nose piercing (thing)

My kid, much to my great pleasure, has been stopping by the house on a much more frequent basis lately. I think that now that she has a car and has the freedom to come and go as she pleases has a lot to do with that. Either way, I’ll take whatever time I can get.

We were shooting the shit the other day and she mentioned that after she graduated from high school she was thinking of getting her nose pierced. A far away look came over me and I sorta stared off into space.

Cue spooky music and flashback to an episode that occurred 20+ years ago

It was the dead of winter and my then girlfriend (soon to be wife, mother and then ex-wife) managed to land some Grateful Dead tickets for a concert to be held up in Cleveland. Naturally a massive snow storm blanketed the state and if memory serves the concert was cancelled and we went in search of a hotel room rather than make the trek back to Columbus. After scoring a room we went to the hotel bar that was packed with other Deadheads that shared our plight.

After getting a couple of seats we noticed that one guy at the other end of the bar was doing some nose piercings. Perhaps it was alcohol infused courage but not long afterwards my beloved future bride indicated that she’d always wanted one and was getting ready to fulfill her dream.

We wandered on down to other end to scope out what was going on and it wasn’t long before she had an abrupt change of mind. We watched as the guy with the gun inserted it into some poor girl’s nose and told her to stay still. Apparently she flinched just as he pulled the trigger and the gun was stuck dangling from her nose like an apple from a tree. There was blood streaming down her face and she was screaming and crying and a general sense of panic had set in.

My then girlfriend turned to me with a look that said it all and could only be interpreted as “Fuck this shit”. We wandered back to our end of the bar, knocked back a few more cocktails and made our way to our room.

History

The practice of nose piercing has been around since, well, almost forever. It’s even mentioned in the bible somewhere in Genesis 24. From its origins in the Middle East the practice spread to Africa and sometime in the 16th Century made its way to India. It didn’t become popular here in the States until the so called hippie movement and was later revitalized by the Punk movement as a sign of rebellion against authority.

What to wear?

Keeping it clean, the do’s

Clean the piercing every day using a cotton ball soaked in a saline solution.
Remove any “crust” that gather around the ring or the stud on a daily basis. (Gross)
Dry it by patting or dabbing at it with a paper towel or toilet tissue, avoid using a towel since it might have some bacteria on it and you don’t want to the piercing to become infected.
Use lavender oil to keep it lubricated and take some Vitamin B to move the healing process along.

Keeping it clean, the don’ts

For God’s sake, don’t pick or pull at the scab. This will only make the healing process longer.
Don’t use makeup, sun tan lotions and skin cleansers on the area around the piercing.
Whether it’s a ring or a stud, don’t remove it for more than one day for the first six months. If you do, you run the risk of the piercing closing up and all your efforts will be for naught.
Don’t worry about sneezing. Although it might cause some short term discomfort, your ring or stud will not go flying across the room.

That’s about all I got. Needless to say I hope that if Anna decides to go through with it she’ll choose something in good taste. Hey, at least she’s not looking to get her face or neck tattooed because that would be a whole ‘nuther story.

Source(s)

• borgette
• high school
• flashback
• the dead of winter
• Grateful Dead
• Cleveland, Ohio
• Columbus, Ohio
• the bible
• Genesis 24
• Africa
• India
• bacteria
• lavender
• Vitamin B
• sneezing