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| Image credit: Pinterest.com/cassandrathornton |
It’s my first blog of 2020, and while I have rather a lot to share, I wrote about getting my nose pierced.
As I prepared for my piercing, I spent a lot of time reading blogs, forums on Reddit and looking up answers on Quora, that I had gotten from Google search.
Most of my questions whirled around the routine like, how much the piercing hurt, how long healing takes, and what the risks were in terms of hygiene and infections.
While some posts had good answers to my questions, a good number had piercers who like most people in their field of professionalism spent more time talking about how much they knew about piercings and why it would be dangerous not to follow their instructions, as against an actual personal experience highlighting the journey to the piercing chair and through healing.
So in this post, I will share what I hoped to find on the internet before getting my nose pierced and hopes it helps you decide whether to make it to the piercer's chair or not.
THE DECISION
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| Image credit: undefeated.com |
First, I come from the Average Nigerian family, which you can easily say would not of the bat support tattoos or multiple piercings, and you could say I’ve tried them for some time since I have six piercings outside the two I got at birth, and that’s without counting my nose.
The first few piercing I ever got was an extra one at my lobe and the decision was easy for me since my mother had one, I could easily pull the ‘but you have one’ card so easy peasy.
For my nose, I didn’t have that card to play, and so I needed external (as we like to call it here) gingering.
After contemplating for months, it finally happened when my best friend came over for the holidays and we gassed each other to get it done.
We didn’t know any piercer in my estate, but we gave ourselves proximity to cover and concluded if the Lord wanted this to happen he would provide someone nearby.
It was barely 200M from my house when we found a big unisex salon that had a piercing section.
GETTING PIERCED
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| Image credit: stitcher.com |
“We’re using the gun so it will be quick” was what one attendant at the Salon said when a seat opened up.
My friend and I decided I went first since we’d established from experiences I handled pain better.
Before we left, I read an answer on Quora that suggested getting your nose done with a needle was less painful, and the hole came out smaller, so I felt anxious when he sterilized the gun.
‘Relax,’
He positioned the gun into the left side, which I had chosen after reading up the symbolic nature of nasal piercings, and the moment my eyes shut he released the gun and made the first hole, yes you read right first!
It stung, and I noticed that a tear rolled down my left eye, and I was sighing with relief I heard him say something that sounded like, ‘ we have to go again.’
The sharp end hadn’t passed through the other end of my nose, and as I was on the verge of expressing more because I was going to feel that sharp sting again, I saw my friend who was depending on me not to freak out.
I could hold it together for the second try that finally did the trick and just like that they pierced my nose.
DEALING WITH PARENTS
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| Image credit: weheartit.com |
Things easily go unnoticed at my house, and I think the fact I wear glasses hid the piercing even more for the first few days.
However, by day three we switched to a clear acrylic retainer, which pretty much every blog advised against, but I watched a YouTube video on a retainer experience that said otherwise.
I think my clear retainer does a fair job at hiding the piercing, but most people I meet can instantly tell I pierced my nose, so It makes it weird I have heard nothing of it at home.
A friend suggested perhaps my parents are sick of my shit and decided their say on what I do with my body is my business. #mybodymyrules.
HEALING, POST-CARE AND HYGIENE
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| Image credit: Refinery |
I’ll go out of a whim and say I think God really made my body suitable for piercings, because, for the first four days, I followed zero post-care plans, washed my face as usual, and occasionally cleaned my piercing with alcohol.
Anyone who knows about piercing knows that was an infection waiting to happen.
I eventually got this jar of natural sea salt, which I used to make my homemade sterile piercing care solution.
So it’s been four weeks since I got my nose pierced and unlike most blogs, I stopped feeling pain from my first week, my piercing is healing pretty well, but I’ve changed rings just once, and quickly changed it back.
Quick Tip
If you plan to heal using a retainer, I suggest you use an L-shaped one; it’s been frustrating looking for my piercing every time I got off the bed.
Note this is totally my personal experience, which I expect to guide your decision making, please consult your piercer from time to time.
To celebrate my first post in 2020, I’m giving away my homemade piercing care solution recipe to everyone who subscribes to my newsletter.
If you’ve already subscribed, you’ll get a copy of it in this week’s newsletter.
