Where To Get Cyberpunk Clothing

It can be very difficult to find decent cyberpunk clothing these days. Most of the time, the stuff you find on the internet is Goth, steampunk or industrial. As we all know, these genres have very little to do with cyberpunk and so do their clothing. Perhaps the only thing cyberpunk, steampunk and Goth have in common are the septum nose rings. Finding authentic cyberpunk clothing can be a headache. Luckily we have some advice on how you can get your hands on some.

Make Your Own

Ok, this might not be original advice but it is practical. If you need to go to a cyberpunk cosplay, you want to look your best and what better way to blow other people away than making your own clothes? You might be rolling your eyes because we are not all talented design and sewing-wise but if you do have the talent, what's stopping you? If you design and sew your own clothing you will be assured of its authenticity and it might even pave the way for a new business.

Stick To Basics

Have you seen those cyberpunk clothes with LED? They are so amazing. However, if you can’t afford or make one, stick to the basics. In the early days of the internet, cyberpunk and Goth were closely related. Wear minimalistic black clothing, paint your nails black and put in some nose ring studs and you're done.

Browse The Web

Lastly, don’t forget to search for "cyberpunk clothing" using the worldwide web. There are many places on the internet that sells quality cyberpunk clothing made by people who are into the genre. Yes, they can be expensive but this is normal since you have to pay for their time and talents. If cyberpunk clothes do not give you decent search results you can try "dystopian clothes".

The internet covers the whole world, so don’t limit your choices to stores in the US or Europe. Stores in Japan sell very nice cyberpunk clothes. Yes, you won’t be able to understand them and it takes a while to figure everything out, just don’t forget to convert your purchases to your currency so you won’t get too shocked when you get your bill.

Go Out And Buy Some Clothes

Buying retail is such a big hassle but if you want affordable cyberpunk apparel, you have to go out and get them yourselves. First, try to see if there are specialty shops near you. If not, then you can always visit boutiques and then department stores. There are many shops that sell "basic" clothing so you will have choices in these stores.

While you’re at it, you can buy some accessories too. Look for boots, belts, minimalist nose ring styles and bags.

Remember not all black clothing is cyberpunk. Mix it up with browns and grays. However, stay away from yellows and other pastels!

Another alternative is to go to second hand shops. You can find cool leggings, scruffy black boots and distressed jackets and jeans.

Make sure your cyberpunk clothing is functional. It should have pockets, zippers and heavy duty snaps. The fun is really in the hunt and watching the reaction of your friends when you wear a new set of clothing. 

Stretching Your Pierced Body Parts

Body modification can be very addictive. People who get tattoos for example, usually go back for more. The same is true with body piercing. After getting their first piercing, people usually ask when they can get another one or ask for other septum piercing information such as stretching.

If you're interested in stretching a pierced body part, the first thing to remember is to listen to your body. You need to also be patient because piercings need time to heal especially if you want to stretch them to bigger sizes. It is also important to remember to be careful. Blowouts can happen if you're impatient and these take even longer to heal.

Here are some tips for stretching various body piercings.

Be Patient

Body piercings take time and patience because tissue needs to heal, form and toughen. If you’re impatient, fail to listen to your body and stretch your piercing anyway, scar tissue can form which can leave you disfigured. For example, you want to go from a 12g septum ring to a 16g size, you obviously cannot proceed to bigger gauges without going through the 14g. You will be forcing the hole to get bigger immediately which can be painful and lead to serious infection. So be patient and use the 14g instead.

In this instance, the larger you want the hole to be, the longer you want to wait in between piercings. For septum piercing on big nose for example, a general rule of thumb you should wait three times as long as it took to heal between stretching. This will prevent your skin and tissue from getting traumatized as the hole increases in size.

Massage to Relax

The earlobes are one of the body areas that often experience stretching. The good thing about earlobes is that they receive a lot of blood circulation so they form cells and heal faster. The problem with earlobes is the soft tissue which can get injured easily. To avoid injury, stretch the tissue of your lobes by soaking them in hot water. If you can’t do this, you can also rub essential oil to the piercing and massage it to relax the tissues and soften it up before you start stretching.

Use Lubricant

Insertion tapers are usually used when you want to stretch a piercing. They look like needles which gradually thicken to the size you want your piercing to stretch. Typical sizes range from 18g to 1 inch.  The more gradual you increase taper sizes, the less traumatic it is for your piercing.

To help the tapers go in the piercing, it is advisable to use lubricant. You can use KY Jelly and other brands in the market. Be sure to coat the insertion taper thoroughly to make the stretching less painful and for the taper to go in easily.

Do not use water based lubricant unless you are stretching a piercing in the mouth. Water based lubricants tend to liquefy too quickly.

Professional Piercer

Many people stretch their piercings themselves. However, if it is your first time getting a stretched septum piercing for example; it is better to see a professional piercer. This is because stretching is even more complicated than the initial piercing. If you insist on stretching the piercing by yourself, make sure you know what to do and to practice proper hygiene before beginning the procedure. 

Your Quick Guide to Body Piercing Sizes

When it comes to body piercings whether a nose ring, a septum ring or a tongue jewelry, the choices are vast and aplenty. There are treasure troves of designs to choose from. On top of that, these funky accessories also come in a wide range of sizes. Choosing a design let alone the perfect size to suit your face and personal style can be daunting. Fortunately for you, we’ve created this quick guideline to piercing sizes to help you along.

Size Matters

Just because you have decided once and for all that you wanted a nose ring doesn’t mean you should get the first ring design that caught your fancy. While design matters no matter the type of jewelry you’re buying, so does size. In fact, it matters a lot that the wrong size may completely ruin the supercool look you are trying to pull off.

Remember that the size of your jewelry will depend on two factors—the size and shape of the body part of concern. If you have a big nose, then you should choose a nose ring for big nose. If you have thick lips, it’s just as necessary to pick the perfect sized jewelry to complement your kissable lips. If you have a thick sniffer and a slightly asymmetrical nose then you should ask your piercer for recommendations. Otherwise, the wrong size jewelry won’t look right at all.

All About the Gauge

It’s not just the shape and size of the body part that affects the size of your piercing jewelry. The type of body piercing also matters. Whether you’ve decided with earlobe piercing or eyebrow piercing, it’s all about the gauge at this point.

Let’s start with piercings that involve your face. The typical gauges for eyebrow piercings are 16 and 18 gauges. In most cases, you’d want to start off with the heavier gauge to avoid migration problems over time. If you were going for Medusa or Monroe piercing for your lips, you’d do well with either a 16 or 18 gauge stud. For nostril piercings, 20 and 18 gauge jewelry are recommended as starting sizes. Like with most piercings, the most common septum piercing sizes are 18 gauge and 16 gauge. But a septum 14g isn’t uncommon either.

Going down to nipple and belly button piercings, the most common sizes to start with are 14 and 12 gauges. Higher gauges, again, are recommended to prevent or minimize migration. If you’re really worried, request for a 10 gauge, which is suitable for both the nipples and belly buttons.

Do your homework
Because your style, body shape and size are different from your friend or family who recently got a body piercing, you shouldn’t rely on what others say when it comes to piercing size. You should do your own homework. Research and seek professional advice if necessary. Even go the extra mile and research about the place where you’re going to get the piercing done. If your piercer’s a professional with a solid track record, you’re in great hands. It’s now a matter of saying yes. So is it a yes or maybe next time?

5 Funky Items to Revamp Your Style and Look

Are you tired of your safe, unexciting style? You open your closet and jewelry collection and you can’t find anything that excites you anymore. You’re even thinking of throwing every single piece of clothing you own. A complete overhaul is exactly what you need, you thought. But then you’d be completely wrong.

To revamp your style, reinvent your look and the be the funky girl you always wanted to be, there’s no need to buy a cabinet-full of new wardrobe or a trove of jewelry pieces. Even if you can afford it, it’s a silly idea altogether. Instead what you need are select pieces of funky clothing and jewelry and you’re ready to steal the spotlight.

Consider these eye-catching, unconventional pieces for a start:

A white plain, shirt never fails

While not exactly unconventional, you must own a plain white shirt if you don’t have one yet. Seriously, you need to stop everything you’re doing and go buy one now. Loose, white tees, in particular, offer a world of possibilities style-wise. Tried and tested, tees will always work with practically anything. Pair it up with jeans or shorts and eye-popping footwear. Then top it off with a spiked septum ring and you’ll beautifully funky in a breeze.

Stand out with velvet pant or skirt

If you think only velvet dresses look good, you’d better rethink things. When paired up with the right pieces, a velvet pant or skirt will make you stand out in a skinny jean-wearing world. If you’re wearing velvet, keep the look monotone and finish it off with a pair of kickass heels.

Feel like a princess with tutus

It’s not just little girls who can look fabulous in a tutu. In fact, the tutu trend for the ladies has been gaining ground and it looked like it’s going to be even bigger in the coming years. To give tutus a funkier appeal, accessorize with a big septum piercing. You’ll look like a funky princess who’ll have everyone lusting over your awesome outfit.

Buy some eye-popping footwear

Even plain and casual outfits can look funky and cool with the right footwear. Whether you’re buying heels or flats, funky style for shoes is all about a distinctive look, colors and details. At the moment, colorful, pom pom sandals are making waves. Sure, your boyfriend may look confused when they see your sandals but what do they know anyway?

Make statements with the right jewelries

To cap off any look with a stamp of funky style, it now boils down to choosing the right jewelries. If sassy and funky are what you are looking to project, you’d want massive statement necklace or eye-popping piercings. If you’re really serious about being funky, you might want to get a septum piercing. Before you worry about the septum piercing pain level, it will generally only feel like a pinch and it only lasts for a few seconds.

Are you ready to take your style to the next level of funky yet? Which funky items are you planning to buy soon?

How To Throw A Rave Party

Rave parties started as an underground dance and music party in London during the 1980's. You know those types where everybody is wearing make-up, different nose ring sizes, colorful outfits and dancing up and down.  Nowadays it is a mainstream activity that teenagers and young adults like to attend. Unlike other types of parties, rave parties usually involve dancing to electro dance music and drinking. There is very little eating at rave parties usually because people come to dance and enjoy the music and not eat. This is probably why it is easy to host a rave party.

Check out these tips if you’re thinking about hosting a rave party.

Choose a Venue

The first step to hosting a rave party is to choose a venue. How large it is depends on how many people you plan to invite. Rave parties are all about music drinking so you don’t need to worry about tables and chairs. What is important is having enough space for music, dance and a small bar. The venue can be your basement, living room or maybe you can rent a warehouse or party space.

Guest List

Your guest list is very important. It can be hard to keep gatecrashers away from your rave party, but making a list and inviting certain people can prevent your party from becoming out of control. Once you have drawn your guest list, you can send out physical invitations or an Evite. You can ask them to RSVP but it's best to estimate for more guests so that you can prepare drinks accordingly.

You can also make the invitations yourself. You can do this with construction paper and cut out the shape of glow sticks. You can use your imagination or go to Google for some inspiration.

Music

Assemble CDs and sound system (if you have) for your rave party music. If you don’t know or don’t have copies of the music you can hire a DJ and just stand back and watch them do all the work. Since it is a rave party, make sure to tell the DJ not only to play the appropriate music but also to dress accordingly. Tell him to wear something funky and to accessorize like wearing nose piercing jewelry to complete his look.

If you can’t hire a DJ you can ask somebody knowledgeable with rave music to DJ for your party.

Decorate

You also need to decorate your venue so that guests will feel the vibe and atmosphere of the event. Put up strobe lights and lava lamps around the venue. Rave parties are usually dark anyways so all you really need is some disco lighting and strobe lights and music to feel like a rave party. You can also put up streamers if you want to.

You also need to set up a table where guest can pick up favors like glow sticks, glow bracelets and necklaces. Make sure that the bar is also supplied with drinks such as water, soft drinks and alcohol. Supplies like paper cups and napkins should also be purchased beforehand and ready for the party. You can have somebody like a friend "bartend" the bar or it can be a self-service area.

Now that everything is ready, all you have to do is dress up and show up. Don’t forget to accessorize and if you don’t have a real septum piercing you can always put on a septum fake jewelry to complement your outfit. 

How To Clean A Septum Piercing

Now that you have a septum piercing you're probably wondering how to clean it. If you listened properly to your body piercing artist, you probably got an earful on why you should clean it. I mean, it wouldn’t look good with your people if your nose started oozing puss. It would also be hard to look mysteriously cool if you were burning with a fever.

Even if you're new to body piercings, you probably know why you should keep it clean especially if it's new. Cleaning your piercing twice a day helps prevent irritation and infection. Infected piercings can be troublesome. Aside from the puss and fever, it can turn red and develop crustiness which is gross especially if you're into body modification.

Here are the steps on how to clean a septum piercing easily.

1. Wash your hands.

2. Use saline solution or 100% sea salt to clean your wounds. To prepare sea salt solution, add ¼ teaspoon sea salt to 8 ounces of distilled or boiled water that has cooled down. Stir until the salt is dissolved.

3. Soak a Q-tip with some of the solution and press the tip gently to your wound. Bathe the wound in the solution and gently remove crustiness away using the Q-tip or your fingers.

4. Once all the crustiness is gone, lift your jewelry slowly and pull away from the nose gently while holding your Q-tip to the wound. Ensure that some of the solution dribbles down to the wound and out the other side.

5. Pat dry with a clean towel or tissue. Do not rub the area.

Some people prefer to use vegetable glycerin soap on their septum piercing and nose ring to keep it clean. Vegetable glycerin soap is very gentle and ideal for use in piercings because unlike antibacterial soap, it does not contain harsh chemicals which can irritate the wound and skin. Here's how you do it.

1. Wash your hands.

2. Make a lather using the vegetable glycerin soap.

3. Work the lather around your septum to cleanse it. Remove crust build-up during this process. Moisture will soften it so it should be easier to remove.

4. Rinse the soap off gently and thoroughly.

5. Pat dry with a clean towel or tissue. Do not rub the area.

Or you can try a sea salt soak.

1. Use the instructions above to make a sea salt solution.

2. Place it in a mug.

3. Tilt the mug so that your septum is submerged in the salty water. Soak for 30 seconds, twice daily.

There is no need to remove your septum jewelry using this method.

After a piercing, the area around your septum is vulnerable to infection and bacteria. Cleaning your septum piercing frequently will speed up the healing process. it is best to use natural products that do not contain perfume and harsh chemicals which is why body modification artists usually recommend using vegetable glycerin soap, saline or salt water solutions.

For more advice and tips, check out the many different septum piercing online blogs to learn more about this kind of piercing. 

Does Septum Piercing Hurt?

Lots of people are sporting septum piercings nowadays. Not only do you see people who are into body piercings rocking jewelry on their noses, you also see celebrities sporting bling on their septum. With septum piercing use on the rise, you're probably thinking about getting one. Many people ask what to expect during a piercing session and the question "does septum piercing hurt" is usually one of the top 3 questions right off the bat.

Pain

The septum is the piece of cartilage that separates your nostrils. It's that divide between your nose. When performing a septum piercing, the body piercing artist is going to insert a needle into the septum so that the pointy end of the needle goes through creating a piercing. It's going to break your skin, so yes it is going to hurt. There will be some blood just like with any other piercing.

According to some people who have had a septum and nostril piercing, it feels like you’re going to sneeze but not and in a more painful way. Some piercers also report that it is also difficult for them to do the piercing because unlike bellybutton or earlobe piercing where it is done using a gun-like contraption, septum piercings are done manually. The piercer needs to go through skin and cartilage in order to insert the needle.

How Much Does It Hurt?

The answer to this question is difficult because people have different levels of pain tolerance. To some people it might feel like a little sting and others will feel as though they are having their noses ripped off. You should also expect to feel soreness and tenderness in your septum for around a week.

According to some people, getting your bikini area waxed or getting a tattoo is more painful than getting your septum pierced.

What Happens?

The first part of a nose and septum piercing are similar. Here's what happens when you get a septum piercing. You sit on a chair or table and the piercer cleans your nose. He or she will then examine your septum with clamps to find a good place for your piercing. Once they find a good spot for your jewelry, the piercer will then use the needle to pierce your septum. He or she will probably ask you to take a deep breath before piercing through. Be prepared for your eyes to water and a pinching or burning sensation.

And voila, you now have a septum piercing. If you've already chosen jewelry beforehand, the piercer will then put it in place for you. It is important to remember not to play with your piercing or remove it in the next 8 to 10 weeks.

Now What?

At this point, the piercer will tell you how to care for your piercing as it heals so you better pay attention and take notes. At home, you will most probably spend the next few hours staring yourself in front of the mirror because you will now look tougher or cooler. Your friends should also expect at least a few dozen selfies from you now that your septum piercing is in.