Adventures in nose piercing

I pierced my nose.

Friday I decided to just get it done. My SIL was home to watch the boys (after bedtime), so my husband and I went out in search of some mild self-mutilation ;).

It turned into a total wild goose chase. The first place we went to was cash only. Cash only? Who is cash only these days? Neither of us carry much cash around, so we figured we'd try someplace else that takes debit cards. The second place did take debit cards, but their piercing person was already gone for the day. The third place was closed, the fourth place also cash only.

At this point, it was almost 9pm and I was feeling pretty defeated. I'd gotten myself all psyched up to get it done and I didn't think it was going to happen. I told my husband I had piercing blue balls.

We decided to try one more place that we knew of (who knew there were so many tattoo shops in our town). When we pulled up we saw what is apparently a common sign in these places - cash only. But this time we figured we'd go in, see if the piercing person was there (and if they'd be there for a while) and then hit a cash machine. Of course, we could have done this earlier, but we didn't realize how common it would be for tattoo shops to take only cash. We figured we'd find one easily that took debit cards. In any case, the girl inside was the one who does piercings and they'd be open until midnight.

We came back with the cash and she had me sign my life away, then come into the back. Their setup looked like a doctors office from a Quentin Terrantino movie. She had all this sterile equipment in that big, bulky packaging you see needles and stuff come in, but the walls were black with multi-colored paint splatter and big pieces of crazy, demonic art all over the walls (probably from one or some of the resident tattoo artists). I sat up on what looked like a bed from a doctor's exam room.

She cleaned my nose, then put a dot where the stud would go to determine placement. It looked good to us, so she prepared the needle. It was enormous - not so much in length, but in width. Up until that point, I'd purposefully kept the actual process of getting a piercing out of my head, and as a result I was surprisingly calm. She put a clamp in my nostril and I closed my eyes. She had me take a deep breath, then let it out - and she shoved the needle through.

It definitely hurt, but not horribly so. It made my left eye water a lot, but not because I was crying - it just watered. And pain wasn't the only sensation - there was this bizarre sensation of pressure with the needle sitting in there. It felt like she drove an inch thick stake through my nose; she must have created an enormous gaping hole. It wasn't really that big, of course, but the pressure made it feel like it was huge.

I was afraid to open my eyes at first, but once I did it was ok. I did lie down at that point, since I felt the mild beginnings of whoosy-ness. I'm all too familiar with the sensation, and I know how to counteract it before it turns into me falling on the floor unconscious - so rather than try to tough it out, I just laid down and felt fine. After she had the stud all ready, she removed the needle and put it in, then dabbed the blood for a while. It bled more than I thought it would.

So there you go - I now have a pierced nose. I've been suprised so far at how little it hurts. It was very sore in the first hour after I had it done, but some ibuprofen took care of that easily. Since then, it's been a bit sore, but nothing too terrible. And I'm quickly getting used to the feeling of having it in - I do have the constant sensation that there's something in my nose, but I'm told that goes away in a few days. It already seems to be.

We'll see if I can post a picture... if it works. I might take it down after a bit :). I don't think pic quite does it justice. It is small, but it sparkles a little and it actually light blue.

Oh, and I LOVE IT!!!!!!!