Smiley piercing
The upper lip frenulum piercing passes through the webbing underneath the centre of the upper lip. The piercing heals very quickly and is relatively painless. It looks best on someone whose lips retract when they smile — showing off the piercing as well as teeth and drawing attention to the smile.
This piercing is prone to rejection and many people find that they just "fall out" after about a year. This process is relatively harmless.
This piercing is usually performed using an 18ga to 14ga captive bead ring (or sometimes a circular barbell), sized so that the bead rests just below the gumline, between the front teeth. It can of course be performed using other jewelry or sizes that don't show.
This piercing can cause gum erosion and lead to tooth decay due to abrading the enamel.
As a point of trivia, the first known documented one was done by Steve Haworth in the mid-1990s, being published in a German tattoo magazine — although this was certainly not the first instance of the piercing being done.
Alternative Names
- Smiley
- by Sarai Bismuth, a piercer at Psycho Tattoo in Tel-Aviv, Israel. The name was of course chosen because it only shows on people who have a nice smile that shows off their teeth.
- Scrumper
- created by Caitlin Theobald in Toronto who received the piercing by Tom Brazda after seeing it on Steve Haworth in a German tattoo magazine. The name was chosen as a term that roughly means "cute little thing."
- Scrumpter
- a very common mispronunciation that has become a local term
- Glicker
- used in parts of British Columbia, Canada.
- Rooster Piercing
- used in parts of New Jersey.
- Scrumpy Piercing
See Also
More pictures of upper lip frenulum piercing can be found on BME in the Smiley Piercings gallery