The nose ring that was no more

My (former) nosering. *sigh*

In grade 12 I got my nose pierced (with the blessing of both my parents of course). It was fine-o dine-o until randomly about 4 years later, nasty infections started flaring up. Even after switching to gold noserings, things still weren’t great. Now in the last couple years, I’ve had a darker ring around the stud which very much resembles that of a scar. Grrrr. In February I decided to take the plunge and ask a dermatologist what could be done about such scarring. His response to me was, “That’s not scarring.”

Oh? Well, then what pray tell is it?

“It’s tattooing. The nickel from your jewelry bled into your skin and tattooed it.”

Great. So I have a tattoo on my nose? What can be done about that? Well, apparently, none other than… laser tattoo removal.

Dermatologist says, “Do you want to do your first session right now?”

Uh… I didn’t really have a chance to think about it because I knew that if I didn’t go right then, and later I decided I wanted to do it, I’d have to wait 17 years to get in again. So I did it. I had laser treatment #1. That was quite possibly the most painful 10 seconds of my young life.

He said I could’ve put a nose ring back in after 10 days, but it would have to be at least 18 karat gold. By 10 days, the inside of my nose was grown in, I didn’t want to pay for yet another nose ring, and I didn’t want to flirt with potential narshty scarring issues.

So, I had taken my nose ring out for the last time. *sniff sniff* I didn’t even get to say good bye!

What followed the laser session was a little treat: A big pussy pimple-like horrifying lump of grossness. And it was like that for a week (and this was my first week of my hospital placement). I apologized to my supervisor for the disgusting state of my nose. I said, “Sorry my nose is so disgusting, it’s just…” That’s as far as I got before she interrupted and said, “It’s just a pimple with puss coming out of it.” She said it as though it wasn’t gross or repulsive at all—maybe even a little attractive. I immediately defended my precious nose, “No it’s NOT a pimple with puss coming out of it!” And straightened her out ASAP. At the end of the week, I said that I hoped my nose didn’t look so disgusting on Monday, and to this she replied, “It doesn’t look disgusting. It just looks like a pimple with puss coming out of it!”

Um, and THAT’S not gross? SICK! (But I appreciated her support:)

Post first treatment (and this is toned down!)


A few weeks post second treatment.

So, a part of my identity is now gone. I just had my 3rd and hopefully last laser treatment. My nose looks better, but nowhere near great. I'm really hoping time will do its magically healing thing!