Back when I was about 12 years old, I was flipping through the pages of the (sadly) now-defunct Sassy magazine. In this one article about...oh, I think it was about surfing fashions or some shit like that, there was a picture of a guy with a pierced nose. At the time, the only nostril piercings that I knew of were just the typical studs in one nostril; this guy, however, had a ring in the middle of his nose, just like a bull. For as long as I can remember I've always been fascinated by body modification of any sort, so this was a big surprise to me. Growing up in Des Moines, Iowa, you just never saw any kind of piercing like that, and when you did, it was a pretty rare occurrence.
At A Glance Author Ms. Sevennynine Contact Ms. Sevennynine@bme.anon When Three months ago Artist Scott Studio Saint Sabrina's Parlor In Purgatory Location Minneapolis, MN Fast-forward ahead 13 years. Last year I was thinking about doing something really special for my 25th birthday, something that I have always wanted to do but hadn't yet. All the sudden, I remembered seeing the guy with the septum piercing in that old issue of Sassy and that rekindled the old flame. I decided that I would go and get my septum pierced for my birthday. I made an appointment with the fine folks over at Saint Sabrina's Parlor In Purgatory here in Minneapolis--I got 4 of my 6 tattoos done over there, and I had heard a lot of good feedback about their piercing as well.
On December 7th, I went to Saint Sabrina's to get the deed done. I went upstairs and filled out the paperwork, then went into the little side room where all their jewelry and piercing stuff is. I decided to get a 12-gauge piercing done, because I didn't want a gauge that was way too small or way too big. I met up with Scott, one of the piercers on duty, and he led me into his booth. He was a very nice guy who helped me out a lot with questions about the procedure; also, it turns out that did nostril piercings for a couple good friends of mine about a couple years ago (he went to high school with one of them...small world, eh?).
So, he got everything ready to go and he checked my nose to see where the "sweet spot" in my septum is. It turned out that my sweet spot is in a high place in my nose, but he said there wouldn't be any trouble in getting it done. With that, he had me lay on my back and he got the needle ready to push through my septum. He told me to take a deep breath, and exhale as he drew the needle through. I did so...and WHOA. The pain as the needle went through my nose was weird...it was actually a really good, brilliant type of pain, instead of the torturous pain I was thinking would come. I have a fairly high pain threshold as it is, so I kind of figured that it'd hurt, but not too much. It really wasn't that bad. As quickly as the pain came, it disappeared. I did it! I finally got my septum pierced, and it went even better than I had imagined.
Three months (and a lot of saline soaks, crusties and septum stink episodes) later, I've still got my little 12ga septum ring in. I initially had a CBR in my nose, but those are a bitch to deal with for me, so I have a circular barbell in right now. I've gotten a lot of nice compliments about my piercing, and the usual "didn't that hurt?!"-type stuff too. The greatest compliment that I've been given about my piercing is that my septum piercing complements my facial structure; I have a very round face and a somewhat upturned nose, so it does flatter my face rather well.
When I called my dad to tell him that I had gotten my nose pierced he sounded rather shocked/disappointed and immediately asked me, "Ohhh man, how many do you have now?!!" He knows about all my tattoos (and likes them!) and was with me when I got my ears pierced as a kid, but thinks that since I've gotten multiple tattoos, I've also gotten several piercings too. "Don't worry, Dad," I told him. "It's just my nose, I'm not getting anything else pierced!" He was relieved to hear that his daughter hasn't become a human pincushion, like he initially did. Funny shit!
If you're wanting to get a septum piercing but haven't quite gotten the nerve/money to do so yet, I would highly recommend that you do the usual things when it comes to any body modification: read about the procedure and learn about it (here on BME is a great place to start, of course), go to a few places that specialize in body piercing and pick the one that has people who are professional in what they do and have a clean place of business, and be sure that you really want to have the procedure done because you really want to have it done, not just something that you wanna have done on a whim; that goes for any body modification, really.
So, there's my story. Thanks to the fine people who run BMEzine for providing a resource for those of us who wish to share all of our stories with the world.