So, here in Styled Out, we’ve talked about everything from leggings, to long-lost dresses, to tattoos — we’re basically BFFs. Last week I did something which I considered to be quite dramatic only to find out that in reality, it wasn’t. Well, maybe only to me: I took out my nose ring.
It wasn’t like it was some sort of earth shattering event or anything, I just sort of realized that I had grown out of it and it was just time to end an era. So, instead of waiting for my friend Brian the piercing artist, I totally took the needle-nosed pliers to my face. It was weird how I was just so suddenly over it.
I waited and waited for the most important people in my life to take notice of this thing that had been a part of my body for the last nine years was gone, but alas, most of them will probably find out from reading this emo remembrance on my blog. That nose ring meant so much to me at the time that I got it. It was well thought out yet impulsively pierced and totally inspired by my baby dyke’s lust and reverence of the queen of riot grrrls, Ani DiFranco.
People in lots of different sorts of “outcast” and minority groups like to define themselves with things like piercings, outlandish clothing and hair color in order to send a message to the general population — “I’m different, and these are the indications of who I am and why!” — and it is so prevalent and heightened when you’re younger.
The most popular piercing for lesbians, of course, is the nostril, and if you’re like me, you did your research and determined that mimicking Ani was indeed the “most gay,” and pierced it on the right side. You know, because looking at her, it’s on the left — signaling you leaned towards the left side of things. A very subtle way to let the world know of your ways.
The alternate way to pierce your nose is actually kind of awesome, something I like to affectionately call the “Bull Ring,” though it has many other titles, most technically called the Septum piercing. Depending on the one wearing it, it’s so super hot. The hardest of butch girls that I know are usually wearing this one — and Scarlett Johansson.
Tegan Quin of Tegan and Sara if famously known within the lesbian community for rocking the “labret” piercing, which is just below your bottom lip, perfectly centered. She’s more iconic for those girls coming into their womanhood right about now, but let’s be real — who wouldn’t want to make out with her?
Do piercings help define you or have they ever?
