Cheek skewering

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Cheek skewering is a ritual or performance activity involving a long skewer going through the cheeks horizontally.

Generally, to "perform" a cheek skewering, a sharpened skewer is pushed from the outside of one cheek with support from the inside of the mouth being applied (this also reduces the amount of pain involved). The skewer is then push through to the other cheek, tenting out the skin dramatically as it exits.

As well as being a traditional "pain proof man" sideshow act, ritual cheek piercing takes place at the annual Sri Lankan festival of Katargama, and also at the Vegetarian Festival in Phuket, Thailand. In a ritual context, the skewers are often quite decorative.

Trivia