Nose piercing: where to go?

wendyo

Hi all.

I will be travelling to India this Dec. with my boyfriend of 1 year (He is Indian, I am a white American). I'll be meeting his family, and that is a whole other "situation" I will have to address.

But for now.....I have been thinking seriously about getting my nose pierced while in India. What should I look for in a shop? I will be in Pune for the majority of my visit, and I will likely look for someplace to get pierced while there. I'm just not sure if there is anything in particular I should look for.....


Thanks all for all of the interesting reading!

W

PRIYA

Hi wenyo....Welcome to IM!!

If you have a look under the Health & Wellbeing section of IM you should be able to find the thread relating to piercing.

I did try to put the link here for you but my PC knows its Friday and doesn't want to oblige.....

Enjoy your India experience in December - I'm sure you will!!

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mercedes10

Personally I would avoid any unnecessary use of needles in India! You need to be absolutely 100% sure that they're sterile! But why not just get pierced in the States before you go? What's the point in taking the risk? Also if you get it done in advance of going then it has a chance to heal. The last thing you want is an infected piercing (or potentially worse) in India!

LuAnnandJawahar

Getting a piercing while traveling is a bad idea. The stress of travel can lower your resistence and leave you more suseptible to infection. Staying clean in India, much less sterile, can be quite challenging. A "shop" may or may not be capable of providing sterile equipment to do the job. As merecedes10 suggests--why risk it?

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Sama

totally agree. this was discussed in a "getting tattooed in India" thread. get pierced in the US.

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edwardseco

Now that would set the tone for a visit by a potential foren daughter in law..

wendyo

Thanks all for your replies. I think I was just really excited, and wanted to get my nose pierced "authentically." Don't ask...I'm obviously not thinking too clearly. And yeah, a bad piercing, puss, and a red nose are not what I want to talk about when I meet bf's family

Wazen

This may have been talked about previously, however...

For the last 4 years I have been a professional body piercer,and have attneded Association of Professional Piercers seminars, whos standards I support and recognize.

I know nothing of the piercing scene in Inda,
However I could think of 1000 things that could go wrong, even in American shops..

If you wish to find the proper standars of getting pierced:

Jewelry, aftercare,finding a good shop, etc..

Then check out Safepiercing.org.


Lets say your piercing was done traditionally...
The jewelrystill needs to be of a certian purity, of specific metals.
The manner in which you are pierced needs to comply with medical asepsis technique,
All tools/jewelry/rubberbands/toothpics/everything needs to be AUTOCLAVED sterilized. Anything less your at risk for AIDS, HEP C, etc..

Could you imagine if you got a horrible infection,
that spread into your blood stream,
a piercing thats more like a huge infected boil that will permanently destroy your face,
and overcoming it only to find you have Hep C because they guy didnt exactly have an autoclave...

Be safe

Wazen

I have to add a few things about nostril piercings....

First of all as gold is commonly used, know that the best quality gold to use is between 14-18 k, perferably 18k. Anything less is too impure, anything over 18k is too porous material. Only very few metals are suitable for piercings, and even regular "surgical steel" does not cut it. You need implant grade material.

Make sure there are no rough edges on the jewelry, it needs to be highly polished.

..Also I dont know how this counts, but tripple beveled piercing needles as used in America, make and incision and seperate the tissue to the specific guage.
..On the other hand, using a "piercing gun" or safety pin, or just regular needle, willnot seperate the tissue. Rather it will be the equivelent to a "volcano"building up under the cartiladge until it explodes out the other side, shattering the cartiladge which can scar up badly...

If you finnaly choose to have it done proplerly in America,
make sure the piercer..

AND I MEAN THIS:

Make sure the piercer CUSTOM BENDS the Nostril Screw, to fit YOUR nose.
This should be done INFRONT OF YOU.
No pre-bent nostril screws, no little "balls" at the end of nostril screws to hold it in.. Most piercers dont know how to do this, and its really really sad. Of course if your using a "ring" then it dosent matter. Though if you use a ring, make sure its a good fit. meaning there should be about 1/8", maybe a tinny bit more, between the nostril rim and the jewelry..

Let me know if you have any questions, im gald to help, as I havent pierced in a while, and decided to pursue travel instead!

Aloha

cookie

You should get it done asap in america and then you can change the jewellery to whatever you want, there's nothing worse than wanting to put a pretty piece stud/bar/ring and having to wait till it's healed

But whats even worse is getting it infected and gunky - makes it sore and look yuk!

I would only ever go to a piecers that has been personally reccomended.

Hope this helps

wendyo

you people rock out. thanks for the detailed and expert advice!

Sama

Yikes, wazen, no wonder piercing freaks me out!

love all my tattoos, but piercing.....EEEEUUUUUUU!

but to each his/her own......

kalyani68

Personally, I would wait on getting the piercing. And yes, have it done in the USA in a professional, certified shop. Nostrils take longer to heal than other kinds of body piercings. Average healing time is about 3 months. The original jewelry must stay in until the piercing has healed. If you try to change it beforehand, you may not be able to get the new jewelry in and then the irritation can cause swelling and potential infection. Even after that, the piercing has to be treated gently or you can get ugly, red flare-ups that look awful. I speak from personal experience. I've had my left nostril pierced for over 2 years now.

During the healing period you will be doing aftercare 1x or 2x a day requiring plenty of warm sterile water. A hassle best not to take to India.
Just my 2 cents (er...rupees!)

ro-anD

Hi wendyo,

I am Indian, lived here (india) all my life and had a terrible experience about a year ago. Few things I learnt from it:
- Get it done only from a great place ( a big jeweller) and there will be plenty of those in pune no doubt
- Only do a gun shot (less painful and over in a few seconds) This part was NOT at all painful.
- The biggest part where I made the mistake was this: The stud that you use should be considerably large not a tiny one.

So this is what happened to me: I used a really small one, a speck if it could be called so. The procedure was really painless and over in 2-3 minutes. I come home overjoyed and keep looking in the mirror- and showing it off to all my family, neighbours (some hardly realise there's something different) . The next morning I wake up and rush to see it. hmmmm...cant see it but can feel it when i touch my nostril. No worries, my nose is a little swollen, but then i was told it could happen. A few more hours go by, still cant see it, so I call a few friends who've had their noses peirced and that too the 'screw method'. 2 of them ask me not to worry, but to keep applying oil. She says as long as you can feel it, its ok, and once the swelling subsides it will be visible. I'm comforted and keep checking till the end of the day. My husband on the other hands does not understand why i create my own problems
8pm 24hrs after the procedure and I still cant see the stud, now I'm almost freaking out. I call yet another friend. She says its a bad sign, if you cant see it its far too small a stud to have used for the first time, and if its gone below a few dermis layers its prone to get infected, newer skin would grow on it and the like. I'm convinced with her arguments, and agree I should go and get it out the next day, if I cant see it when I wake up.
A sleepless night for sure, I'm having all these dreams about the pain i'm going to be in. How fast does skin grow back? A few hours?? minutes??
Anyways still no sign of it the next morning. I go to my family doc, and he has it out in a few seconds, and no pain Says I came at good time, best not to have waited for a few days more. My nostril was a little red for 2 weeks, and I was asked to wait atleast 3 months beofre I tried it again. ( still haven't!!!!)
I tell my MIL when she's back from her trip, and she's all sympathetic. and yes! she and a lot of my female elders have told me since, that there's a reason we first put a large stud. Also that once you've done the procedure its best to give the nostril time to heal- so dont think of changing the stud for atleast 6-8 weeks. ( Another story there of my friend who did..but i'll save that one for later)

Phew! Bottomline, get it done by a BIG/PROMINENT jeweller, who can talk to you in English and answer your questions.

Thinking of getting it done again, but still to gather my guts!

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john.sw

This seems like a good place to have it done!

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