I won't tell you I've wanted cheek piercings for years; in fact, this was probably the most spur-of-the-moment body modification I've gotten. After retiring my lip piercing for the second time, I missed having facial piercings... so one day I looked in the mirror, looked at some pictures on BME, and said, "I'm going to get my cheeks pierced."
At A Glance Author Dianna Contact Dianna@bme.anon IAM bootsy When Six months ago Artist William Studio Gottsi/Six-six-o-one Location Berkeley, California Spur-of-the-moment doesn't mean irresponsible, though. I went to my piercer, Willliam at Gottsi in Berkeley (the shop's name recently changed to Six-six-o-one, but there's been no change in staff and management), and started asking him questions about cheek piercings. What are the risks, how's healing, are there any important issues in placement and jewelry I should know about, should I order jewelry ahead of time? He told me I'd have to be careful eating for a while, because the longer initial jewelry would stick into my mouth and get near my teeth. Other than that, he said, healing wouldn't be too bad-- initial swelling, as with any oral piercing. Placement could be anywhere a labret stud would fit, and if I wanted them to be 14 or 12 gauge the shop would definitely have the bars, ball-ends and disks in stock whenever I came in. I went home and considered my options.
About a week later I went back with my placement and gauge decided (14g, right in the crease that forms when I smile). I ate beforehand, since I tend to get faint otherwise, and went in and told William what I'd decided on. I signed the usual forms, William looked at my cheeks to see what length of jewelry I'd need, and we went back to the piercing room. William marked my cheeks on the outside with a Sharpie and we considered the placement for a while-- this was a little tricky, since my mouth is a bit crooked. After trying several possibilities, I decided on a placement that wasn't quite symmetrical but fit in well with the configuration of my face, and he marked the spots on the inside of my cheeks with gentian violet so he'd be able to line them up both inside and outside.
The piercing went as follows: I opened my mouth, William maneuvered the needle inside, he pierced from inside to outside, and followed the needle through with a curved taper (just 14g, no stretching) attached to the jewelry. He'd given me a choice between inside-to-outside and outside-to-inside, and we'd settled on inside-to-outside because a) screwing on the outside ball when putting in the jewelry would be easier than screwing on the disk on the inside, and b) the stretchy inner skin of my cheek wouldn't have a chance to "tent" around the needle, which prolongs the piercing and is unnecessarily painful. I have to admit that the piercing hurt quite a bit anyway, although as with any piercing, it didn't hurt for long. But it was pretty painful feeling the needle go through my cheek muscles, especially with my mouth stretched wide open. I had to wait a few minutes between the first and second cheeks until I felt comfortable moving my mouth to open it for the second needle .
Once both cheeks were done, I went back out to the front of the shop and paid my money. It was $85 for the pair, after a small discount for being a frequent customer. While I was paying and picking up my usual aftercare sheet I started getting woozy, so I sat down and William brought me a soda to drink. I really can't say enough about the staff at this shop.... they're friendly and competent, and treat their customers with a lot of patience and respect. While not all the piercings I've gotten at Gottsi have stayed with me, I've had nothing but positive experiences with the shop.
I had a lot of swelling in the couple of days after the piercing. My other oral piercings have behaved the same way while healing, so it wasn't really any surprise to me. However, I went back to Gottsi about 4 days later and switched my original jewelry out for even longer bars because the swelling caused the shorter ones to pinch slightly. I believe the originals were 7/16" long, and the new ones were 1/2" long. A few days later the swelling started to go back down, but I kept the longer bars in because they were easy to clean. In the meantime, as predicted, eating was a little bit awkward. I was diffident about opening my mouth wide because my cheeks were sore, and until I learned to push the jewelry away from my teeth with my tongue I did tend to bite the disks occasionally.
I never did, and still never do, use very complicated aftercare on these piercings. I gently wash the outsides with normal soap while washing my face, and leave the insides alone. I check occasionally to make sure the disks aren't sinking into my cheeks on the inside; this happens very slightly every so often, and is easily corrected by pushing the jewelry gently inward to free it.
It's been almost eight months since the initial piercing, and they've healed beautifully. I went back to have the jewelry shortened about two months after the piercing, and unfortunately one cheek got pinched during the process, swelled up a bit, and had to wait to be shortened. About a month later I went back; this time everything went off without a hitch, and I left with 7/16" bars in both cheeks. They fit perfectly and don't interfere with my eating, talking, or toothbrushing.
The one thing I didn't expect when planning these piercings is the reactions they would receive. I have substantial stretched lobes and have had a tongue piercing and a lip ring in the past, and none of these things prepared me for the way people would respond to my cheeks. A lot of people tell me they've never seen pierced cheeks before, and many people don't understand how they work and ask me if I have a single bar running all the way through my mouth. My parents, who have eventually accepted my other modifications, reacted to the sight of my cheek piercings with overwhelming disgust and anger. And, of course, I've received wonderful compliments from admiring strangers. Personally, I find that the flood of responses and questions can be tiring; for this reason, I'm planning to stretch the piercings slightly so that I can wear clear glass or quartz jewelry in them instead of my current highly-visible steel.
My major suggestions to anyone considering this modification are: use initial jewelry that's longer than you think you'll probably need, choose a time for the piercing when you can eat slowly and not talk very much for the first several days, and please be prepared to answer a lot of questions and receive a lot of comments, both good and bad. And enjoy.