Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Woman tells of botched piercing that left her mouth bleeding for weeks

Doctors refused to remove Caitiee's piercing bar over fears it would go septic. 

Natasha Salmon
Sunday 08 October 2017 12:20 EDT
Comments
Caitiee's face swelled 'like a balloon' after the botch procedure
Caitiee's face swelled 'like a balloon' after the botch procedure (Trinity Mirror)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

A woman says she bled for four days and her face swelled “like a balloon” after a botched piercing procedure.

The woman, who asked only to be idenitified as Caitiee, had “dimple” piercings in each cheek but was left bleeding from her mouth after a bad reaction to one of the bars.

The 17-year-old from Dublin said doctors were afraid to remove the piercing in her right cheek for fear it would go septic.

The botched procedure was conducted in September and the mother-of-one said she knew something “wasn’t right” when she almost passed out from the pain.

She told Dublin Live: "I can't even describe the pain of that one, I thought I was going to pass out, she kind of looked at it for a few minutes and it swelled straight away.

"She said 'that swelled a bit much and it's going over the bar', so she went and got the owner of the shop and he said 'it'll be grand, it's grand, just do the other side'.

"When he was standing over I noticed that he told her to do the other side differently.”

(Dublin Live
(Dublin Live (Dublin Live)

Caitiee said her face was “like a balloon” before she even left the shop and by the next day the entire side of her face had then swollen.

As the piercing continued to bleed she visited the hospital where a doctor told her the piercing had not been done properly and said they may have burst a blood vessel.

They refused to remove the piercing in case it caused an infection.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in