About three years ago I decided to have my cheeks pierced. My usual piercer who I had a lot of faith in, wasn't around and I decided to place my faith in her trainee. I'd had a nipple piercing done by her a little while before and had enough confidence in her to let her do it. She also had both her cheeks pierced herself, so I thought she would have both the training and experience of actually having the piercing. I didn't ask about initial jewellery size due to my faith in her and her trainer. A lesson I learnt is that you can never ask too many questions. I had just my left cheek pierced because of costs and thought it better to heal it singly. I came out of the studio very excited and pleased with my piercing. It didn't last long, firstly having to argue my right to have whatever piercings I choose with my father took the shine off the experience. Then came the real problems; the swelling set in and the ball on the ridiculously small jewellery sank into cheek almost completely. The skin became very stic ky and sore. I went back to the piercer and asked her to put larger jewellery in it. She wouldn't. I was advised that it would be okay, take some anti-inflamitry pain killers regularly and put some ice on it. The problem got worse. I contemplated going to another studio and asking them to change the jewellery for me. I thought 'why should I pay else where for that when its part of my piercers job to sort this out?'. So I went back to my original piercer, this time she agreed to change the jewellery. It was either a 20mm or a 22mm barbell. It stuck out a lot but it was a relief not to have that ball embedded in my face. Unfortunately the piercing was already very infected. It smelt awful, tasted awful, and the amount of yellow discharge secreting was really excessive. The large ball on the inside of my mouth also had sworf on it, which scratched and stabbed the inside of my cheek, making the problem worse. I also kept biting on the ball because of its size. I was on antibiotics for three weeks and the problem was still the same. It looked and felt disgusting, and despite knowing the jewellery would help me drain the infection, I had enough and took it out. It healed up no problem and my experience truly put me off the idea of having cheek piercings in the future.
At A Glance Author racheldawn Contact racheldawn@bme.anon When It just happened Artist My boyfriend Alex Studio My house Location Staffordshire, UK Now, 3 years down the line and increasing my piercing collection, I decided to get myself a pair of cheek piercings after all. Having read up on cheek piercings and initial jewellery sizes on BME during my first unfortunate experience, I knew what I wanted from a piercer and the questions to ask. Unfortunately I found out that my piercer who I've always had complete faith in, and who I planned to pay to do my cheeks, also uses 14mm labret studs as initial jewellery. Which explains what the trainee did. If I had discussed it with her, Im sure she would have put longer barbells in for me. But to be honest, I was sick of paying extortionate prices for services I didn't have confidence in. Having had some minor body piercing training myself, and my boyfriends experience, we decided to research and do my cheeks ourselves.
Firstly we ordered extra equipment we needed and chose bioplast 1.6 x 45mm labrets as initial jewllery. We cut them down to about 25mm and added the thread, which brought the labret size down to about 22 or 23mm. Having measured my cheeks at normal state, we knew naturally they were about 14mm thick.
Having the scar dimple from my first cheek piercing, we had a guide for placement. We marked that left scar, then measured from different angles, and made a mark on my right cheek. We checked by eye and then measured again. Once we were sure that visually the marks were right, we then checked the marks to be pierced were within the safe area. The piercings would be just infront of the first set of moulers, which we knew to be a marker. We then used forefinger and thumb either side of the cheek tissue, we grabbed as far back as natural, and dragged forward, feeling for a softer, thinner area between the muscle. We then used a torch to double check for veins. We found the safe area confidently and then got on with the actual piercing! I lay down for the piercing, which was generally new for me for these sorts of piercings, but made me feel more at ease and was a comfortable way for my boyfriend to pierce. The needle went through easily and painlessly for both sides, even the scarred side.
So I now have the healing process ahead of me, but knowing the piercing was done correctly this time, with my experience and chosen aftercare of lavender and red clover water, I'm confident they will heal perfectly. I cant wait!