My body has never been particularly good with piercings. Every time I’ve pierced my upper ears – and I’ve done this three separate times now – my body has basically rejected the metal, creating infection or just flat-out refusing to heal. But upper-ear piercings are notoriously tricky, and I was hoping my nose would be different.
Ehhhh, sort of. That thing took a long time to heal. I think it was largely a result of this little incident (and oh my god do not click on that link if you’re squeamish), but either way: I tried everything to get it to heal completely. Salt-water soaks, cleansing with Dr. Bronner’s, all of it. And when I was in Canada I mentioned this to my cousin, and she said, “Oh, I know what you need,” and took me to the drugstore, where I spent something like five bucks on a very unexciting-looking little squeezy bottle. I did not have especially high hopes.
And guess what? It worked. Like, within 24 hours. If you have problems with piercings (or are planning on getting a new one), you have to own this stuff. (I’ve hunted around for where you can buy it here, but apparently it’s not really available in the US – you can get it online here, though.) It worked so well that it got rid of a problem I didn’t even know I had – apparently my nose was still a little puffy, because all of a sudden, in the past couple of weeks, I’ve noticed the stud sort of oddly sticking out; it’s just too long now that the swelling has (fiiiiinally) gone down.
So: family trip to Industrial Tattoo, in Berkeley (where we also ate things that were so good that they are going to have to get their own separate post). One very small-gauge gold ring for me, one more ear piercing for Kendrick, and ten thousand lollipops for our kids later, we were on our way back home.
P.S. I was hoping that this ring would be even more fitted to my nose, but either my nose is a little on the small side or the piercing is a little low; either way, if I want anything tinier I’ll have to get a custom ring. If you’re in need of custom jewelry too, I highly recommend calling Brian at Body Electric Tattoo – you can see the piece he created for Francesca here, and I’m going to be stopping in for a smaller ring next time I go to LA.
P.P.S. Found some cute (mostly faux) nose rings and studs if you’d like to try the look (below).
P.P.S. While hunting around on the Internet for nose jewelry, my search turned up these, which are…I mean…I don’t even know what to say about them, really.
