare I was using a saline spray a few times a day in addition to cleaning with soap in the shower in the morning. I thought $10 for a bottle of squirtable mild salt water was silly so after I ran out of that I made my own solution with sea salt and put it in a old soap dispenser to be able to squirt it into my nose. This solution was much stronger that that in the bottle I bought and once I started using my solution I noticed a dramatic improvement in the healing process. So at about two weeks it seemed to be nearly healed, there was no longer any substantial discharge and I could move the ring around freely in all directions with no discomfort.
So a couple days before the three week mark I decided that it was healed enough to stretch it up to an 8ga so I went and bought a tapering needle and some new rings. To my amazement, the 8ga tapering needle slid through with NO resistance. I figure I must have stretched it out when I used the dental floss (plus the jump from 10 to 8 isn't that big anyway). Just a week later I decided to try to go up to a 6 so I got a tapering needle and cleaned and lubed it and tested it out but it was way too painful to pull all the way through in one motion. Instead of just pushing it through quickly what I did was push it through slowly over the course of an hour. I pushed it in as far as it would go without being painful and after about 5 minutes the skin relaxed enough to push it in a little more, and I repeated this over the course of an hour until I got to the 6 ga end of the tapering needle. After letting the piercing stretch for a few minutes with the 6 ga part of the needle I was able to get the ring in. There was no question stretching it quickly in one motion would have been really painful but this way it didn't hurt at all during or after, much to my surprise.
So I now have a nice 6 ga hole through my septum (much quicker than I thought I would be able to) and I love it madly. 6 ga is perfect for me, it's definitely substantial and a little intimidating looking but not too big to overwhelm my face. I did have a little problem with it about a week after I stretched it to a 6 ga, I got some bone spikes and tusks for it and was switching the jewelery several times in one evening to try each one out and that irritated the piercing (one of the tusks was a bit bigger than 6 ga and I think I ripped the skin a little trying to make it go in) and it started hurting a fair amount and was producing a bit of discharge. So I just kept in the 6 ga circular barbell and haven't switched it out to avoid angering it and have kept it clean and put some Neosporin on it twice a day and it is already doing a lot better. Anyway this was basically a very easy piercing to get and care for and I wish I would have done it years ago, I feel like it's very "me"! It's kind of a symbol of getting to the point in my life where I just don't care what anyone thinks, so it's liberating in a way. It's kind of fun to see people doing double takes every now and then walking down the street.