I had my septum and my tongue pierced for a year and I wanted something pierced that was unique looking and different from all the kids you see on the streets. My friend gave me the idea of getting my cheeks pierced because I have dimples and she thought they would look good resting there. I thought about it for a while considering all of the risks with getting this done. The scars it would leave when I finally took them out, pain during healing and how it would effect my work and social life, etc. I never saw them on anyone where I live, so I didn't really have an idea how they were going to look. That was a bad thing, but also a good thing because I knew I'd be one of the only people walking around with them done. It's always a good thing to be uniquie. After all of this considering and weighing the good over the bad I decided to just go and get them done. Who cares what you look like when your old anyway? I had work that day, but being the stubborn person I am I didn't want to wait until my day off and decided to go an hour before my shift started. I paid my money and the jewelry was selected. They were going to be pierced with 12 gauge half inch labret studs. I didn't know it then but it wasn't such a good idea because it left me no room for swelling and the balls were popping off every ten minutes. ( I'll save that for later.) The marks took longer then the actual piercing because I wanted them exactly straight and perfect so I ended up sitting in the chair for half an hour with my sweaty palms stuck to the arms of the seat. When the marks were finally perfect she put on the clamp and pierced my left cheek first. This one hurt pretty bad. I don't know why but it felt like it got pierced twice, I think because how thick the tissue is in the corner of your mouth. When it came time for the second one I wanted to get up, and thank god my friend was there and made me stay,because the second one wasn't that bad. They got really bloody to the point where blood was dripping down off of my chin and my friend had to run in to catch it from falling onto my white sweater. I wasn't expecting this much blood, I don't really mind the pain but the blood made me kind of sick. If you are going to get this done, be prepared for allot of bleeding just in case you get unlucky like I did and have a fountain pouring from your face. Despite the fact that my face was smeared with blood, and it took fifteen minutes to clean me up I felt fine. She advised me to use betadine to heal them, cleaning them 3-5 times a day and also using gly-oxide and listerine for the insides. I left the studio then went off on my merry way to work. Halfway to work I realized it hurt to smile and laugh, oddly enough talking was not a problem as long as I didn't laugh it was okay. The swelling was minimal the first day but got worse the next day when I woke up. They were swollen plate to the ball so much that the ball was pressed into my cheek. The pus was also really annoying it got so out of hand I had an extra ring around the ball all the time where the pus would collect and dry. I ended up cleaning them allot just to get rid of this because it made them look so bad. I was definitely not given enough room for swelling and they kept falling off every ten minutes and the pain of getting them back on almost became too much. To make matters worse everytime they fell off and I had to get them back on they would swell even more. I know now they should have been done initially with a larger bar, then downsized to half inch. I never had to take them out which I'm really happy for, but it was allot of unnessacary pain and discomfort.
By two weeks they were healed completely. I was told 10-12, and was suprised when all the redness,pus, and minor bruising was gone within 2 weeks. I was lucky considering all that happened to them. Now I have a labret too which matches them nicely. Besides all the blood and the balls popping off it really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and was well worth all of the effor put into them.