Nose Piercing Complications :( part one.

I'd love to say that my nose piercing and I lived happily ever after. Sadly, this was not to be the case. Shortly after I posted "A permanent accessory" I developed a small bump around the top of my piercing. It was also red and slightly swollen-looking. A friend recommended tea tree oil, the first of many remedies that I tried in the hopes of being able to keep the piercing that I wanted so badly. Tea tree oil is very strong, and has a very potent smell when applied to your nose. It also burns and, regrettably, was of no help to me whatsoever. I tried to delude myself into thinking that it was helping... but lucky for me both my mums and lovely sis JULIETTE would constantly squint at it... then advance closer to my face. "That doesn't look right, is it infected?" (M) or, "I hope that isn't a staph infection...it definitely looks infected." (J) never let me forget for too long that something wasn't right about my healing process.

I reluctantly decided to call the shop where I had this hardware installed and discovered that my beloved Marcie was going to be out for the next couple of weeks due to illness. This news left me feeling vaguely unsettled. Since I didn't want to go see a different piercer I postponed my trip to North Coast as long as possible... which wasn't that long because I was beginning to have visions of my poor proboscis (we had made a tentative peace) now adorned NOT with a cute little post... but a gigantic wart-like SCAR. I would look like an evil witch!

I love googling any random question I may have, but made the mistake of hopping on my macbook (get a mac) and googling "bump on nose piercings". The repulsive images of disgusting protuberances of all sizes will forever be singed on my brain.

From that point forth, (though outwardly appearing confident that the piercing was healing nicely), I was secretly terrified at the thought of a nubby little bump on the side of my nose... mocking me for ever trying to improve it in the first place. In subsequent weeks I ended up taking a total of 4 additional trips to North Coast Body Mod (NCBM), each visit a bit more surreally horrible than the one before it.

Trip #1- I spoke with a male employee (I'll call him Brutus since I didn't catch his name) who told me that my nose didn't look infected... it was just taking awhile to heal. He told me that I had two possible options to treat the "keloid" (disgusting word that I hate): 1. the tea tree oil 2. the aspirin treatment.* When I informed him that I had tried the tea tree oil already, he told me to try the aspirin treatment and that it should clear up in 3-4 days "no problem". Brutus also said that he didn't think that the tea tree oil was very effective but that anyone he had told about the aspirin never came back into the shop to say it hadn't worked. I was skeptical, but cautiously optimistic.

I also inquired as to whether or not it was possible to be allergic to the metal jewelry NCBM uses for new piercings. I had first put this question to Marcie on P Day back in October but wanted to hear Brutus' take on the matter. Long ago I got my bellybutton pierced and my body (I call it the luxury vehicle**) reacted in the exact same way. Same bump, same strange not-really-infected, but yet not-really-healing situation. I had ended up having to remove the piercing after multiple attempts to keep it. I wondered back then if it had something to do with the type of metal in the jewelry, since my ears always get infected if I wear earrings that aren't 14 carat or sterling silver. I never tried out my 14 carat theory on my bellybutton and ended up with a scar and no piercing. I figured I would at least ask this time to see if it was possible.

Brutus quickly informed me that it is impossible to be allergic to the piercing jewelry. He assured me (as did Marcie) that when people have reactions it is because of the nickel that is found in some jewelry... but that North Coast pierces with no-nickel-having-surgical-steel. Marcie had gone a step further in her explanation and said that it is the same metal used in surgery when you need pins for broken bones and such, which means that people can't have an allergy to it. Both of them spoke with such conviction that I felt a little foolish for asking (twice). But even while immersed in that uncomfortable "foolish" feeling... I still didn't really believe them. I thanked Brutus, left, and went immediately to Walgreens to fetch some Bayer aspirin and hoped for the best.

Well, 3-4 days did nothing. Nor did 3-4 days after that. In fact, if possible, the bump was bigger, and the skin was beginning to peel. This was extremely upsetting to me, and I was also still fielding questions from Mums and Juliette with regularity, fueling my anxiety further. After about a week of the aspirin treatment, I woke up one morning and discovered that my bump looked just like a blood blister. Bright red... and evil. Instead of being scared and disheartened, which probably would have been the normal reaction, I was excited. I thought, "if this is only a blister, maybe someone at North Coast can do something to it, and then all will be well!" Wrong again. I was beginning to think that this whole nose piercing affair was God's little way of letting me know how often I am incorrect about things.

Back I went to North Coast and this time Brutus called upon a fellow with an impressive mohawk and tattoo collection to assess my pathetic non-healing situation. I don't remember his name either, probably because he traumatized me so much, so I have christened him Mohawk for storytelling purposes. Mohawk was very nice, and took me back to their piercing rooms. He put on his gloves and began examining my nose. He deduced that yes, it was a blood blister and theorized that if he was able to "release the fluid" then perhaps I would be on the road to healing. What followed was incredibly painful and involved the wooden stick end of a cotton swab being jammed repeatedly into my bump. Mohawk would jam the stick, then twist it, then swipe the increasingly bloody utensil through some disinfectant he had applied to a medical tray. I know that sounds disgusting, and I apologize for the graphic deets, but I owe it to you to be as specific as possible. Mohawk repeated this process at least 10 times, so I'm sure you can imagine my horror and pain as I saw my blood on the tray and felt this blunt little torture tool being jabbed into my face.

When he was finished, he apologized for any pain he had caused and said that now I should use the aspirin treatment and that I should be successful. Wiping the involuntary wet tracks off of my face with a paper towel, I thanked him, and quickly left so that I could reflect on this excruciating episode in the solitude of my car. I took a few moments to lament the fact that other people get piercings all the time and don't have these troubles. After wallowing for a bit, I got on with my day and tried to feel optimistic. Little did I know that even more pain was coming my way, and that my saga was only halfway over.

to be continued....

* the aspirin treatment: crush an uncoated aspirin and add water until it becomes the consistency of toothpaste, then smear it all over the outside of your piercing and leave it on overnight. Let me tell you-- it is a very attractive look.

** more on the luxury vehicle later. Forevermore, when I have more to say on any topic I shall use the acronym of MOTL.

A permanent accessory!

I have always had a love/hate relationship with my nose. I love it because it is mine and I should... it has always served me well... (sometimes too well I think since particular odors seem to be WAY more offensive to me than to anyone else)...but it is also the facial feature that I cite as the one I would change. It is too long, and there is a bump on the bridge that my mother and I theorize is the by-product of being a breech baby. If I ever convey my dislike of it to anyone they either say that they've never noticed it before (unobservant or lying) or that it "fits my face." How does one respond to that?

In my younger days I toyed with the idea of getting a nose job eventually, but that concept never sat well with me. How would I be able to look in the mirror and see a foreign object where my old schnoz (gross word) used to be and feel good about myself? What if surgery went horribly wrong and I ended up with a hole in my face? I would DESERVE IT for trying to alter the nose that God gave me! (Gotta love ridiculous self-indulgent thoughts.) I've wanted to pierce it for at least the past 10 years, but something always held me back. I hadn't made peace with my beak, so we just stayed in a holding pattern.

Until yesterday.

I decided that since I'm never going to allow myself to change it... I might as well decorate it.

Once I made the final decision to go ahead and pierce my sniffer, (yes, I am attempting to use every synonym for nose in my mac thesaurus for fun) all that was left were the necessary details: placement and permission. Placement was determined using microscopic bits of crystal from Claire's Boutique. These little money wasters were a real pain in the ass to try to get to stay on my nose long enough to get an idea of how a cute little stud would look. Eventually, I convinced one of them to stick and found the perfect place for it.

Permission was granted by Ayodele and Sophia, and my Mums was as permissive as she could be, opting for "I really wish you wouldn't, but it's your nose..." as her trail-off sentence. Well, that was good enough for me, especially since I had already decided I was going to do it anyway! All of this permission business was just good form. No need to incense anyone, is there?

So off I boldly went with Jo in tow for moral support. (Well, off I went... I was still working on the "boldly" part.)

The first tattoo and piercing establishment I visited had run out of the clear crystal corkscrew that I preferred and didn't have any others that tickled my fancy. We left and I was still fully committed, undeterred by this minor setback, though time was growing short and soon all of the shops would be closing. (Gotta love small towns. Ugh.)

Jo was thrilled to use "google 411" with her cell phone (she has been extolling its virtues to me for a while now) and ended up getting connected to a shop right around the corner from my condo. As soon as I heard a soothing female voice, I knew that she was the one that I would be getting pierced by that evening.

We arrived at the shop where we were ushered back to the piercing room by the soother herself: Marcie. She had a calm piercing-table-side manner that instantly put me at ease. As she donned her pink surgical gloves she told me that it was going to hurt, but that she was fast and good. I believed her. I don't know why some people feel that confidence is offensive. I find it vastly reassuring. Marcie approached my face with her piercing equipment (no clue what exactly she had... saw a big needle and stopped looking) and said, "well you can close your eyes now, or whatever if you want," so I gratefully did. She told me to inhale... which instantly made me realize that when she said exhale that it was going to hurt like hell and question why I was there at all. I proceeded to follow her direction, though my inhaled breath was the shallowest of my life. Upon my exhale, the sharp, excruciating pain felt like God's wrath raining upon me...though only for about 5 seconds. Then it was done! And I am thrilled with the results.

Marcie was fantastic, my much lamented feature became permanently decorated, and though no one else will probably give it a second glance, I am happy to say that because of it, my nose and I have resolved our issues and will live happily ever after.

(unless it gets infected of course!)