*I wouldn't advise self piercing because of the massive health risks, you really don't want blood poisoning obviously. Not only that but you tend to get them wrong every surface piercing I have done has rejected. It's risky and can never be 100 percent safe and as sterile as a studio would be.*
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact beckymma@hotmail.co.uk When N/A Artist me I've always loved piercings my older sister had twenty five and I all ways was fascinated by them. I have been heavily into the goth scene since I was about 12 being a bit of an outsider at school. Then I got into piercings too when I was finally allowed to get my first which was just a helix but it started the addiction lol, but two always stood out and that was a scaffold piercing and cheek piercings. I'd already had fourteen piercings before my cheeks including labret, scaffold, several helix's, several lobes, navel, smile, a few auricles and a few surface. All except two of these were self done. I know self piercing general isn't safe but i've never had any problems probably part luck and due to how careful I am sterilizing and cleaning them afterwards.
For the piercing itself I used two hollow piercing needles that had been autoclaved. I bought them from an on line piercing supplier a while ago intending to pierce my snake bites but decided I wanted these more also I used two steel labret studs that had also been autoclaved both at 1.6mm. I started off by cleaning all the surfaces I would have to touch with detoll surface cleaner, which is a type of anti bacterial spray. I decided to use gloves even though I had throughly washed my hands first . I marked the place for the piercing on my right cheek where I had seen it on everyone else mostly on BME. I'd just like to say at this point I had done a lot of research into where the nerves in the face are before doing this.
I lined the needle up and pushed, it went in surprisingly easy. The first part was the hardest but the pain wasn't to bad. After that I gave it one push and it slide about three quarters of the way through, I couldn't believe how easy it was, one last push and I could see the needle through the other side, but then off course the dreaded last layer. This was very difficult but eventually I managed to get it through with a lot of force after trying everything from using something on the other side to push against to trying to twist it through, and finally it made that horrible popping noise.
The follow through was easy because I had used a hollow needle except that I'd had pierced from the outside in so I had to put the labret in back to front. I took the needle out and the jewelry was in fine, it just looked a little stupid being the wrong way. It didn't bleed at all. so now I got ready to do the left one, I measured how far the other one was away from my lip so as to get them even and marked the spot with a pen. I opened a new needle and lined it up and pushed. This one seemed a little harder and more painful but still not to bad. I put the labret in back to front with this one too,and again not a drop of blood overall I couldn't believe how easy it was, I expected it to be very hard to get the needles through because I thought your cheeks were thick. It was probably one of the easiest I have done. Not the most painless but not to bad. Overall both were done in about twenty minutes.
The next day I was able to take the labrets out and put them the right way around. There was a little dried blood and lymph but I just cleaned it off with sea salt with sterile water. I had been wanting this piercing for years and was really happy i had finally got it. id' had a few negative comments, mostly from my dad who says I look ridiculous and I am mutating myself. But personally I'm very happy with them and I like having a piercing not many people have. I think piercings are amazing things considering the effect they can have on peoples confidence and self-esteem.
As for the healing they didn't swell or hurt afterwards and seem to be healing well. I use sea salt and water that has been boiled to clean them twice a day. The only thing is I forget they are there sometimes and tend to bang them a lot.
I would say if you are going to pierce yourself, get the proper equipment and make sure you sterilize everything and do loads of research on the piercing and the autonomy of the area.