So after much debating, I decided that Saturday was the day for my new piercing – septum.
From my last post you can see that I was really torn between a medusa or septum. I decided that my septum would be the least hassle and decided to go for that…for now.
Preparation
Well. I’d totally planned on going into Sheffield to a place I’d been recommended but after waiting in for a delivery until 4ish on Saturday I knew my chances of getting in to Sheffield before closing time were slim. I’d already looked online the previous night and found a couple of alternatives if my schedule failed more local to me.
I’d already messaged a local place on Friday evening asking if I needed an appointment for a septum piercing. I received a reply first thing on Saturday morning saying that piercings were walk-ins.
I’d been psyching myself up all Saturday. At one point I was thinking “fuck it” but then I decided to grow some balls. The delivery still hadn’t arrived but I wasn’t willing to wait any longer. So I left Stephen at home and drove through to Wombwell. I completely over thought the parking situation and where the place even was and ended up walking around in the rain looking for an ATM that has rudely been moved. As the rain stopped I checked my phone and looked at the location through Facebook maps. I’d walked the wrong way down the High Street. GAH!!!!
After calming myself down and composing myself I found the place and walked in.
The experience
I was greeted by two very friendly girls on the front desk. I explained that I’d messaged the previous night and that I was there for my septum piercing. While one of them disappeared and went into the back, the other handed me the obligatory consent form that appeared to have 1001 questions relating to my health. Obviously I ticked ‘ok’ to everything and handed the form back.
I was lead upstairs to a tiny room and asked to sit on a bed. (I saw bed loosely as I’m not sure of the correct term for a massage style table)
The girl who was going to be piercing me was small and pink hairerd. Luckily she had a number of piercings and tattoos that kept me distracted. I tried not to focus too much on the needle and instruments but I did have to check that they looked cleaned and I was relieved. Everything came out of new packets apart from the clamp which she spent quite a few minutes testing how tight they would be. Now came to the mark up process. I have a number of lines drawn on my nose, had her fingers up there for a few seconds and then a good clean. I was petrified she was going to locate some small boogey or some thing. I kept holding my breath so that I didn’t breathe in her face. Probably not the best thing to do when you’re nervous and need your breath to try and calm yourself down.
I made sure I’d removed my side nostril piercing in preparation before she started.
“I’m going to use the small half ring as you’ve got a small nose,” she said. That felt lovely after being scarred most of my life after having my sister pick on me for having a big nose growing up.
I was ready!
My eyes were closed and I prepared myself.
The clamp went on…not too tight, thank god. Then she said “ready?”
“Yes,” I replied.
And there is was….OUCH!!!! OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!
I couldn’t breathe, my eyes started streaming. JEEZ!!!
She was forcing the needle through. I kinda presumed it would be over in one fell swoop. Nope! Not at all. After a few seconds, of which felt like a lifetime, she stopped and started to put the ring through. YES!! I thought, it’s really over. Oh no! How I was wrong. The ring wouldn’t go through. She kept trying to force it through… The only way I can describe the pain was like after head butting a wall with your nose and then having someone pinch it and pull it really really hard.
“It’s not gone all the way through. I’m going to try again and put a bigger ring in.’
My heart dropped. I had to go through it again.
She started to force the needle back through again.
My eyes were streaming. It hurt so much. I squeezed my eyes shut. I was starting to feel faint,. Then she stopped. “I’m just going to put the ring in now.”
I was worrying that it would take a while to put the ball on the end as I know the struggle but because she was wearing latex gloves it took her no time.
PHEW!!!! I’ve never been more relieved. She let me compose myself and then said she was going to take some photos of it for her portfolio. I was wiping my eyes with my top and felt a little in shock. I got my breathing back to normal and started to feel ok. Then the general aftercare conversation started,.
The end results
This is what I ended up with.
From the pictures it looks pretty straight but I soon realized that it was wonky as hell. Before I panicked and even contemplated asking for it doing I reassured myself that it would more than likely settle straighter once it wasn’t as swollen or traumatized.
I paid up, got my aftercare sheet and walked to the car. Here’s a picture I took once I’d sat down.
There’s no filter on this. I was indeed quite pale. Still heavy breathing but I was pretty happy and starting to love it.
After 3 weeks it’s look better and I’ve realized that even if it isn’t straight, neither is my nose. It looks nice and I like it. It’s still sore and will be for a while so I don’t plan knocking it but I will admit that I never realized how much you actually tap the tip of your nose.
Aftercare and healing
I’ve had a couple of piercings in my time and I’ll admit that this has been the easiest to take care of. A cup of boiling water with a quarter-ish of a teaspoon of salt dissolved, left to cool so that I can bear it on my skin and then I sit with the end of my nose submerged in the water. I do this twice a day for a couple of minutes at a time. I don’t play with it or poke it. When I clean my nose I used cotton buds and doing it gently. 3 weeks on and I’m pretty much pain free apart from the odd knock.
Let’s see what I go for next…the medusa is still on the cards.
xxxx