To Pierce or Not To Pierce

[Sonnet]

I've wanted to pierce my nose for a long time now - years, actually. Now I'm planning on having it done tomorrow - or today, rather - and I'm having a big fat panick attack about it. I'm scared it's going to hurt really badly and get infected. I've wanted it for so damn long, I don't know what the problem is.

When I pierced the cartilage in the top of my ear it seems like it swelled pretty badly, and I think the reason it got infected was that I was allergic to the metal in the piercing stud - but I'm really worried that it's going to be that way for my nose. I've had tattoos that healed fairly well...

I want it. I'm scared. I want it. I'm scared.

Anybody have any input for me? I'm a goober, I know, and this isn't really a very serious issue, but I could use some feedback.

[Goliath]

Well, you asked for feedback....I doubt that this is what you wanna hear, though:

Whenever I see a piercing other than an earlobe piercing, I can't help but envision the ring/stud/whatever in the piercing getting caught on something and violently torn out.

For that reason, I wouldn't do it, were I in your shoes...then again, you're not me.

So, I guess I was of absoltely no help. Sorry.

[livius drusus]

Okay let's think this through, Sonnet. Have you checked out the place that's going to be doing the piercing? Is it clean? Are the pokers experienced? Are you using a gold or surgical steel stud?

You know the pain is going to be a flash. I understand being disturbed at the thought because noses are so delicate, but it is quite literally just going to take a second. Do you think there is any pain you can't take for a second? I bet not. Do you think this is going to be the worst pain in the world? Unlikely.

You'll do fine, Sonnet, really. I know you will. :hug:

[LadyShea]

Just want to throw my experience out there for ya, in case you haven't done it yet. I got my nipple pierced, loved it for a few years until hubby got a little enthusiastic and sucked it out (understood this is unlikely to happen with a nose piercing). Anyhoo, the hole will never heal over, just like ear holes, and I have to periodically clean white spooge out of it by threading dental floss through it :ill: .

If you ever get sick of having the jewelry, just keep in mind the hole is forever, and it's on your face, so may get full of oil and makeup and crap so you will have to keep it clean forever.

Now my tattoos on the other hand, I love, no maintenance.

[Shake]

No piercings or tats for me, but a buddy in college did the nose thing. Took it out one night to clean it, and it was bugging him a bit, and the hole had closed up by morning.

[viscousmemories]

Are you talkin' about a stud or one of them bull-rings, Sonnet? :P

Anyhoo... I'll just echo what others said. You know it probably won't hurt bad or for long, and that infections and such are a risk but not a certainty. I probably wouldn't think too much about what LadyShea said, though. At least not while eating. :yuck:

All that aside, I think little nose studs and other small jewelry in somewhat atypical locations can be sexy. There was this girl who worked at a video store in my hometown that had numerous small silver hoops all along the edge of one ear and I thought that was pretty cool. I'm not really into the heavy armor anywhere, though.

[JoeP]

OK...
I got my nipple pierced, loved it for a few years until hubby got a little enthusiastic and sucked it out (understood this is unlikely to happen with a nose piercing).That's a beautiful image even with the eeow factor...

Anyhoo, the hole will never heal over, just like ear holes, and I have to periodically clean white spooge out of it by threading dental floss through it :ill: .Straight into a image I want to forget. Eeugh. Thanks.

Anyway, "spooge"? Dictionary.com:spooge

/spooj/ Inexplicable or arcane code, or random and probably
incorrect output from a computer program.

What's that doing in your nipple?

[LadyShea]

From UrbanDictionary.com

spooge
n. goopy or viscous substance

v. to cause a goopy substance to end up on an item or person

I woke up this morning in a puddle of spooge.
What is this spooge on my dinner?
Damn! Don't spooge my new shoes!
What's that spoogy shit on your shirt?

Spooge sounds better than what it actually is, which is some kind of nipple smegma (the most vile word in the English language I believe). I only recently found out this happens to almost everyone who has had a nipple ring, and that I am not a freak nor is my nipple going to fall off from some horrid infection (I was terrified of this actually). Too bad too, I kept a teeny delicate 14k hoop in it. It was actually a baby earring and was very subtle and I liked it. Of course the pain of it being sucked out sorta ruined all that.

And I am sorry to gross ya'll out, but I feel this is a public service announcement here.

[viscousmemories]

[...]I am not a freak nor is my nipple going to fall off from some horrid infection (I was terrified of this actually). Too bad too, [...]
:bigeyes:

[LadyShea]

:bigeyes:

Oops, poor thought and word order there huh?

[dave_a]

Only thing I ever had pierced was my ear, regret having done it as I haven't worn an earing since junior high or high school.

The pain shouldn't be a big deal since it's just a second or 2.

However, I would strongly suggest you consider (I'm sure you already have) the future and whether this is something you want for life (a hole in your nose).

Nose piercings are something everyone you meet will see and some will judge you negatively. Just something to consider, particularly if you wish to work in a professional environment.

[viscousmemories]

Oops, poor thought and word order there huh?
Depends on what you're into, I guess. :P

Nose piercings are something everyone you meet will see and some will judge you negatively. Just something to consider, particularly if you wish to work in a professional environment.
:biglaugh:

Sorry, inside joke kinda. :P

[Sonnet]

However, I would strongly suggest you consider (I'm sure you already have) the future and whether this is something you want for life (a hole in your nose).

Nose piercings are something everyone you meet will see and some will judge you negatively. Just something to consider, particularly if you wish to work in a professional environment.

At 34 years old, having contemplated doing this for the better part of a decade, yes, I've thought about it.

Viscous, yes, I'm going to the most reputable place in town, run by people I know and trust - and I have trouble with kidney stones, have all my life, so you're right - this can't possibly hurt nearly as badly. :eek:

[JoeP]

some kind of nipple smegma (the most vile word in the English language I believe).
Smegma's a good word. It is undoubtedly the source for smeg, the fictional swear word in Red Dwarf (http://www.google.com/search?q=red+dwarf). And brings back memories of school. As I was saying at HH (http://www.heathenhangout.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2400&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=smegma&start=50)I remember being told this word at school and a couple of us not knowing it. The guy who did (under the guise of superiority) was obviously not prepared to tell us, so we scuttled off to the school library like good little students.

It went something like (in the good old OED) "A whitish deposit under the integument of the glans penis". Well, we had no idea what an integument was so we had to look that up, but light dawned eventually - oh, cock cheese!

So, what is the most vile word in the English language? I have been searching for half an hour, and trust me, all the words I've found suggested as vile or foul are rather lovely: cacophony, crunch, flatulent, gripe, jazz, phlegmatic, plump, plutocrat, sap, treachery
texts, putsch, molybdenum, hashish, angst
gobbledygook, bankruptcy, windbag, tightwad, carbuncle, sputnik, buttock, crackpot, troglodyte, cuckold, flapdoodle, clodhopper, shishkebab, kvetch, expectorate, mugwump, bedbug, plug-ugly
sludge, syphilis, diarrhea, juke-box, debutante, turboprop, piggyback

Any other suggestions? To get the ball rolling :P :innocent: I suggest kleptocoprids - a kind of dung beetle (http://www.outthere.co.za/april97/wilapr1.html) that doesn't bother to roll its own dung balls but steals other beetle's balls. No shit.

[JoeP]

btw, sonnet, I have absolutely no useful opinion on whether you should pierce or not. I find nose studs quite attractive; nose rings less so - are you going for the side or the septum? Excuse me for derailing your thread.

[viscousmemories]

btw, sonnet, I have absolutely no useful opinion on whether you should pierce or not. I find nose studs quite attractive; nose rings less so - are you going for the side or the septum? Excuse me for derailing your thread.
If you want me to split the post to a new thread I can hook you up. But maybe Sonnet got all the input she wanted. :)

[godfry n. glad]

Okay... This is actually something I know about.

First, it's not a "post" in the nose, but a "nasal screw"...sounds challenging, huh?

That's what my wife stated that the implement she had (3 of them, actually) for her "South Asian style" nose ornament was called. That's not the ring style or the bone-through-the-nose type. Just the little jewel on the side of the nose.

She actually had it done twice. The first one she experienced some infection with, so she bailed out. The hole healed rather quickly, actually. Her second one was less problem and she actually got so she could switch out nasal screws between her silver bead, her clear diamond and her blue sapphire. When she was diagnosed with cancer, she took all her piercings (ears and nose) out. Her nose had healed entirely by the time of her death, six months later. She had no visible scar or hole.

My personal tastes as to piercings are fairly negative, but for some reason, I did not find the nasal piercing to be a big issue, in fact, I came to like it on her. I called her "Sparkie" and she liked it. But...it was not a septum ring, eyebrow post, lip ring or post...nothing screamingly obvious. Just a demure little nasal screw.

And, as tattoos go....well, I think they assume that your aesthetic preferences at whatever age you got the tattoo will be the same for the next how ever many years of the rest of your life. Sorry.... I'm not willing to make that leap. My tastes change over time.

godfry

[livius drusus]

Viscous, yes, I'm going to the most reputable place in town, run by people I know and trust - and I have trouble with kidney stones, have all my life, so you're right - this can't possibly hurt nearly as badly. :eek:

Hey! That's my constructive and sympathetic post you're replying to, not vm's wool-gathering meander. :hmph:

[Sonnet]

Hey! That's my constructive and sympathetic post you're replying to, not vm's wool-gathering meander. :hmph:

Shit, livius. I'm sorry. I was running short on time and kind of frazzled and didn't focus the way I should. :doh:

It went very well, btw - it hurt MUCH, much less than I had anticipated, it didn't swell or bleed at all, and looks just the way I thought it would. I'm thrilled. :yup:

[viscousmemories]

Shit, livius. I'm sorry. I was running short on time and kind of frazzled and didn't focus the way I should. :doh:
Don't worry, Sonnet. It was perfectly reasonable to assume that it was me who made the nice comments, as wonderful a guy as I am. :D

It went very well, btw - it hurt MUCH, much less than I had anticipated, it didn't swell or bleed at all, and looks just the way I thought it would. I'm thrilled. :yup:
That's excellent news. Did they use a gun? They used a gun on my ear when I got it pierced, and I found it much less painful than the hour-long clench your teeth, push the pin a bit, shudder, clench your teeth, push the pin a bit, shudder, I went through at 13 when I decided to pierce my own. :doh:

[livius drusus]

Shit, livius. I'm sorry. I was running short on time and kind of frazzled and didn't focus the way I should. :doh:

I understand. A few sessions with my therapist and I'll be fully recovered from the emotional crippling, I'm sure. :D

It went very well, btw - it hurt MUCH, much less than I had anticipated, it didn't swell or bleed at all, and looks just the way I thought it would. I'm thrilled. :yup:

That's fantastic news, Sonnet. Congratulations! What's the jewel like?

[JoeP]

and looks just the way I thought it would. I'm thrilled. :yup:
So dare we ask for ... a photo? :bow: :yup:

[Sonnet]

So dare we ask for ... a photo? :bow: :yup:

Not to belabor this or anything, but I've changed my avatar, and you can sort of see the piercing in it; it looks just like every other nostril piercing in the world, but it's mine and I love it.

It's healing beautifully, btw. It hardly hurt at all, stopped hurting as soon as the piercing was done, and felt almost normal by the next day. If I yank on it it smarts some, but I was completely surprised by how little pain there was.

[livius drusus]

I love it, Sonnet. It's delicate and lovely and suits you perfectly. I can't believe how entirely unirritated it looks!

[viscousmemories]

I'm with liv. It looks great, Sonnet. Cool avatar, too. :)

[LadyShea]

It kicks ass, you look great. Glad you 're thrilled and there was no bad stuff.

[godfry n. glad]

Niiiiiiiice, mensahib.

It goes nicely with your glowing ember eyes.

godfry

[JoeP]

I'm with liv. It looks great, Sonnet. Cool avatar, too. :)
I'm with liv and vm, on both points. Well pierced.