(no subject)
My adventure begins on January 2nd, 2007. Only one day after New Year’s Day, I felt the need to celebrate. What better way to start the year than to abandon resolutions and get a new piercing?
My good friend Chantal and I had long been considering getting septum piercings together. We’ve been friends for a long time and are interested in body modification more than any of our other friends. We’d talked about septum piercing extensively, but always half-seriously. Some time in November we finally decided to go through with it. Rather than going in the immediate future, we decided to post-pone our expedition to January 2nd.
We chose this day for a few reasons. It worked out for both of us (it was one of the few days that we were both free) and it was still quite early in the New Year. We wanted to start the year off on the right foot, and feel good about year 2007. January 2nd was also the day before Back-to-School. As neither of us particularly enjoys the whole “school atmosphere”, a new piercing would definitely make the education setting more bearable. January 2nd was confirmed as the day we would become bulls.
Why the septum piercing? We chose this particular piercing because of it ability to be concealed. We both liked the thought of having a secret piercing, a piercing we could hide or display. Septums are also famous for easy healing - a definite plus for me, as I’m still trying to heal my anti-tragus piercing. I could definitely use an easy-to-heal piercing; and with only 2 months of healing time, the septum would be perfect.
We debated often as to which gauge to get pierced at, and eventually we decided 14g or 12g. We left it at that and decided to make a final decision with help of the piercer’s insight.
We arrived in the town we set out to arrive in, and went into Starbucks. Chantal hadn’t had breakfast, so she got a pumpkin spice with cream cheese muffin in order to boost her blood sugar. It’s important to eat before you get pierced. We were both very very excited, and very very nervous. I was definitely more scared - I’ve only had four piercings, whereas Chantal has had about 20.
We killed time by shopping while we waited for two piercing studios to open. We had narrowed it down to our favourite two. We ultimately chose the second because the first didn’t have Erin working there that day. Erin pierced my anti-tragus; she’s sweet and professional. She wasn’t there, and the guy that was certainly didn’t seem to know his stuff despite ten years of experience. He, in his ignorance, reached out to touch Chantal’s brand new Madison piercing with his ungloved germ infested hands! We hastily exited that studio to return to the second.
The piercer at the counter told us that there is a very small difference between 14g and 12g in terms of healing, so we opted for the 14ga. Now the next choice: septum retainer or circular barbell? The circular barbells were much more expensive, but we went for them anyways. At least with the circular barbells when we finally wore them down, it’d be more aesthetically pleasing than septum retainers are. (In my opinion.) Very excited but still apprehensive, we step into the piercing room and get a de-briefing. We are warned of infection signs, how to take care of piercings (sea salt soaks, 1 cup of water plus 1/4 teaspoon of non-iodized sea salt) and that if we have any questions, call right away. His info was more in-depth than I’ve written.
Finally, it was time. I had decided to go first (more choices!) because I didn’t think I’d want to have to see Chantal get pierced until I’d already done it. The piercer (Carl) put q-tips up my nose that had some sort of cleaning solution on them. It felt weird, very strange, but not at all painful. My nose was properly cleaned, when he made marks with a sharpie and then applied the clamps.
I have never experience clamps before, and I consider that luck. I do not like clamps. They feel horribly uncomfortable, verging on painfully inconvenient. It was sore, and I didn’t like it, but when he had it all lined up and pushed through the needle - it wasn’t nearly as terrible as I thought it was going to be because the clamps had numbed my nose a little.
However, it did hurt. Not excruciating pain, but definitely not fun. What I did enjoy was the rush. I got an amazing adrenaline rush, and I’ve never experience it before. Chantal didn’t get a rush, so it won’t happen to everyone. I felt light-headed and a little woozy so I lie down and immediately felt better. Carl was very nice the whole time through, “Are you okay?” “I don’t want to hurt you, so tell me if it hurts…” etc. He was very kind and good at putting me at ease.
After the needle was through my nose, he told me the jewelry was coming and that, “…it won’t hurt, you’ll just feel sliding.” I was sitting there thinking he was a liar when I felt exactly what he had just described: No pain, just a strange sliding sensation. The circular barbell was in my nose!
It took some minutes to be able to put the balls on the end, as they were really tiny and fiddly and hard to put on. When he was done, I got to look in the mirror. Much to my surprise, I loved it! I expected to be indifferent to my new piercing, not love it, not hate it; it would just kind of BE there. This was not the case; I loved, and still love, my brand new piercing.
A few minutes after I had started at myself, awe-struck, Carl flipped the CBB up into my nose for me. It was much less comfortable when flipped up (as opposed to down), but it was fine and by the end of the week I couldn’t feel it at all.
Chantal’s experience was near identical.
We finished shopping and went home as extremely happy and tired modified teens.
My good friend Chantal and I had long been considering getting septum piercings together. We’ve been friends for a long time and are interested in body modification more than any of our other friends. We’d talked about septum piercing extensively, but always half-seriously. Some time in November we finally decided to go through with it. Rather than going in the immediate future, we decided to post-pone our expedition to January 2nd.
We chose this day for a few reasons. It worked out for both of us (it was one of the few days that we were both free) and it was still quite early in the New Year. We wanted to start the year off on the right foot, and feel good about year 2007. January 2nd was also the day before Back-to-School. As neither of us particularly enjoys the whole “school atmosphere”, a new piercing would definitely make the education setting more bearable. January 2nd was confirmed as the day we would become bulls.
Why the septum piercing? We chose this particular piercing because of it ability to be concealed. We both liked the thought of having a secret piercing, a piercing we could hide or display. Septums are also famous for easy healing - a definite plus for me, as I’m still trying to heal my anti-tragus piercing. I could definitely use an easy-to-heal piercing; and with only 2 months of healing time, the septum would be perfect.
We debated often as to which gauge to get pierced at, and eventually we decided 14g or 12g. We left it at that and decided to make a final decision with help of the piercer’s insight.
We arrived in the town we set out to arrive in, and went into Starbucks. Chantal hadn’t had breakfast, so she got a pumpkin spice with cream cheese muffin in order to boost her blood sugar. It’s important to eat before you get pierced. We were both very very excited, and very very nervous. I was definitely more scared - I’ve only had four piercings, whereas Chantal has had about 20.
We killed time by shopping while we waited for two piercing studios to open. We had narrowed it down to our favourite two. We ultimately chose the second because the first didn’t have Erin working there that day. Erin pierced my anti-tragus; she’s sweet and professional. She wasn’t there, and the guy that was certainly didn’t seem to know his stuff despite ten years of experience. He, in his ignorance, reached out to touch Chantal’s brand new Madison piercing with his ungloved germ infested hands! We hastily exited that studio to return to the second.
The piercer at the counter told us that there is a very small difference between 14g and 12g in terms of healing, so we opted for the 14ga. Now the next choice: septum retainer or circular barbell? The circular barbells were much more expensive, but we went for them anyways. At least with the circular barbells when we finally wore them down, it’d be more aesthetically pleasing than septum retainers are. (In my opinion.) Very excited but still apprehensive, we step into the piercing room and get a de-briefing. We are warned of infection signs, how to take care of piercings (sea salt soaks, 1 cup of water plus 1/4 teaspoon of non-iodized sea salt) and that if we have any questions, call right away. His info was more in-depth than I’ve written.
Finally, it was time. I had decided to go first (more choices!) because I didn’t think I’d want to have to see Chantal get pierced until I’d already done it. The piercer (Carl) put q-tips up my nose that had some sort of cleaning solution on them. It felt weird, very strange, but not at all painful. My nose was properly cleaned, when he made marks with a sharpie and then applied the clamps.
I have never experience clamps before, and I consider that luck. I do not like clamps. They feel horribly uncomfortable, verging on painfully inconvenient. It was sore, and I didn’t like it, but when he had it all lined up and pushed through the needle - it wasn’t nearly as terrible as I thought it was going to be because the clamps had numbed my nose a little.
However, it did hurt. Not excruciating pain, but definitely not fun. What I did enjoy was the rush. I got an amazing adrenaline rush, and I’ve never experience it before. Chantal didn’t get a rush, so it won’t happen to everyone. I felt light-headed and a little woozy so I lie down and immediately felt better. Carl was very nice the whole time through, “Are you okay?” “I don’t want to hurt you, so tell me if it hurts…” etc. He was very kind and good at putting me at ease.
After the needle was through my nose, he told me the jewelry was coming and that, “…it won’t hurt, you’ll just feel sliding.” I was sitting there thinking he was a liar when I felt exactly what he had just described: No pain, just a strange sliding sensation. The circular barbell was in my nose!
It took some minutes to be able to put the balls on the end, as they were really tiny and fiddly and hard to put on. When he was done, I got to look in the mirror. Much to my surprise, I loved it! I expected to be indifferent to my new piercing, not love it, not hate it; it would just kind of BE there. This was not the case; I loved, and still love, my brand new piercing.
A few minutes after I had started at myself, awe-struck, Carl flipped the CBB up into my nose for me. It was much less comfortable when flipped up (as opposed to down), but it was fine and by the end of the week I couldn’t feel it at all.
Chantal’s experience was near identical.
We finished shopping and went home as extremely happy and tired modified teens.