My Nose
Though you can't tell from the picture, I have 2 nose rings. In the same
nostril.
Actually, that's false advertising. At the time of the picture, I only had
one. I got the other about 8 months after I finished college.
When I was in 8th grade, there was this chick the year before me who was
very cool. She shopped at thrift stores, listened to wierd music and was
just generally a troublesome child. The more she liked you, the more she
stole from you. I lost a pretty sizable concert ticket stub collection to
her. Bitch.
Anyway, when I left the school that year, so did she. She was just starting
to grow a tail when we parted ways. I ran into her in Georgetown, DC the
next summer. This was when Georgetown was a cool place to hang out and you
still saw lots of punk types around. She had a purple mohawk, copiously
ringed ears and a nose ring. She looked gorgeous. From that point on, I
wanted one, but all I had done at that point was to streak my hair blond.
Four years later I made it to college. I had a grad student English instructor
with a nose ring. By that point a nose ring, MY nose ring was a regular
fixture in my dreams. My teacher was quite neat and I had such a
crush on the guy. He had the hots for my friend in the class, Grover. Yes,
you read that right Grover. I collect people with odd names. And yes, my
instructor was gay. That started a long painful series of unrequited crushes,
let me tell you.
But again, I digress.
I pierced my nose 6 months later, in October 1989. Much to the chagrin of
my parents who were still hoping I'd grow out of it, and surprise of good
friends who never thought I'd do it. After all, I had only been talking
about it for 4 or 5 years. It took about 4 more years before my father
stopped making ungracious comments about it, and he's pretty tolerant what
with the only child thing and all.
So here I am. A college grad with a technical degree, dyed hair, doubly
pierced nose and a wardrobe of unintentional black clothing. My purple mohawked
friend was just spotted in a book of tattooed women. Nice work if you can
get it, I suppose. And to answer that burning question, yes I have other
piercings, but I'm not going to put any stories about those on the web.
Ever thought about body piercing? I highly recommend it. Check out the bodyart
newsgroup rec.arts.bodyart. Lotta useful
information available there.
Fleur Diana Dragan / fleur@obscure.org
/ 7/13/96