Female Celebrities With Septum Piercings (Real vs Fake)

Yes, plenty of well-known women wear septum rings, but far fewer have a real, permanent septum piercing than red-carpet photos suggest. Zoe Kravitz, FKA twigs, and Willow Smith are among the ones genuinely associated with the piercing, worn over years and across many appearances. A large share of the septum rings you see on award-show carpets are clip-on or fake, worn for one night and gone by morning. That gap between the look and the piercing is the real story, so this guide covers how the septum went mainstream, how to spot a genuine piercing versus a costume piece, and what to know before getting your own.

From subculture to mainstream

The septum ring reached the red carpet from two directions at once. It has been worn for centuries by Indigenous peoples of the Americas, in Papua New Guinea, and in parts of South Asia, sometimes for status or ritual. It also ran through Western punk, goth, and industrial scenes from the 1970s onward, where it read as a deliberate break from a clean corporate look. For the honest cultural history and the invented symbolism, see our guide to what piercing placements mean.

Fashion caught up in the 2010s. Models started wearing septum rings in editorial shoots, pop artists wore them in videos, and the look shed its shock value fast. By the early 2020s a septum ring on a carpet drew compliments rather than raised eyebrows, which is roughly the opposite of what it signaled forty years earlier.

That mainstreaming is why the piercing shows up on so many faces now, and also why a lot of those faces are wearing fake ones. Once a look is desirable but a piercing is a commitment, the clip-on market fills the gap.

Real versus clip-on

Most people cannot tell a real septum piercing from a fake one in a photo, and that is by design. A clip-on or faux septum ring grips the septum with a small spring or a bendable band and sits in roughly the same spot as the real thing, with no hole and no healing. Stylists reach for them constantly because a client needs one look for one event, matched to the jewelry theme of the outfit, then off again that night.

A real septum piercing passes through the sweet spot, the thin strip of soft skin just below the septal cartilage. The jewelry sits in that channel and stays put. Because the piercing is permanent, a genuinely pierced person tends to show the same placement over years, while a one-off carpet appearance with a septum ring that never returns is a strong hint the piece was clip-on.

	Real piercing	Clip-on or fake
How it attaches	Needle through the sweet spot, jewelry sits in the channel	Spring or bendable band clamps on, no hole
Commitment	Permanent hole, closes slowly if abandoned	None, on and off in seconds
Healing	Roughly 2 to 3 months	Nothing to heal
Across events	Same placement over years	Often appears once, then never again
Best for	Someone who wants it daily	A single look for one night

None of that lets you convict a specific celebrity’s ring as fake from one image, so this guide does not try. It names the women whose piercings are well documented over time and treats the rest of the carpet as what it usually is, styling.

Who genuinely wears one

Zoe Kravitz has worn a septum ring as part of her signature look for years, across films, campaigns, and everyday photos, which is the pattern that marks a real piercing rather than a borrowed one. FKA twigs wears a septum among several facial piercings and has done so consistently through different eras of her work. Willow Smith has appeared with a septum ring across enough separate moments to read as genuinely pierced rather than styled for a single night.

Beyond that small core, the honest answer gets vague quickly. Rihanna has worn septum jewelry for over a decade and is often credited with helping push the look into pop fashion, though she has used both pierced and decorative pieces over the years. Many other names float around celebrity septum lists on the strength of one event, which is exactly the kind of appearance a clip-on explains. When the documentation is a single photo, we leave the name off rather than assert a piercing that may never have existed.

Why the septum appeals

The septum draws people for reasons that have nothing to do with any online “meaning.” If a video told you a septum ring marks a personality type, that is a social-media trend, not a tradition. Our guide to nose ring theory and septum ring theory breaks down why the side and style signal nothing.

The practical appeal is real. A septum piercing hides in seconds with a retainer, a plain U-shaped piece that flips up inside the nose, which makes it workable for jobs that ban visible piercings. It also carries a wide jewelry range, from thin clickers to gem-set captive bead rings to a simple circular barbell, so one healed piercing can look understated one day and bold the next. For what actually goes in one, see our guide to septum piercing jewelry, and for how the septum compares to nostril and bridge placements, our guide to the types of nose piercings.

Getting a real one

If the celebrity look pulled you toward a real piercing, a few specifics matter more than any name on a list. Go to a professional piercer who uses a single-use needle and places the jewelry in the sweet spot, not through cartilage, which is what keeps it comfortable and healing on schedule. Most septums are pierced at 16 gauge (the thickness of the jewelry, on a scale where a bigger number is thinner), then fitted with implant-grade titanium (ASTM F-136) or solid gold to avoid irritation.

Healing runs about 2 to 3 months for the soft sweet spot, which is faster than a nostril piercing because it goes through soft tissue rather than cartilage. Once it heals you can hide it with a retainer whenever you need to. This is cultural and educational background, not medical advice. For placement, healing, or anything that looks wrong, see a professional piercer.

Trying the look first

The advantage the celebrities quietly rely on is that you do not have to commit to find out whether the look suits you. A clip-on septum ring lets you wear the exact placement for an evening, check it against your face and your wardrobe, and take it off with no healing and no hole. If it still looks right after a few outings, that is a far better reason to book the real piercing than a red-carpet photo that might have been clip-on all along.