Septum Piercings

[vrailaine]

These things seem to be becoming incredibly popular, seeing loadsa people with them round the place all of sudden. I can't stand the bloody things.

The tiny ones look like they should be bigger and the bigger ones look horrendous. Being raised on Looney Toons cartoons and such has left me expecting the people with them to morph into bulls, or at least show some bull-like characteristics
...most of them seem to be on girls too, which isn't bull-like at all and bothers me even more.

I've yet to see a single case where they haven't completely put me off the appearance of a person.

[Blumf]

Always looks like they have a really snotty nose. Similarly the cheek studs and similarly located look like zits from a distance.

Bloody kids!

[vrailaine]

Always looks like they have a really snotty nose. Similarly the cheek studs and similarly located look like zits from a distance.

Bloody kids!

Are those the ones that go on above the upper lip?

[An tSaoi]

A high powered magnet would soon sort them out.

[biggytitbo]

Something about Daniella Westrbrook.

[jimmy jazz]

Baxter always has some slightly anachronistic-looking scene kid with a septum piercing in his profile pic, he'll come and sort you out soon.

[madhair60]

Misread thread title and Spectrum piercings, wondered if it was some sort of bizarre overclock for the Sinclair computer of yesteryear.

[Zero Gravitas]

slightly anachronistic-looking scene kid

Do not talk about Harriet Ruth Lorne Baxter like that!



If we weren't related I'd probably like her even more.

[An tSaoi]

That picture is the perfect visualisation of what vrailaine is on about - it looks like there's some watery snot dripping from her nose.

[purlieu]

It looks like there's a piercing hanging from her nose.

[An tSaoi]

A piercing that looks like some watery snot. There's nothing to be gained from a piercing like that; if you airbrushed it out of the picture it would be improvement. It spoils diminishes an otherwise good looking girl.

[Zero Gravitas]

She has one of the ones that isn't a closed circle but terminates in ball bearings, at formal functions she turns this up inside of her nose to hide it, I think that's rather cute.

[biggytitbo]

It could be a bolly she's put up her nose. I used to do that all the time when I was a kid.

[Zero Gravitas]

What's a 'bolly'?

[purlieu]

A piercing that looks like some watery snot. There's nothing to be gained from a piercing like that; if you airbrushed it out of the picture it would be improvement. It spoils diminishes an otherwise good looking girl.

I'm sure she feels more comfortable with her apperance with it in, and the people she'd generally like to attract probably think it looks good too.
Welcome to piercings and tattoos land, Antsy, where a little bit of metal is nothing to be afraid of.

It doesn't look like watery snot, by the way.  That's just you not knowing many people who have one so your brain associates it with the nearest thing.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

It's rubbish.

An opinion (mine)

[rudi]

Weren't we disgusted/outraged by this in 2001? Is there a new wrinkle or is CaB becoming Mumsnet?

[vrailaine]

Weren't we disgusted/outraged by this in 2001? Is there a new wrinkle or is CaB becoming Mumsnet?

Sure I was, but they seem to be trendy now, which is a whole new level of awfulness.

Girl would look better with one in a nostril, in my opinion, which surely must've been an option in her piercing decision.

[rudi]

Girl would look better in a burkha but then it's her choice, right...?

[vrailaine]

Girl would look better in a burkha but then it's her choice, right...?

Depends on the type of burkha.

[rudi]

Depends on the type of burkha.

Anything other than the Classic Look is just taking the piss.

[An tSaoi]

The people she'd generally like to attract probably think it looks good too. Welcome to piercings and tattoos land, Antsy, where a little bit of metal is nothing to be afraid of.

I can see how someone would think there's nothing wrong with it (after all it's only a piercing, not the end of the world, people can do what they like with their own bodies blah blah blah... ). But I can't understand what anyone would think is good about it.

People make lots of fashion choices that don't make practical sense, but which serve some purpose in making them more attractive - for example, high heels aren't practical but make the legs look longer; corsets are uncomfortable but they create an hourglass figure. In those cases the fashion item exaggerates certain characteristics which can make the wearer appear more desirable. But what do septum piercings accentuate? Do they make a girl's nose look nicer? In my opinion they're just distracting and off-putting.

There are lots of fashion choices that I don't necessarily find sexy, but I can understand how other people might like them (tattoos, painted nails etc.). However I can't even imagine what the attraction of these bloody nose-rings is. Care to explain?

I appreciate it's difficult to justify the inherently subjective, but could you give me some clue what's so good about them?

[rudi]

Maybe they just feel it deflects attention from people like you (and, admittedly perhaps, me)?

Please be a person who shies away from lazily slathering opprobrium on people you've never met based on what they look like. Just think about that for over a second, please...

[An tSaoi]

I'm not judging the people who wear nose-rings, I just don't understand the aesthetic attraction. It's like people who shave a single line in one of their eyebrows; it doesn't bother me, all it does it make me think 'Why?'

I 'get' dislike of nose-rings, and I 'get' ambivalence towards them. Its the 'liking' them bit that eludes me. I can only understand people's psychology up to the point of 'not minding' them, not into the realm of thinking they actually look good. I'd love to know what people see in them. It's not a case of me sneering at something trendy; monks tonsures aren't trendy and I don't think they look good either.

[vrailaine]

Maybe they just feel it deflects attention from people like you (and, admittedly perhaps, me)?

Please be a person who shies away from lazily slathering opprobrium on people you've never met based on what they look like. Just think about that for over a second, please...

They baffle me, that's all. What is the reasoning behind it?

Are they to deflect you away from judging someone's appearance by their nostrils? That's the best I've come up with so far.
OH! symetrical object in centre of face makes face look more symetrical?! That seems logical.

[An tSaoi]

I share your bafflement. Maybe it's a distraction thing, or an attention thing, like people who dye their hair bright green. I suppose our problem is trying to apply logic and reason to matters of taste.

[vrailaine]

I covered distraction thing with the nostrils possibility, but the symmetry one makes loadsa sense actually.

[An tSaoi]

To be honest they don't make people's faces seem any more symmetric to me. Perhaps tattooing some sort of grid onto their face would work.

[rudi]

Maybe they like it. Maybe you don't. That's very easy to work around unless you're reactionary.

Has a piercing ever harmed you in any way? Has it influenced you or reacted upon you negatively in some manner?

If not, has it ever occurred that it might not be any of your damn business, what some kid does with their own body? After all, isn't the casting of aspersion over kids' bodies an attribute of tyrants, reactionaries, fascists and bullies throughout history?

Just asking, natch...

[An tSaoi]

If not, has it ever occurred that it might not be any of your damn business, what some kid does with their own body?

people can do what they like with their own bodies

Has a piercing ever harmed you in any way? Has it influenced you or reacted upon you negatively in some manner?

it doesn't bother me, all it does it make me think 'Why?'

After all, isn't the casting of aspersion over kids' bodies an attribute of tyrants, reactionaries, fascists and bullies throughout history?

I'm not judging the people who wear nose-rings, I just don't understand the aesthetic attraction.