I am the Mama

You know, the one with the nose piercing?  Yes, I finally did it.  I don’t think it’s any big secret that I’ve been wanting to do this for a while.  The original plan was to do it for my 33rd birthday last October.  But then I got pregnant and everyone advised against doing it until after the baby was born.  So I put it off, but was planning on it as soon as I had the money and could manage to get out and do it.

The adventure started last week when my husband got the call that his grandmother had passed away.  (I know that sounds glib, and I don’t mean it to…but she had lived a long life and had been ready for it all to be over with as long as I’ve known her.  We’ll miss her, but I’m happy that she’s in a better place now.)  We debated about what to do, but in the end decided the entire family should go to Bristol to be there for the funeral.  So Thursday morning, we headed out to Tennessee.  That night at the visitation, I met several of his cousins I hadn’t ever had the chance to meet before.  And one of those cousins had a wife with several facial piercings.  The next day, I asked her if she’d had them done locally.  I thought the chances were small as they had lived in several other places before moving back to the area, but she said that they’d been done in Kingsport.

Once she found out that I’d been wanting to get my nose pierced for a while, she offered to take me to the shop she went to so I could get it done.  After a little cajoling, I convinced my husband to take me the next night.  I’d been paid on Monday so I had the cash and we were in a place where we could get free childcare, so we left the boys with my in-laws and took the baby to her first tattoo and piercing shop.  By the time we got there I was absolutely terrified, but determined to do it!

I sat down and the piercer cleaned off the area.  He got out a clamp to hold my nose in case I moved, and then came the needle.  I closed my eyes…I was seriously scared at this point and was strongly considering stopping the whole thing!  But then I felt a tiny sting for a split second and there was a hole in my nose.  All he had to do then was thread the tiny diamond stud into the hole and that was it.  It bled a little bit and was slightly sore the next day, but only when I cleaned it.  Otherwise it was an almost painless process!

My mother-in-law was fairly critical of it, but my mom’s only reaction was “Oh, gross!” and then she got over it.  Some of my friends have reacted negatively to the picture on Facebook because they don’t understand why I’d want to do it, but last night at a church meeting I got a really good reaction from a friend.  My husband is not a fan, but he says he’s getting used to it.  My kids think it’s cool.  Definitely a mixed bag, but I honestly don’t care what people think.  I did it for myself, and it has a fairly deep personal meaning for me that I don’t wish to share with others.  Maybe someday I’ll let everyone in on it, but for now it’s my little secret and I think of it every time I see it shining from the corner of my eye or look at myself in the mirror.

So next time you see me with my uber conservative, boring no-fuss no-muss mom haircut and my frumpy dumpy mom uniform of capris and a V-neck t-shirt, there will also be something just the tiniest bit wild about me.  Because I do still have a wild side…and apparently it’s situated in my left nostril!

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