Posted by: slync81 on: 16 January, 2009
Having a nose piercing seems like such a simple thing. It’s almost as popular as having your ears done, but if you have fat ears, it’s much more easier to work around that than having a fat nose, like me.
My troubles began when I went to a cheap jewellers to to get my nose pierced alongside my sister who was getting her ears done. The guy used the ear-gun on my nose, which I didn’t think was a problem at first. However he didn’t put it where I wanted it because he said my nose was too thick to have it too far back. But the result was that it was too far forward! In addition, he put this massive gold earring stud in it, and my nose is already thick, so it looked ridiculous!
I kept it in for two days trying to decide if I really wanted to keep it there, in the meantime doing research about nose piercings on the Internet. I found that most people were recommending to go to a proper body piercing shop to get a nose piercing because it’s more hygienic, less painful and will have less potential future problems. I’ve had my lower lip pierced (which I have taken out) and my belly button, and I find that I normally heal well but as I wasn’t happy with where the piercing was anyway, I took it out and went to my local piercing shop.
The lady was really nice and was happy to pierce my nose even though the other hole was healing. She wore gloves and did it in the perfect place. However, the normal sized nose screw she was trying to put in was too small for my nose and so she scrabbled around to find ones that were slightly longer. In the end I chose a tiny pink titanium ball nose screw that you could hardly see, but I was happy with it. It hurt a LOT less that my first piercing and because it was smaller I knocked it less. Also I knew I would be able to change it anyway.
The piercer advised me to not sleep on that side of my face and to tape the ball down with a bit of surgical tape so that it doesn’t get caught in the night. However when I woke up the next morning and took the tape off – it had sunk into the piercing.
I pushed it back up and it stayed for a while but throughout the day it kept sinking into the hole until it wouldn’t stay up at all. I called the shop and the piercer advise me to come back in on the Monday but that if it won’t stay to take it out because it could get infected. I took it out and replaced it with the stud that I got from the other piercing but because the hole slightly further back I felt more comfortable to just take it out and leave it.
When I went back, she re-pierced the hole, though it hadn’t really closed up, and put a Labret in as it was longer. This was really secure and a much better fit. She advised to keep it in for 3 – 4 weeks, cleaning it with saline solution and a cotton bud each day and then to come back in to change it (they do a standard jerelly change after healing and also she was gonna look into finding a longer screw or nose jewellery fro my nose rather than a labret). She also advised to leave it alone for 24hours and not to use the tape but to not sleep on that side because the surface of the hole had now become wider than the piercing so it needed to heal up. I realised that it was actually the tape that had pushed the previous screw into the hole in the first place.
But I was happy again. The Labret was slightly bigger and could be cleaned easier and looked nice, so I was content.
BUT after about two weeks, while washing my face, the stud on the Labret fell down the sink! I was completely distraught. I didn’t have any other ’spare’ jewellery because the screws that I use on my belly button and lip labret were too big but I really did not want it close up. It was too late in the day for me to buy anything so once again, I had to go back to my good old earring stud!
The next day I researched Labrets and tried to figure out what size the piercer had given me. I assumed it was either a 8mm or 10mm with a 1.2mm gauge but when I rang up it was my peircers’ day off and the guy there wasn’t sure what she’d given me. I went to another shop near where I work to buy jewellery but wasn’t that that happy with what I brought. I put it in anyway and went back to my piercer when she was next in to get a replacement. This time the piercer advised me to but some nail polish around the ball to secure it.
All went well for about 6 six weeks, but then I realised that the hole was taking a long time to heal, particularly underneath where the flat part of the Labret sat against the hole – at times I could smell blood. Also a bump had developed on top of the hole, which I understand is normal, but I felt that the piercing was not getting enough air. I went back to see my piercer, but she had retired (randomly!) and her replacement said that he would not be changing the jewellery, but simply changing stud. That did not help me.
I began scouring the Internet for somewhere that had nose jewellery that accommodated thick noses. But with no luck. I ordered two customised non-threaded nose studs from steelnavel.com in USA that never arrived and I considered buying the press to fit bars from ebay but was uncomfortable with buying anything that might mess with my already tired nose piercing.
In the end I brought a couple of bioflex studs from BodyJewellryShop in the UK because they are suppose to be good for long to heal piercings. It was tiny and firm but still flexible. I bend it a little and then put it in though my nose bled a little. For the next two weeks the bump on my nose got bigger and bigger, even though I was treating it. I got worried that the bioflex stud had irated it. At this stage I was ready to just leave the hole to close up and be done with it. It was starting to piss me off! I have never had that much drama with a piercing before and frankly I didn’t want to have my nose completely ruined, because of all these issues.
Then I noticed that the massive lump on my nose was fleshy and didn’t have any feeling in it (it was disgusting!). I realised that because the bioflex stud was smaller in width than any of the other jewellery I had had in (1mm gauge), the piercing was healing in smaller and pushing up the extra flesh out of the hole! I tore it off, which was painless, but gross, and cleaned everything up and reinserted another custom bent bioflex stud.
A few weeks later, it’s neat, painless and healed but I still cannot believe that there is no nose jewellery for noses of different sizes and thicknesses.
I may still get the press to fit nose bars I saw but I know I will be reluctant to mess around with it again, especially as the bioflex simply works for me now. What have I learned about this experience?
