How (not) to remove a corkscrew nose piercing in 20 steps

The other week, I bought myself a nose ring. After a year and a half of having my nose pierced, I thought I’d finally change my stud to a ring as I love how they look.

When I got my nose pierced, the piercer told me that it was a corkscrew nose stud and that they’re difficult to take out and put in. So, this is the tale of how I took my stud out and put the ring in.

  1. I went to the mirror and pulled the straight bit of the nose stud out. So far, so good. I started gently twisting, trying to look up my nose at the same time. Nothing was happening and trying to look up my nostril made the stud go completely back in. FFS.
  2. I turned to YouTube and looked for videos demonstrating how to remove them. I came across this video of a really pretty woman with loads of piercings. After feeling jealous of her piercings and makeup skills, I proceeded to watch her make it look like removing a corkscrew stud was easy as she explained how to do it.
  3. Filled with a new confidence, I thought “Okay, how hard can this be?” I pulled the stud outwards and started gently twisting, trying to pull it kind of down as had been shown in the video. The baby started crying downstairs. FFS.
  4. I went downstairs and saw to the baby. Then the husband came in with McDonald’s for his lunch. I asked him to help get my nose stud out. He managed it fairly easily.
  5. “Yay”, I thought, “I can put my nose ring in now”. I tried putting it in, but I just couldn’t get the end of it through the hole from the inside of my nose. FFS.
  6. I put it in the wrong way round, to try to retain the hole and went downstairs. Hubby was eating his McDonald’s and the baby started crying again. FFS.
  7. “It won’t matter if it’s out for, like, 5 minutes” said the husband. So, I took it out and dealt with the baby.
  8. Almost an hour later after fulfilling the baby’s demands, I looked at hubby. “What?” he said. I pointed at my nose. “Oh yeah”, he replied. He tried putting the ring in. “My fingers are too big”, he told me.
  9. Hubby put the torch on on his phone and shone it up my nose, (nice), but couldn’t see where it was pierced. He put the ring in the wrong way in an attempt to see where it came through, but couldn’t see properly.
  10. Hubby tried and tried with several techniques, but could not get the ring in my nose. “I’ll go and try again”, I told him.
  11. I went upstairs and watched another youtube video about how to put a ring in your nose. It said something about rubbing a damp cotton wool ball on the outside of your nose to ‘lube up the piercing’. “Okay, I thought”, doing just that.
  12. I tried and tried for about 5 minutes, my nose beginning to get sore now. “Nope, I can’t do it”, I told my husband. “Maybe it’s the wrong size”, he said. “Can you just put the stud back in please? I can’t do that either”, I asked him.
  13. Holding the baby on my lap on the sofa, I tilted my head back and hubby tried to put the stud back in my nose. “It’s so fiddly!” he complained, “and the baby isn’t helping – she’s flapping her arms too much!”
  14. I put the baby down on her playmat and we tried again. “I think the hole has healed!” hubby told me.
    “Great”, I thought sarcastically.
    He kept trying to get the stud through, causing me lots of pain and managing to dislodge the gem from the stud in the process. “Ouch! I can’t do this anymore”, I told him, “I think we’re going to have to go to the tattoo shop and get them to sort it out. We’re not getting anywhere and my nose is SO sore!” “Okay, I think so too”, he replied.Corkscrew nose stud - how (not) to put in
  15. Off we went to the tattoo and piercing shop and when I got there, the man who had pierced my nose was standing at the desk. “Alright? How can I help ya?” he asked.
    “I’m hoping you might be able to help please, I had a corkscrew nose stud and…” I trailed off as he said “And now you can’t get it back in? No problem, just let me do this piercing first then I can help you out”.
  16. I waited about 5 minutes, then I was called down. “I need a new stud”, I said, “the gemstone came out of the other one when we were trying to put it back in”. “Okay”, he said, “a new one will be £4, is that alright?” I agreed and he started trying to put it in my nose.
  17. Pulling my nose about trying to get it in, he said “I think the hole has started to close up”. Just as I’d thought. It was so painful, almost as bad as getting it pierced originally and my eye began to water (eyes always water when getting noses pierced due to the amount of nerves etcetera). “I can do this”, I thought, gritting my teeth and clenching my fists, “I’ve given birth, for goodness’ sake!”
  18. “This is so fiddly!” he said. “I think I need another tool from upstairs to help me widen the hole back up”. “FFS”, I thought, thinking about just giving up.
  19. 2 minutes later, my new stud was in my nose. “Phew”, I thought. “Next time you have some new jewellery, just come to me and I’ll change it over for you”, he told me.
  20. A few £££ lighter and with a bleeding nose and watering eye, I left the shop. My nose was very sore, but I was so glad it had it’s sparkle back!

So, there you go. If you don’t think you can change your piercing, I’d recommend going to your piercer as otherwise you may have a rather negative experience as I had! Even if you are confident you can do it, I’d suggest making sure that the piercing shop is open – just in case! My piercer told me that the more you try and struggle to get a piercing into your nose, the more it swells up, making it harder to put one back in (even for him with all his tools).

I’m definitely going to leave it a little while for my nose to feel recovered before putting different jewellery in it and I definitely won’t be attempting it myself again! Presumably you’re here because you’re having issues too, so I hope you have better luck than me!

Have you ever had a bad experience with a piercing, or has the thought of an experience like this put you off of them? Let me know in the comments below!

12 thoughts on “How (not) to remove a corkscrew nose piercing in 20 steps”

  1. Well I now know don’t get a nose piercing what an ordeal Thanks for linking to the #THAT FRIDAY LINKY come back next week please

  2. our teen took out her nose ring, but now has gauges in her ears. Didn’t think I’d miss her nose ring, but I think I liked that a lot better. This is why I stick to tattoos! #thatfridaylinky

  3. I quite like ear gauges, but I wouldn’t personally have them – what’s left if I changed my mind doesn’t appeal to me! I love piercings, but don’t have that many as I feel it could limit me professionally. I don’t have any tattoos though, not yet anyway!
    Thank you for commenting.

  4. I’ve had my nose pierced for years and only in the last few months have I been able to get a corkscrew in myself successfully! Normally I have one or two tries and then just put an L bar shaped one in, they fall out so easily though! So happy I seem to have mastered the corkscrew after so many years though!!

  5. Exactly the same thing happened to me, except I managed to get the hoop through the back of my nose to the front…but it popped out below the piercing hole! Argh! I’ve got the corkscrew stud back in now (with difficulty) and will heal the second hole but ARGHHH it’s never easy is it?

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