When I got my vertical labret done January 17th (retired for now), I came across pictures of cheek piercings and I loved them. The two things I loved...the vertical labret and the cheeks. I had to get them.
At A Glance Author Alicia Contact converge_exhale@yahoo.com IAM convergexdead When It just happened Artist Jason Lund Studio Central Florida Piercing Co. Location Longwood/Lake Mary, Florida After I took out my vertical labret, I wanted to get something to make up for my loss. I immediately chose the cheeks. I'm 18 but I still check with my mum about her opinion, since I like her to come with me when I get piercings. She didn't like them, but she liked it better than a septum or bridge, so she said she'd come with me. I picked up my best friend, Amanda, from her house on Saturday night so we could go to the shop with my mum on Sunday. She slept over, and we woke up around 12:00 and waited until 3:00 to go. I decided we'd go with my mom because she got her oil changed, and she had to pick up the car, which was less than 5 minutes from the shop.
We got there around 3:00, there were 2 people ahead of me. One was an older woman (I'd say about 35-40) that was getting her inner labia pierced (she told me), and her friend who was getting her bellybutton. I filled out the form and I waited for Jason to be finished with the one customer he had just started on. They finished within about 15 minutes and the older woman went in and the curtains closed. They honestly took about 30-45 minutes and I am very, very impatient. I was getting sort of agitated, and she finally walked out. You could tell she was drunk. She was telling my mum she could get something, and my mum is not a very piercing kind of person. She was telling me, "that woman was crazy!" Her friend was still in there, and again, it took about 45 minutes, an hour at the most. I was agitated, once again. Finally she walked out and my jewelry had just finished being sterilized and I was ready.
Amanda, my mom and I went into the back. Jason is a very, very soft-spoken and calm person. He makes me feel very comfortable and I trust him very much. He pulled the clamp out of the autoclave machine and he gave me a little pad of cloth with alcohol on it to clean up the spots where I wanted them. He put on gloves and took the clamps out of the package and set them out on the little table. He marked the spots where I wanted them and he gave me Cepacol to wash out my mouth (I love Cepacol, I have so much of it) and I rinsed. I spit it out and made my mum hold the little cup it was in, the look on her face was great. He put numbing gel on the inside of my mouth. Terrible taste. The spots were marked, and he put the clamp on my left cheek. "Deep breath...and out, good job!" are the words I always hear. It wasn't extremely painful, the pain lasted about 2 seconds. My cheeks aren't thin but they aren't thick, so it wasn't extremely painful. He pierced me with a 14g needle, but put in 16g jewelry. He changed his gloves, looked at his work, and smiled. He asked me how I liked it, and I was happy with the placement.
He put a clean clamp on my right cheek and said the words again. "Deep breath...and out, good job, you did great!" This cheek is thicker than the other, so it hurt a little more. I had my mum and Amanda's hand to hold, so I felt comfortable.
He gave me a little mirror to see the new work. I was so excited and I wanted to smile soo bad, but it hurt. Jason would give me a lollipop, but he said it'd be pretty hard to eat that. We left the shop at 6:45...we were there for 3 hours and 45 minutes, only 2 people ahead of us, and god knows what else happened. I paid him $35 for each, which came out to $70 all together, but it would have been $90 if he charged me $45 for both, which he should have, but he always cuts me a deal.
I ended up taking out both piercings Wednesday because they were sinking into my cheeks. Jason under-estimated how swelled my cheeks would get, and the barbells were 1/2" inch. I needed 3/8" inches. He came over on Wednesday and took them out for me, because I couldn't get ahold of the bars. Him and his girlfriend came over around 9:00 and he brought a little weird plier-like clamp and he had to literally dig into my face to get the bar and unscrew the balls. It felt a lot better with them out, but I was very disappointed. I asked my husband if I could get them redone, and my mum, and they both said yes.
On Saturday (March 27th), he made me jewelry and re-pierced me for free. The bars are a lot longer now and will allow a lot of room for swelling. But that story is for another time!