Submitting myself basically as a warning to other people. I’m just going to say this now; JUST BECAUSE YOU’RE GETTING SOMETHING DONE IN A SHOP BY A PROFESSIONAL, DOES NOT MEAN THEY KNOW EXACTLY WHAT THEY ARE DOING. If you have a gut feeling that the artist is doing something wrong, don’t go ahead with it. Go away, think about it, do some more research. Don’t be afraid to question their judgement just because they are a professional.This is one of my cheeks a few days after I got it pierced, and a few hours before i got the bar removed. The ball was literally sinking in to the piercing because the bar was simply not long enough to account for the swelling. I had to go to A&E because I just could not remove it myself.The piercer put in labret-style bars that were, in retrospect, far too short, and I myself was slightly apprehensive about how short they were. I asked her about it and if maybe I could have longer bars put in, but she assured me that she’d never had a cheek piercing on a client swell further than the bars she was putting in. I decided that as she was a professional and had way more experience with these things than I did, I would go ahead and follow her judgement. She put the bars in and everything was fine for the first few days. Despite the discomfort, I loved my new piercings; they really suited me and I loved the way they looked.I got them done on Saturday- by Monday night, the swelling had gotten insane. The inside of my cheek had swelled so much that it bulged over the disc at the back, and the bar was so tight that I physically could not get to either side of the piercing to clean it properly. This was it for me, I had to take them out. Unfortunately, I couldn’t. Me and my boyfriend tried for hours to get the ball off the end of the bar, but the combination of swelling + not being able to get a grip + the balls being screwed in so tight, not to mention how painful it was, meant that there was no joy. By the time I could get to A&E (Tuesday afternoon) the ball on the bar in my right cheek was more than halfway imbedded into the piercing. I cannot describe how painful this was or how scared I was that it would end up fully imbedded in my cheek, it was genuinely terrifying. Thankfully the A&E staff were amazing; within two hours of arriving my cheeks had been numbed and the bars removed, and on top of that everyone who treated me was super-sympathetic (rather than ‘oh you did this to yourself’ kind of attitude). However actually getting the bars removed was no walk in the park either; the anaesthetic injection was excruciating and didn’t completely numb the area, so I could feel some of the pulling and pinching and so on. It was incredibly painful, but I was mostly just relieved they were out. I was given antibiotics to curb any possible infection (although they didn’t think they were infected) and sent on my way. However I dread to think how it would have been had I not be so fortunate to be in the UK under the care of the NHS; I have no idea how much this may have cost me financially if I were, for instance, in America. I now have two gaping holes in my cheeks where there should be happy, healthy piercings and am still quite sore and uncomfortable. My current swelling is about double the size of the bars that were used, so I am gobsmacked as to how the piercer thought this was ok. TL;DR: IF YOU THINK YOUR PIERCER IS DOING SOMETHING WRONG, DON’T LET THEM DO IT. Go with your gut, you know your body better than they do and at the end of the day you’re the one getting it done, and you should be totally comfortable when getting a mod.
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Submitting myself basically as a warning to other people.

I’m just going to say this now; JUST BECAUSE YOU’RE GETTING SOMETHING DONE IN A SHOP BY A PROFESSIONAL, DOES NOT MEAN THEY KNOW EXACTLY WHAT THEY ARE DOING. If you have a gut feeling that the artist is doing something wrong, don’t go ahead with it. Go away, think about it, do some more research. Don’t be afraid to question their judgement just because they are a professional.

This is one of my cheeks a few days after I got it pierced, and a few hours before i got the bar removed. The ball was literally sinking in to the piercing because the bar was simply not long enough to account for the swelling. I had to go to A&E because I just could not remove it myself.

The piercer put in labret-style bars that were, in retrospect, far too short, and I myself was slightly apprehensive about how short they were. I asked her about it and if maybe I could have longer bars put in, but she assured me that she’d never had a cheek piercing on a client swell further than the bars she was putting in. I decided that as she was a professional and had way more experience with these things than I did, I would go ahead and follow her judgement. She put the bars in and everything was fine for the first few days. Despite the discomfort, I loved my new piercings; they really suited me and I loved the way they looked.

I got them done on Saturday- by Monday night, the swelling had gotten insane. The inside of my cheek had swelled so much that it bulged over the disc at the back, and the bar was so tight that I physically could not get to either side of the piercing to clean it properly. This was it for me, I had to take them out. Unfortunately, I couldn’t. Me and my boyfriend tried for hours to get the ball off the end of the bar, but the combination of swelling + not being able to get a grip + the balls being screwed in so tight, not to mention how painful it was, meant that there was no joy.

By the time I could get to A&E (Tuesday afternoon) the ball on the bar in my right cheek was more than halfway imbedded into the piercing. I cannot describe how painful this was or how scared I was that it would end up fully imbedded in my cheek, it was genuinely terrifying. Thankfully the A&E staff were amazing; within two hours of arriving my cheeks had been numbed and the bars removed, and on top of that everyone who treated me was super-sympathetic (rather than ‘oh you did this to yourself’ kind of attitude). However actually getting the bars removed was no walk in the park either; the anaesthetic injection was excruciating and didn’t completely numb the area, so I could feel some of the pulling and pinching and so on. It was incredibly painful, but I was mostly just relieved they were out. I was given antibiotics to curb any possible infection (although they didn’t think they were infected) and sent on my way. However I dread to think how it would have been had I not be so fortunate to be in the UK under the care of the NHS; I have no idea how much this may have cost me financially if I were, for instance, in America.

I now have two gaping holes in my cheeks where there should be happy, healthy piercings and am still quite sore and uncomfortable. My current swelling is about double the size of the bars that were used, so I am gobsmacked as to how the piercer thought this was ok.

TL;DR: IF YOU THINK YOUR PIERCER IS DOING SOMETHING WRONG, DON’T LET THEM DO IT. Go with your gut, you know your body better than they do and at the end of the day you’re the one getting it done, and you should be totally comfortable when getting a mod.