Well, I already wrote an experience about my septum, entitled "4 gauge septum at last!" and even then, I had already surpassed my goal of 6g. Septum piercings have interested me since I first saw a picture of someone sporting a sweet septum curl. It was my second piercing, and I wanted to do it at 8g, but the piercer at NEXT! recommended I do it at 10, since I hadn't had any other piercings any larger then 12 before... Pretty soon I started thinking about stretching it, and my original goal was 6g, it wasn't too far away, and I really liked the look of that size. It's big enough that's it's obvious but not excessively large. I made my way up to 6g through a series of stretches, and soon thereafter realised my girlfriend at the time had these really sick 4g CBRs and I thought well, we could just get one of those autoclaved and jump me up one more time...
At A Glance Author shadowbringer IAM shadowbringer When A week ago Artist Tania Studio Anatomic Adornments Location Vancouver BC
So here I am, already bigger then I had intended in the first place, and I encounter a problem... The CBR was at such a large diameter; it poked my food when I tried to eat! This was REALLY uncomfortable since my nose was very unhappy about the stretch, since I already promised it I wouldn't anymore. I think it was more upset that I'd lied to it then about the stretch itself... Anyways eating became quite an ordeal so I put in an order for a 4g retainer. That came and it was totally uncomfortable as well and kept falling out, and I remembered I had some 4g eyelets from when I was stretching my lobes so I popped one o those bad boys in there and that did the trick, little did I realise this would start a chain reaction to eventually land me where I am today...
In a few months, I was a little bored with my 4g septum, I couldn't even see it and I didn't have any cool jewellery for it and it wasn't quite big enough to randomly stick stuff through the tunnel and freak people out, save for a couple toothpicks or one of those plastic swords you get in sandwiches... I started playing with the idea of takin her up to a 2g. I popped into my shop (which by this point was ANATOMIC exclusively), not expecting anything to come of it, and I started asking about what they had on hand. I asked if they had a nice 2g taper with the bit on the end for an eyelet to fit over that I could buy (as I realised at 4g when my tunnel fell out, it SUCKED getting it back in, so I wanted to avoid this situation in future) and if they had a nice single flared 2g eyelet. They did. They also had lots of free time that day... Then it was their turn to ask "did you want to stretch now?". I thought for a moment, flipp ed a mental coin, and thought what the hell I got nothin to loose. Tania asked if the eyelet in my nose was one of theirs, which it was, so she told me I could just trade it in for a bigger one and pay the difference, so I hopped on this stretch program...
I followed her into the room and popped my tunnel out into a little baggy she was holding. She lubed up the taper and inserted it to see how far it would go. It slipped right through! She had to redo it since she didn't expect it to go through (nor did I) and she didn't have the jewellery ready so this time she did it I got a new 2g eyelet in there. It ripped a little bit and I bled a drop but nothing too bad, and after that I didn't want to downsize, so I took the risk of getting a blowout and just kept in the 2g. I of course took REALLY good care of my nose for the coming month, washing it out a few times a day and doing 2 sea salt soaks a day, and it healed up nicely in a couple weeks. I was amazed at how fast the cartilage in my nose adjusted to accommodate the new jewellery, as right after the stretch it felt SOOOO tight.
So there I was, already 2 stretches past my goal, and I decided I HAD to invest in some nice jewellery or I realised I would end up with a massive gap in my nose, and honestly I don't like the look of really big septums, depending on the jewellery. I wouldn't wear a circular barbell past like 6g personally, they look really clunky, but I like large gauge spikes, pinchers, and seamless rings. I made a custom order for a 2g pincher and looked into getting a seamless ring as well, but I realised smooth tube rings past like 6 or 4 gauge are IMPOSSIBLE to change in and out, and I like to change up my jewellery lots, so that was out of the question.
Frustrated that I had spend all this time stretching and was unable to wear one of my favourite pieces of jewellery, I started looking around. On the psycho septum society forum on IAM someone told me about the chain gang site and I found exactly what I needed there, the circle rings, which have a side locking screw to keep them in place so I can change it in and out myself. Problem being, they only come in 1g and larger!
Needless to say I am now sporting a freshly stretched 0g septum (I hate odd gauges) and I swear I will never stretch it again *looks around with shifty eyes*. My nose is SOME pissed with me this time so to reconcile I am going to order some really pretty shiny new jewellery for him and I think he will forgive me. 2-0 was the crappiest stretch ever. I had tried to use teflon tape on my septum before but that never worked out(but many people have GREAT results with it), and I asked about ordering a 1g piece to ease the transition but it would take so long and blah blah so I just went in and tapered. This was NOT fun. They had to use 2 different tapers cuz the first one didn't have a smooth enough transition to the jewellery and she didn't want to force it. Even running the first taper through tore the fistula a little I could feel the blood trickling into my nasal cavity and down my throat (YUM!) but the second time around it went it. I felt REALLY faint for a while, ap parently lost all my colour, but I lied on the table for a few minutes and sucked on some sugary candy and I felt better pretty soon. I quickly downed 2 glasses of water and realised I was going to be late getting back to the parking meter. As I gathered my stuff to leave Tania told me not to worry about paying for the stretch, which was awesome that really made my day, and we rushed back to the car and went out for sushi. Note: do not use wasabi right after a septum stretch, NOT FUN.
So I been babying it again as I always do with new mods, it's been a little over a week and it actually feels better then after the 2g stretch now, I don't know why but it does. Unfortunately I'm broke now so my nose may have to wait for Christmas for some new duds but he's fairly patient. I can't WAIT to show off my new 0g septum, it's been over a year since I regularly wore it down, and then I was at 10g! It's gonna freak out my friends real good!
In closing, big septums rock. I have lots of fun with my tunnel cuz I can put chopsticks and straws and stuff in it, and when I get my pincher it is going to look BAD ASS. If anyone out there wants a big septum right now, I'd say go get it punched, it will save you a LOT of time and pain, but for those of you with piercings already who want to stretch, reaching your goal will feel that much better. Make sure to allow LOTS of time between stretches and take good care of yourself. I take zinc and vitamin E and that seems to help out a lot, and DO SEA SALT SOAKS it really does wonders. I eagerly await the unveiling of my new big ass septum.