I already had the coolest nose piercing ever, a nasallang, so why did I want to get rid of it? to dermal punch my nostrils of course! I don't know why I wanted it done, and I knew it would hurt, but I decided to do it. I started talking to Jakk about it. I had my tongue pierced by him in May to sort of check out his shop and piercing ways and stuff. I already knew he was a good piercer, I've seen his work on people I know. I told him my nostrils were really thick, so he ordered some extra long 4g single flared tunnels. I had originally wanted 8g punches, and considered 6, but never did I think I'd end up at 4...
At A Glance Author julia Contact julia@bme.anon IAM afilmbombs When Six months ago Artist Jakk Studio Express Yourself Location Lackawanna, NY I live in Albany, and his shop is near Buffalo, so I could do the nostril punches next time I visited my parents in Buffalo, which ended up being the weekend of July 5 and 6. I had agreed to go to Jakk's shop on Sunday the 6th. I was going to go with my friend Jenny, but I couldn't get ahold of her, so I called my friend George and he went with me. When we got there Jenny and her boyfriend Nick were already there. Jenny has a good digital camera, so she took tons of pictures for me.
Jakk's shop is, in my opinion, cleaner than a doctor's office. He set everything up on a tray and switched the o rings for the tunnels because they were too tight and he didn't think he would be able to get them on. Then, I took out my nasallang barbell and he drew little circles on my nostrils. Then he put this stuff on my nose that smells like soap, but made my nose a little numb. He had a wood thing with something wrapped around it, I can't really remember, that he put inside my nose to press against the punch. Then he put the punch on my nostril and twisted it in. The SOUND was insane. It sounded like cracking wood, I'll never forget it. The pain was....wow, I don't even know. I don't think I've ever felt anything worse than that. My nasallang had been my most painful piercing so far, but this was 50 times worse. I was expecting tons of blood for some awesome pictures, but the first one didn't really bleed a lot. Jakk put a taper through and followed it with the tunnel and it was done. Then he did the second one, which hurt a lot more, and bled more, but not as much as I had hoped. Usually I get a rush after a piercing...but not this time. This time I just felt ill. I paid Jakk for the tunnels and tipped him since he did the punches free. I continued feeling ill and needed a drink, so George and I decided to go to McDonald's or something down the street, after helping this girl with her car. The drink was so great, but I needed to sit there for awhile. I couldn't describe how I felt, it was just generally TERRIBLE. Plus it was really really hot outside, which didn't help. I got home, got the usual "why would you do that to yourself" from my parents, and got ready to go home to Albany the next day. When I got back to Albany I found out my nose whistled when I slept, haha.
The next 3 weeks went really well, and I thought the punches were healing. Then I started having trouble. I discovered my skin had grown over the o ring on the inside of one of my nostrils, and I couldn't budge it, so I had to cut it out with a scalpel and it was terrible, but after half an hour I finally got it loose. I turned the tunnels inside out so the o ring was on the outside and the flare was on the inside. That worked better, but the insides were still growing extra skin. I ended up getting some extra long double flared tunnels for them because the o rings were irritating the outside of my nose now. I couldn't get the double flared tunnels in, though, so I had to order a 3g taper from bmeshop (2g wouldn't go through), and after a LONG time in the shower with the taper in my nose I finally got both tunnels in. They've been in my nose for the past few months now and the right piercing isn't much trouble, but the left has a lot of scarring around the inside and outside. It still bleeds sometimes, itches a lot, and I have to peel dead skin off it all the time. These things are a lot more responsibility than I expected. Sea salt soaks seem to do nothing, but tea tree oil helps a little.
After all that trouble there has to be some benefits, right? One of them is I can breathe better, and yes, I'm serious. This is sort of like having 4 nostrils, plus I have a 2g septum so that makes it even easier. Blowing my nose is interesting, but not too much extra trouble. I just have to make sure the tunnels are cleared out also... the strange thing is that I rarely get questions from people about them. People don't seem to realize that what they see is the actual size of the hole, they're more likely to ask me about my simple bridge piercing! Oh, and capri sun straws are my best friend, because I can stick them through my entire nose, along with other things, like strings or thin straight things. Oh, and of course, if you look at the right angle....you can see through my whole nose.
If you're thinking about getting your nostrils dermal punched, go for it, but only if you're ready to deal with all the problems that might occur. If you have any other questions feel free to send me an email or message on iam.