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These 15 Facial Piercing Ideas Will Inspire Your Next Piercing Appointment

A little extra metal never hurt nobody.

by Margaret Blatz
Updated: 
Originally Published: 
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Move the bling party off your ears and onto the rest of your face by getting a facial piercing. You may not have thought about piercings beyond your eyebrows, nose, and your lips, but there’s a whole world of piercing opportunity for you to add some metal and gems.

When getting a facial piercing, there are a few things you should do before showing up to your appointment. “Eat a healthy meal at least 4 hours before you receive your piercing. Drink plenty of water before and after,” Brandon Simon, a senior piercer at Banter by Piercing Pagoda, tells Elite Daily. He also suggests that you “be open to your piercer’s suggestions about jewelry selection and placement of your piercing.” Sometimes your dream piercing doesn’t quite work, can be at risk of moving as it heals, or just needs a little editing, so be willing to listen and adjust your plan.

Before deciding exactly what you want and where you’ll put it, let’s review the more obvious piercing spots. Having multiple ear piercings on your lobe to create the perfect stack is so commonplace now that you can buy pre-selected packs of earrings. (You can even buy them as cuffs.) Then there are conch, rook, and cartilage piercings, which have all become more trendy with the rise of constellation piercings. All of those piercing locations are lovely, but if you’ve already got a stud in each ear, facial piercings will feel like a new, exciting frontier.

Because there are so many different facial piercings you can get, this comprehensive guide to all the face piercings out there waiting for you will help narrow down where you decide to put your next one.

01

Facial Piercings: Vertical Eyebrow Piercing

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“Eyebrows [are] a good, simple piercing to start with,” Simon says. “They are relatively low on the discomfort scale and are easy to maintain as they are very visible.” The most common eyebrow piercing is either with a hoop or barbell pierced vertically anywhere through the ridge. This piercing is most often placed above the outside corner of the eye at an angle that follows the arch of your brow.

02

Facial Piercings: Horizontal Eyebrow Piercing

Unsurprisingly, this next style of eyebrow piercing is pretty similar but, like its name suggests, it follows your eyebrow horizontally, running parallel to it. Since this piercing covers more space, rather than a rounded piece of jewelry, a bar is used. This lessens its likeness of it moving as the piercing heals and keeps its sharp angle.

03

Facial Piercings: Bridge Piercing

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Going through the fleshy part of the upper part of your nose (not the bone) between your eyes, you can get a straight barbell piercing known as a bridge piercing. However, a bridge piercing doesn’t work for everyone. If the skin on your nose is too thin or tight, your body is more likely to reject the piercing, which can cause it to migrate into a new position as it heals, so you definitely want to talk to your piercer ahead of time.

04

Facial Piercing: Anti-Eyebrow Piercing

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Pretend your eyebrows are flipped. An anti-eyebrow piercing, sometimes known as a teardrop piercing, is a surface bar that mimics where the downturn of your eyebrow is and is pierced under your eye. This creates an almost mirror effect, and is usually always pierced with a straight barbell. Since it’s located so close to your eye, you’ll need to be very attentive to your piercer’s aftercare instructions, which will include cleaning it at least twice a day with a saline solution.

05

Facial Piercing: Nose Piercing

Placed on either side of your nose, a standard nose piercing can be pierced with either a stud or a hoop that goes through your nose cartilage into your nostril. There are so many different jewelry styles made for this piercing so you can really play with it. But when you go for your piercing, be prepared for some pain. “Out of most of the facial piercings, the most popular, nostril, can be quite surprising for some,” Simon says. It’s “by no means excruciatingly painful,” Simon adds, but it can “be a bit ‘spicy’ initially. However, this is a short-lived sensation.”

06

Facial Piercing: Septum

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You’ve probably heard of, and likely seen, septum piercings before. These feature a hoop or curved barbell in the soft tissue right in front of the cartilage between your two nostrils (known as the columella). But, despite being in a sensitive area, they’re not too bad. “The proper healing time on a septum is 6-8 weeks for healing time and is relatively uneventful,” Simon says.

07

Facial Piercing: Dimple

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Just because you weren’t born with dimples doesn’t mean you can’t make your own. This cheek piercing goes exactly where you think the dimples on your face would, and, yes, it does go all the way through your cheek. These take the longest to heal and it could be a full year until you feel like they’re finally healed. Immediately after getting a dimple piercing, you should expect some blood in your month and swelling.

08

Facial Piercing: The Monroe

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Named after a certain blonde bombshell, the Monroe piercing mimics Marilyn Monroe’s iconic beauty mark, but with a little more sparkle. This piercing just requires a simple, flat-back stud. If you’ve ever (against better judgment) popped a zit on your upper lip, you know this skin is super sensitive. As scary as putting a needle through that may be, you only have to get through the one-two punch of first the needle followed by the jewelry going through your new piercing before it’s over.

09

Facial Piercing: The Madonna Piercing

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Marilyn Monroe isn’t the only celebrity with a piercing named after her; Madonna also gets a shout out. The only difference between these two piercings is the Monroe is on the left side and Madonna is on the right. It’s on the same pain level as the Monroe, and uses the same type of jewelry: labret studs. Unlike the studs you’re used to using on your ears, labret studs are longer and have a flat back that you screw the jewelry into.

10

Facial Piercing: The Medusa Piercing

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To split the difference between those two lip piercings, the Medusa piercing was born. It’s placed into your Cupid’s bow between your upper lip and nose, and as far as lip piercings are concerned, this is as painful as it can get. “Medusa is more painful since the Cupid’s bow area of your lips are more sensitive,” Jenna Havoc, a piercer at Live by the Sword Tattoo, tells Elite Daily. This is because “there’s more nerve endings in the Cupid’s bow,” she says.

11

Facial Piercing: Smiley Piercing

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Do you know what your frenulum is? It’s the thin wall of gum connecting your top lip to your gums. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, run your tongue up past your front teeth and you’ll find it. The skin here varies person by person, but the frenulum can be super thin so you’ll definitely want to consult your piercer before deciding.

12

Facial Piercing: Labret Lip Piercing

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Labret piercings are lip piercings you can get anywhere on your bottom lip or around it, it doesn’t have to fall in the center of your face (but if you wanted it to, it could). You’ll need to leave ample time for this piercing to heal, but a labret lip piercing functions as a super cute way to decorate your lip or lip line.

13

Facial Piercing: Snake Bites

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“Snake bites are two symmetrical piercings on the bottom lip,” Havoc says. Even though this includes having two needles go through your face in one sitting, you shouldn’t be too worried about pain. “Lip piercings are generally pretty easy since it’s soft tissue,” Havoc says. She says to expect only about a two to five out of 10 on the pain scale.

14

Facial Piercing: Shark Bites

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Jaws only wishes it could have had this kind of glam. Shark bites are for when snake bites just aren’t enough for you. Rather than just one set of two symmetrical piercings, shark bites include two piercings on both sides, so four in total. You can get a hoop or labret stud for these, but be warned that receiving four piercings in one sitting is a lot. “There’s always that risk of a longer healing time,” Havoc says. “Your body generally has its limits of what it can heal at once. So, if you have 2-3 or more piercings healing at once, your body doesn’t know where to focus, leading to some pretty pissed off and irritated piercings.”

15

Facial Piercing: Tongue Piercing

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Welcome to the ‘80s. If you’re feeling your punk aesthetic, there’s one piece of jewelry you have to get: a tongue piercing. Generally done towards the tip of your tongue, you can get one or two tongue piercings to add some bling to your mouth.

Armed with these ideas, the only thing left to do is to stock up on saline solutions and book your next piercing appointment.

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