I Love My Nose

I know David really hates it when I do this, but I must start this post with saying how lucky I am.  He puts up with a lot, and I do mean A LOT, from me and doesn't even raise an eyebrow (very often).  Recently I've been doing some things that I have always wanted to do but was either afraid to or never felt like I was in a place in my life where I could.  You've seen my first tattoo (there is a second that I'll be blogging about soon), and just a few days ago I added a piercing.  All things have been done with my wonderful husband's love and support, so thank you David for just getting me.

So where is this piercing?  My right nostril.  I have a love/hate relationship with my nose.  It's big.  But then I love it because it is a nose that many of my family members have/had.  I can look back in photo albums and see exactly where my nose is inherited from.  That's pretty cool, I can get over the size.  Since college I've wanted to pierce my nose but held back because my parents drilled the "must maintain a professional appearance" mantra into my head.  This isn't a bad thing.  It's good to step back and think about things before you rush in and do something you will regret.  No regrets today.

Monday was the day my partner in crime, I'm going to call her the Crimson Cohort, was able to go to the piercing studio with me.  After work we hopped in the Crimson Cruiser and she drove me to Jori Zan's Body Piercing.  I was nervous.  We went in and found out a group of five had just gone in ahead of us and there was going to be an hour and a half to two hour wait.  Ugh.  I was torn.  First I would be keeping two people waiting-the Crimson Cohort who had brought me and then David who was meeting us for Monday Margarita's after.  If I left I was afraid I'd come back to another wait or worse, chicken out and not even go back.  But both the Crimson Cohort and David were agreeable with what I wanted to do so we waited.

I got to pick my jewelry.  The girl handling sales (who we later learned is also one of Jori's apprentices) looked up my nose and helped determine what the best style would be for nostril.  I wanted something small, not gold, and no flashy gems.   I wanted it to be subtle.  There was a lovely silver disk stud that would be perfect.  I should point out that the world of piercing is strange and foreign to me and I tried not to be too concerned with the fact that the stud looked like a small shiny nail without a sharp tip.

(Kinda like this, not as thick, or as long, and no pointy at the bottom)

Then we waited.  Despite being anxious and super nervous, it was nice to have the time to talk to the Crimson Cohort.  We work together and with the exception of getting together for dinners a few times we haven't really had uninterrupted chat time.  She is a busy busy law student, and her free time is precious.  Any time I get to spend with her outside of work is awesome!  The wait went by pretty fast. The group of giggly newly-pierced girls left and Jori came and escorted us back to the piercing room.

The first thing I noticed (because as a nurse's daughter it is my duty) was how clean the room was, the whole shop was very clean.  Everything smelled clean.  Jori took my stud-to-be to be cleaned/sterilized while she got her tools gathered and talked to me a little about what to expect.  I liked Jori pretty much immediately.  Her own piercings are gorgeous, you are just going to have to go in and meet her and see what I mean.  She was very friendly, very easy going and most importantly calming.  I watched her pull out all the tools she would need: small plastic cups, dye, toothpicks, two different clampy looking things, q-tips and of course the needle (I'm sure there were a few other things but I was kind of distracted).  And yes mom, she had gloves on the whole time and changed them if she went from one area to another, very very sanitary.  She explained the clampy things were not going to be touching me, that they were for bending the end of the stud to curl and help keep the stud securely in my nostril.  Before that we had to determine placement.  She asked if her apprentice could watch (of course-I love that people still do apprenticeships) and she talked her through how to find the natural spot on my nose to place it.  My nose has a curve with the perfect spot to tuck a piercing in-who knew!  She marked the spot with the toothpick and a little bit of dye and had me to make sure I was happy with it.  It wasn't quite where I had imagined it would go-as I said, new to all this, but I liked her placement.  

Then my stud was ready to go, it was nearing time.  She showed her apprentice how to measure the space so they knew where to start bending the stud so it was the right fit for my nostril.  She had me look one more time to make sure I liked the placement.  She cleaned the piercing area, including inside the nostril.  I have to say I thought having another person shave me was weird, but having someone else stick a q-tip up my nose takes the cake.  Then I was laying on the table, nervous, as she is bending the stud and then putting something in my nose so she can put the needle through and before I really had a chance to process what was going on it was done.  Honestly, I thought pulling a nose hair hurt more.  Any pain/discomfort was really quick and it didn't really sting after (unlike pulling a nose hair which stinks like a mofo for a while after!).  While I sort of came down from the adrenaline high she talked to me more about what to expect and aftercare.  

I love it.  I love the placement, it really is just tucked in and looks like it has always been there.  There is no pain or discomfort.  Jori was completely awesome, and I would take anyone to her for any kind of piercing.  So thank you David for being okay with me doing it.  Thank you Crimson Cohort for being there to keep me from totally virgo-ing out.  And thank you Jori for an amazing piercing experience!

See, subtle!  I love it!

Go.  Get.  Pierced!