Piercing Adventures

Yesterday, I went and got my right nostril pierced. I already have my left nostril pierced, as well as my septum. Throughout the years, I’ve gotten many piercings that have come and gone. Every summer, a piercing parlor nearby does a half-off piercing promotion. That’s when I received most of my piercings. I’ve had my nose, septum, cartilage (which is called a helix), nipples, tongue, lip, and even the webbing between my thumb and index finger.

My lip and finger webbing piercings were not done professionally. When I was in 8^th or 9^th grade, I went through a phase of doing my own piercings. At one point, I had two of my friends over and we all three pierced our lips with a safety pin. Once the hole was secured, we put regular earrings in them. Each of us had to remove them once our mothers found out, but it’s still funny in hindsight.

I don’t really know what inspired me to pierce the skin between my thumb and finger. It wasn’t pleasant, not even slightly. It got in the way of doing many things with my hands. The ring would fall out, and then I wouldn’t be able to get it back in. One such day, I walked into my first period health class and asked a classmate to help me put it back in. As he forced the earring back into my skin, it made a loud popping noise. He made me promise I would never make him do something like that ever again.

My first piercings were, of course, my ear lobes. My mom took me to the piercing pagoda in the mall for my 9^th birthday. We then set out to play cosmic mini golf, but there was a big storm and the power ended up going out. It didn’t take very long for me to take out my earrings and the holes grew back. I got them repierced at some point, but they closed up again. To this day, I can force earrings into my holes, but it isn’t easy and I tend to just not mess with them.

My first piercing outside of my ears I believe was my septum. I’ve grown quite fond of it. It’s definitely the longest I’ve ever kept a piercing. I got my helix pierced, but it seemed to never heal. Months after the fact, it still hurt regularly. I took it out when I had to get an MRI, and it didn’t seem worth it to put it back in. My left nostril piercing came shortly after my septum, but it began as a tongue piercing. I went to the parlor’s half-price promo with my friend Alina there for moral support. Matt, the piercer, placed the needle in my tongue and replaced it with a tongue ring. Alina and I left, headed to the mall. The piercing was throbbing, but I was determined to fight through it. Sometimes we must suffer for good things. We found ourselves in the photobooth. A small girl reached under the curtain, trying to grab Alina’s purse, but the girl’s mother grabbed her before she was successful. While we were making funny faces at the camera, I suddenly noticed that the ball from the top of my tongue ring was loose. It very quickly ended up falling off, and Alina scrambled to help me get it back on before the hole closed.

Within a matter of minutes, it was coming out again. This time, it could not be salvaged. I messaged the man who did my piercing. He said that I could come back to the piercing parlor and he would redo the piercing. The other option he gave me was my choice of another piercing free. I chose that, and got my nostril pierced. It was a much more suitable piercing for me, and I’ve had it ever since.

I had been toying with the idea of a second nostril piercing for a while, but being in nursing school also means I have to hide my piercings when I go to clinical. Because of this, it just seemed like more trouble than it was worth to get the other side of my nose pierced. It wasn’t until I started seeing a friend of mine posting on Facebook about her piercing apprenticeship that it entered my radar once again. A week or so ago, she made a post saying she had five slots open for a free nostril piercing. I would just have to purchase the jewelry. Without really thinking, I immediately signed up for a slot and scheduled my day.

The day came, and I was second-guessing myself. Would I even look good with two nostril piercings? Would I have enough time before next semester’s clinical begins for it to heal enough to put a clear ring in it on clinical days? I decided that it would all work out, and I made the hour drive. When I got there, I was nervous, but it was a familiar anxiety. There’s some level of excitement and adrenaline-chasing as well. Every piercing I’ve gotten was preceded by a similar feeling, including the ones I did myself in my father’s bathroom. I embraced the excitement and followed the apprentice into the back room where she would be putting a needle through my skin.

As a nursing student, I would be absolutely nowhere without the patients that are gracious enough to allow students to “practice” on them. Someone has to be the first blood draw, IV stick, medication administration. We practice on mannequins, but there is nothing like the real thing. Very understandably, there are some people who are staunchly against nursing students touching them, even if it isn’t their first time performing a specific skill. When those patients come along, we respectfully observe our nurse, trying to glean as much knowledge as we can without the hands-on experience. Maybe it’s my experience that made me so open to having a piercing apprentice do my piercing. After all, she’s got to learn on someone. Why not me? Especially since there’s a sweet deal on the piercing, it feels like a win-win.

So, I come to you all today, with one additional hole in my head. My late father would have been ecstatic for me to come home on Thanksgiving with yet another modification that God Himself did not gift me with at birth. I find myself feeling grateful to be surrounded by people who support me, even in my wildest endeavors. They look at me with love and patience rather than judgment and criticism. The end of the year is a time of deep reflection for me. I think about all that has changed in a year’s time.

This year was a big one, with the death of my father, and all that comes along with that. School has kept me busy, as well as the three jobs I am currently juggling. Yet my heart is as full as ever. I am an extremely lucky lady.

I hope this holiday season treats you all well. I hope you can find moments of gratitude and peace. I hope you can surround yourself with at least one person that loves you for who you are, and looks at you, not with a critical eye, but with a loving glimmer.