OK. how bad does getting your nose pierced hurt?!

OK. how bad does getting your nose pierced hurt?

on a scale of 1-10 10 being the worst pain ever and 1 being not bad at all

which hurts more nose or ear cartilage?

My answer relates only to nostril piercing, not to a nose cartilage or bridge piercing.

I don't have my ear cartilage done, but everyone who has both has told me that cartilage hurts more, and I tend to believe that. Cartilage is simply a different kind of tissue, and you need more force to pierce it, which in turn causes more trauma to surrounding tissues. Additionally, cartilage doesn't have as good a blood supply as regular skin does, so it doesn't heal as quickly.

I do have my nose done, and I can tell you quite honestly that having your nose done by a professional piercer using a needle doesn't hurt much at all. It hurt a lot less than having my ears done with a gun when I was young and foolish and didn't know anything about getting pierced.

A good piercer will have you breathe deeply several times, and blow out really hard, and they will actually pierce on an exhale, which takes your mind away from the pain. I will say it's the absolutely weirdest feeling in the world--I remember that very clearly. You feel pressure, and more pressure, and more pressure (but not pain), and then there's this weird sensation as the skin breaks and the needle goes through. It doesn't make a noise, but it feels like there should be a popping sound.

There is tenderness for a couple of days--I think mine lasted three or four, but it wasn't pain by any means--it was just soreness. I did have the weepy crusties a bit during those first few days, but that's easily taken care of. Since you are basically creating a flesh tunnel, and since that needs to heal all the way through, a nostril piercing takes a while to heal completely. Usually, they ask you not to change your jewelry for about six weeks, and you have better luck if you follow both the aftercare instructions and the injunction to not change jewelry too soon. Even after I was fairly fully healed, I did have some minimal discomfort when changing my jewelry for about the first year. That was, I found out, because the tissue in the very middle of the piercing, between both surfaces of the skin, was still not healed completely, and the jewelry irritated it as it went in. It also helped once I really learned how to insert the jewelry, so I didn't take ten minutes trying to get the dang thing in there.

You ask for a number. I realize that each person is different, so I will give it a 2. In all honesty, it physically hurts more for me to have blood drawn from a vessel in the inside part of my elbow than it did for me to have my nose pierced.

Just be sure to find a really good piercer (not some idiot with a piercing gun), and follow the directions to the letter, and you shouldn't have any trouble.

Best of luck.

Oh, I should add one thing--I strongly suggest you wear nostril screws or really tiny hoops that don't hang over too much. In fact, I won't wear a hoop because I know people who have caught theirs and torn their nostrils--not pretty at all. I also won't wear a piece of jewelry that has a backing, or a bone, which is short but sticks out straight inside your nose. All of those hurt when they bump up against the inside of your nose, and they can cause bleeding and problems. A screw is just that--it has twists, and the inside lays flat against the inside of your nostril, so it doesn't poke the inside of your nose a lot. They are extremely comfortable.