Like a lot of people, I get modified to remember certain days, certain events and certain aspects of my lifestyle. It was to be one of the biggest days of my life so far so I decided to mark it with a piercing – see also tongue web, medusa and vertical labret.
At A Glance Author Caroline Contact Caroline@bme.anon IAM Momentary_Seizure When A month ago Artist A lady Studio Graze Location Oadby, Leicester, UK I'd decided that I wanted a septum piercing. I enjoy stretching my lobes but as I said at the end of that article, I needed to slow down for practical purposes. I'd never wanted to stretch cartilage or anything else on my face and I'd always loved the idea of a stretched septum – ever since October last year when I had a visit from an IAM friend of mine. So I figured why not get my septum pierced and start a new journey? Well... or so I thought.
It came to Thursday morning and I was having kittens. It was my GCSE results day and I'd never been so scared in all my life. Turns out that I had done better than I had ever hoped for – including an A* in English language, get in! – and after a big greasy full English at Sainsbury's Café, Amy and I decided that it'd be a good plan to go get pierced. A new place had opened in our village and we thought we'd give that a try before making our way into town to our regular studio. It was predominantly a tattoo salon but there was a piercer who was in Thursday-Saturday.
We stepped in the door and I was greeted by a lady who I'd seen many times before in several shops around my village on a few busses. She was the first person I'd ever seen with a medusa piercing aside from myself and because of this I took an immediate liking to her. I asked her if she would pierce my septum and with many apologies she told me she wasn't trained enough to do so just yet. I suddenly felt blank. I had no idea what I wanted pierced now, but I was still adamant to have something done. I scanned the list on the front of the door and didn't know what to get. A lot of them I've either got or didn't want. Only one really stuck out at me...
"I can't do this", I said to Amy as I was punching in the numbers on the ATM machine across the road. My hand hovered over the £30 arrow on the left hand side and I decided to bite the bullet and push it. I immediately got that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that shouted at me "Jesus Christ, Caroline! Why do you keep doing this to yourself?" I decided to ignore that and concentrate on proper breathing and the fact that yes, I was about to go get my nipple pierced.
I stepped back into the shop and walked through the beaded curtain into the room where the lady – who's name I never found out – was setting up all the gear and moving a clear space for her to set out all her tools. She asked me to roll down my dress and bra (thank God for the art of strapless clothes!) and asked me which nipple I wanted pierced. I told her my right and she measured my nipple so she could cut the PTFE to the correct length. I sat there asking Amy what the hell I was doing and she offered her hand for me to grip. I tried to control my breathing as she continued the set up. She wiped me down with an alcohol swab and believe me, that was cold. She then got out a black pen and drew on either side of my nipple and I hopped off the stool so she could mark up better. I looked in the mirror and agreed that it was perfect and then sat back down and braced myself a lot of pain.
The clamps came out and they were positioned so the dots were on show. I was constantly being asked if I was ok and if I was comfortable and it was really comforting that she was taking her time and does everything with such precision. She picked up the 14g needle and I looked at the ceiling.
Oh this isn't too bad, I thought, but then I realised that was only the first layer of skin and then several profanities were exploding through my head as it felt like fire was erupting on my chest. I exhaled deeply and looked down to see her taking off the clamps and trimming down the plastic casing. Pain slowly washed through my chest and I felt all hot and bothered. Both Amy and the piercer were looking at me to make sure I was ok to which I said I was. The PTFE bar was threaded into the plastic casing and then pulled through into my nipple. As this was a pretty slow process, it hurt a lot but when it was in, I realised the trauma was virtually over and all that was left to do was thread the ball onto the other end.
I stood on shaky legs and walked over to the mirror and admired my new metal. It was perfectly horizontal and at a suitable depth and I was happy with it. She put a small dressing over it and told me to take it off in an hour. She quickly ran through aftercare with me but as she gave me a sheet and was aware I'd been pierced a lot before, she didn't need to explain too much. I thanked her profusely, paid the £25 and left.
Amy and I went and sat in a grassy area next to the local library and I calmed down. I was high on endorphins and beaming with elation. I just got my nipple pierced... what? I never in my whole life imagined that I'd actually go through with it. I was glad I did but I never wanted to take the dressing off!
A little over an hour later I took it off and looked at it for a while... I've still not decided if I like it or not. I've spoken to several people and it seems to be pretty much universal that they're not the sort of piercing you fall in love with straight away. The sensitivity of it has been ridiculous. I can barely change clothes without some sort of twinge even if I'd only just slightly brushed it with a t-shirt or a towel. It's swollen and not much of the bar is on show but when cleaning it with Savlon spray, most of the blood spots have come off and I can move it around with relative ease, even though I know I shouldn't.
I recently saw an article that a 51 year old lady had written about hers and her joy over them made me want to love mine even more. I knew that it would be a big thing if I got it pierced. Never before have I been able to see a piercing that I've had, without the aid of a mirror. It hasn't quite sunk in yet that it's actually a piercing – to me it doesn't really look real. I think that might come from the fact that it's a PTFE bar; when I look at it, it looks like just two floating balls and I have to look properly to see that there is actually a bar attached.
I'd never ever been one to be proud or happy about my body but a lot has happened in the past few weeks and this is helping me to build my confidence even more. I know that even though I'm still relatively young, everyone needs to feel good about themselves. I've never felt desirable, I've never felt like I have a certain edge and I've never felt comfortable in my own skin. To quote a line from a stunning IAM friend of mine, "To me, piercings are what's missing, with each one I get, I feel a little more complete". I'm pretty sure that a lot of people can relate to that and I'm certain that I can.
I just hope that with the ever increasing completion brings ever increasing contentment.
September 5th – an update
I'm in love.
It's taken me a while but the result is unbeatable.
The cleaning and healing has been ludicrously non-existent. I'd used a mixture of sea salt soaks and Savlon sprays and it seems to have worked a treat. I'd soak it in the morning when it was a little crusty and then spray it with the Savlon to keep it fresh in the evening before I went to bed and repeated the process. Now I'm making sure I barely touch it – though sometimes I just can't help it – and have used the spray occasionally and it's doing perfectly well. It hasn't moved at all and there's no pain. Obviously, I'm still being very careful with it as it's only two weeks old but it's perfect.As I said, I was told by a few people that I might not love it instantaneously and they were right, it does get better and eventually you completely fall for it.