Introduction: How to Painlessly Pierce Your Septum.

About: I'm all about Making and Mental Health. Reach out if you need a chat .

Normally, I could never poke holes in myself, nor get a tattoo.

I'm too squeamish.

However, I can see the attraction of a pierced septum, so, what the heck - I tried it.

This was supposed to be painless, but it hurt. A lot.

Step 1: Materials and Tools

The most important part of this project is a pair of small neodymium magnets.

I had a pair left over from my ROV Instructable, but they are easy to obtain anyway (don't you love the internet?).

Apart from that, you will need something to put "through" your septum. Pick something suitable for where and when you intend to wear it, maybe a chicken bone for that cave-man look, a long bolt for that trip to the hardware store.

I intend this to be a wind-up-the-pupils-near-the-end-of-term accessory, so I am going to use a handwriting pen.

You will also need a variety of normally-in-the-shed tools - fine-toothed saw, file, glue-gun and something to snip bamboo.

Step 2: Make It.

This is a pretty easy project to describe:

Cut the pen in half, stick the magnets to the cut ends, then stick it in your nose.

There are a few extra details, though.

  • The magnets I had were counter-sunk, so I slipped pieces of bamboo through the holes and into the shaft of the pen. Hot-gluing the bamboo into the pen-shaft gave a stronger joint than just gluing the magnet on the end.
  • When you wear the pen, take a moment in the mirror to align the two halves - it won't look so good if the edges don't line up properly.
  • Don't sneeze!

Step 3: Wear It.

In hind-sight, the magnets I used for this project were too big.

Apart from not quite fitting inside the pen, when I put it "through" my nose, it hurt like... a very hurty thing that hurts a lot. It didn't hurt so much when I wore it "through" my ear, but it proved hard to find a part of me that wasn't slightly uneven, which made it hard to find a spot where the pen looked straight.

Of course, if you use a bent or curved object to replicate this ible, maybe make a curved tusk out of polymorph, then straightness won't be so much of an issue.

Smaller magnets wouldn't have hurt so much, and I could have slipped them inside the pen to make the illusion easier to believe.



This was a very quick Make - it took a lot longer to write it up than to do it - so why not give it a go? What can you wear through your nose next Hallowe'en?

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