Here is my septum piercing and coming of age story of the year I turned 18 years of age.
At A Glance Author carlybrook Contact carlybrook@bme.anon When Two years ago Artist Josh Studio MatSu Tatoo and Piercing Location Wasilla, AK I'd been reading a lot about coming of age rituals as my 18th birthday approached. I was interested in a septum piercings because of the significance of the piercing in some tribes having to do with separation from the mother and the blood from the piercing being symbolic of that (You can actually read a bit about this in the encyclopedia section of BME). My mother and I were in good standings and all but she had expressed me to me that this would be the year I would have to either move out or start paying rent, so I started saving money for my own place.
My birthday came around and I was very excited about all of my plans. I had a large celebration with friends and family, received a wonderful family heirloom, and burnt all my photographs and things that carried bad memories in a bonfire. My sister put a protection spell on me and painted on my war paint and I headed off to spent 3 days in complete isolation in the Alaskan wilderness in April with nothing but a poncho,knife and bow and arrow, a thermos, and some matches.
Three cars stopped to see "what was the matter" while i was still walking along the road and I told them I was on a journey to find myself, I'm sure this weirded them all out but I was quite serious. I walked out through the woods just following my instinct, hoping that I had any. I came to a clearing after about 9 hours of walking and decided this would be where I would live. At first I felt stupid out there especially since I would have never actually killed something with these weapons I carried, unless something was attacking me. I decided I would fast and meditate and then spend the night in deep thought, by daylight I felt freezing and wonderful.
I did use the knife to cut down some branches for fire and on the third day some vegetation to eat. And I found a small stream about a mile from where i was "living" and filtered water through my shirt into the thermos when I started getting really dehydrated. When I felt like I had a better understanding of my life,myself, and was good and ready I walked I'd say about 12 miles home (a completely different route than the one that I took to get there), washed off and drove over to the tattoo shop.
I had spoken with Josh previously about getting it done, and the date had been set. I gave him my ID, the money, and waited while he washed up. He had an apprentice at the time and as they lead me to the back room, the young apprentice told me that this would be his first septum. This made me very nervous and it must have been painfully obvious because he then assured me that he would only be watching the procedure for the first time. I sat down and stared at the floor. He picked up a clamp from a tray and explained what he'd be doing.
He placed the clamp inside my nostrils just about at the tip and clamped it down. My eyes watered some. He then grabbed the hollow needle and pushed it through. That hurt but not anything worth a noise, I believe my eyes started leaking though. He then grabbed the septum retainer I'd had him order before hand and followed through with it. I went to then push it up inside my nose and he stopped me and told me not to touch it. He used some special tool to re-adjust the jewelry so it would be easier to move and set it inside my nose. I thanked him and he told me to wash it with anti-microbial soap and wash my hands before i touched it and handed me an aftercare sheet.
I got to my mom's house and told my mother about all of my happenings and she was kind of pissed, kind of happy. She gave me a good slap in the back of the head when i showed her the jewelry, and told me that I better not stretch it out and "ruin my nose" (she had seen photos of large gauge septum piercings I'd showed her here on BME). I told her I hadn't decided weather or not to stretch it and if i did I wouldn't go so far as to change the shape of my nose.
I washed it about once a week and soaked the piercing in a sea salt water whenever I felt it crusting up. In about two months it was just about completely healed and my boss even let me wear the jewelry out for all to see.
Then one day I was watching my nephew and hit me in the nose real hard by accident and after that i got nose bleeds from sneezing and just barely tapping it. I kept soaking and washing it but it had gotten infected somehow (probably from touching it) and after about two weeks of a bad smell and lots of bloody fun I finally took it out.
I can still put a 20 G jewelry through it which surprised the hell out of me since it's been about 2 years, but there is a lot of scar tissue in there that makes it bothersome to wear jewelry in it. I hope to get it done again, maybe a little lower in the septum, when another milestone approaches.
So kids, if you decide to get your septum pierced might I suggest you avoid young children, and do not touch the jewelry with dirty fingers. I also do not suggest going out in the woods in spring where there are bears and moose without a cell phone and something better suited for protection, and i would suggest bringing food and a compass. Thanks for reading, have a nice day.