I had been wanting to pierce my cheeks for a long time. A really long time actually. I had heard all the perils of piercing them and damaging your facial nerve so I had had a really hard time finding anyone who would do them for me. Not to mention that I simple could not find, for the life of me 3/4 or 1 inch labret posts. At this point I had already pierced my cheeks once before using 5/8 of an inch labret posts, and that worked for about a week until one day the swelling just got out of hand and I had to replace them with 1 inch barbells. This was fine room wise, they fit like a charm, but eating was a bit of a task with a ball on the inside of my mouth like that. So, those came out and I told myself I would do them again some other day.
At A Glance Author Mitch When A year ago Artist Me Studio My Bathroom Location Halifax, NS I became impatient I think, I was really itching to get them done and healed up a bit, so I started to devise a plan to pierce my cheeks without having to order jewelry which would have been very expensive. I decided that I would do them myself this time too to save money as well as to just have control over when I did it etc.. The last time a friend had some them for me, and I would have much preferred that he do them again, but he was away and it was not something my local shop would do, so I whipped out gray's anatomy and read up on the facial nerve and got some info elsewhere too. Once I felt adequately read on the subject I, even though I'm not really a fan of piercing myself, felt confident to do it. My next step was jewelry. I had found a couple places on the internet where I could get the posts I was looking for but they were obscenely priced and then shipping costs on top of that just made my cheek piercings look a bit less realistic. I think then I kind of gave up for a while. I mean I could have gotten them anytime but I knew how much it was going to end up costing me so I just kind of waited around until a bit of money fell into my lap. This, obviously never happened and I began to get really impatient about the whole thing, until, one day, I was reading about catheter needles, because I was thinking they would be necessary if I got labret posts with discs that were not detachable, because I really did not think I could pierce them from the inside of my mouth out, and I got a great idea. I could just wear a 1 inch barbell but on the inside instead of screwing on the ball I could just wear a couple tiny o-rings on the inside to prevent them from falling out. So I went downtown, got about 4 o-rings meant for a 14gauge piece of jewelry and I was ready rock!
The time came a few days later where I had a free night and everything else I needed to pierce myself and well.... It happened. I had sterilized everything the night before in liquid cidex plus. Definitely not a great choice for a sterilization method but it was all I had at the time, fortunately now I have my own chemiclave. I put some gloves on, laid out everything I would be using on a sterilized surface, cleaned the area of my face with iodine solution, cleaned that off with an alcohol swab after it sat for a minute, and then on to the hardest part of the whole piercing. Marking it. I was planning on only having to do this once, because I had already attempted in the past and failed so I did not want to make this a re-occurring event. I eventually got out a metal ruler and that helped me a lot along with a lot of input from my roommates. You'd be surprised how picky I can be but I seriously spent a good 30-40 minutes marking it just right. By the end of it the room reeked of rubbing alcohol I had been using to remove and redraw my dots over and over again. Once I had that done, I threw on some new gloves unpacked my clamp, needle, and jewelry from the solution and cleaned them with sterile water and placed them on the sterile surface. Changed my gloves once more and was ready to go. I lubed up the needle, and placed the clamp in position. I'm right handed and decided that I would actually do my left cheek first, I have always been a, do the hard stuff first, or, bad news first type person. I got ready, mentally that is, and *push* the needle was in. but it was not through. I find that when most people pierce themselves, no matter how fast they pierce through someone else, they always go extra slow on themselves. I usually try to make the piercing as quick as I possibly can, but on myself it was a different story. I went fairly slow so much that the needle went in till it got to the third bevel in the needle and then it took a little bit of a n extra push, and tada! I put the jewelry in, put some o-rings on the barbell, pierced the right one just the same, which was considerably easier, and I was done. I was very impressed with myself, they looked hot!
Over the course of the next month I accidentally ate about 5 or 6 o-rings cause sometimes one would fall out in my sleep and I'd swallow it or I'd bite one off while eating, but things were generally good, no pain, no excessive crusting, it seemed like a worry free piercing. Until, one day I was out just doing some errands and I got an itch on my face and out of reaction scratched the itch. Now I know your thinking, oh no, he ripped I out of his face! Not quite, when I brought my hand up to my cheek I scratched and then realized that my barbell was long gone. I immediately took the other one out and tried to put it in this hole to see if it had grown over and sadly, it was too late. I went back home to find my other barbell lying in my bed. I could have cried really, in fact I was so stubborn about the whole thing I left the other one in for about a week after just because I did not want to give up, but eventually my distaste for asymmetry took over and I took it out.
So, it was a valuable learning experience, and I say that with a smile as now I have the proper 1 inch labret posts, some catheter needles (via the BMEshop, thanks!) and my own chemiclave, and let me tell you tonight I'm gonna have me some mighty fine looking cheek piercings to show, but that's another experience for another time...
Oh, and before I go I just want to say to you kids out there (isn't that patronizing?) that I have been piercing for about 2 years now and I know what I'm doing, I would NOT recommend this piercing as something you want to do without reading up on it big time first. There is a proper method of feeling out your cheek and using a proper use of a pen light (just sticking it in your mouth doesn't cut it) to make sure you don't pierce your facial nerve and if you don't know how to do this or have a doubt in your mind, then don't do it, no piercing is worth paralyzing half your face over. And you may ask why I don't describe how to feel your cheek out properly etc. and thats because although I do feel comfortable doing it, I'm not comfortable teaching people how, so if you want to learn, well your on BME and thats a good start.