Septum retainer
A septum retainer (also septum keeper ) is a piece of piercing jewelry that is inserted into the piercing channel of a septum piercing ( piercing through the thin skin in front of the nasal septum ) if the piercing is to be as inconspicuous as possible. A septum retainer can be worn temporarily to prevent the incision canal from overgrowing without having to wear conspicuous jewelry when this is inconvenient. But there are also decorative shapes that are used as initial jewelry and therefore have to be worn permanently if you want a septum piercing but have to hide it temporarily.
It is mostly made of stainless steel , but is now also often available in matt black colored niobium in order to camouflage the piercing even better. For puncture canals with a diameter of up to 3.2 millimeters, it consists in the simplest case of a U-shaped pin, both ends of which can be folded into the nose and thus rest against the nasal septum. But it is also available in lyre or Ω shape, which makes it quite decorative when it is worn open. With widened piercings, the retainer usually has the shape of a straight pin about one to two centimeters long with a plate of larger diameter at one end (corresponding to a thick labret plug ), which is held by a rubber ring as a closure on the other side. Such a pen is also called a bullet because of its visual similarity to a pistol cartridge .
