Lots of stories this week about Olympic skater Alysa Liu, including a feature article in The Atlantic on "The Alysa Liu Effect." The article focuses on her hairstyle ("raccoon head") and clothing, but didn't mention her teeth (photo cropped from a source somewhere else).
This old guy wonders what's going on here, because these look like dental implants rather then stick-on ornaments. I'm quite aware that children getting braces can now have their braces painted, or can use colored rubber bands, as a cosmetic compensation for what is otherwise perceived by their schoolmates as unattractive (similar to "pimple patches" I suppose).
So is this a new body modification that will become more common? Do the arrows represent something from comics or a meme I haven't seen? I'm turning to my readership for answers because it will be faster than looking this up. Thanks in advance.
(Well, that didn't take long. A dozen replies within an hour. Thanks again.)
Question answered. Comments now closed.
I believe it’s a piercing in her upper lip, not attached to the teeth at all.
ReplyDeletethis is actually a piercing of the maxillary labial frenum, which is the small bit of tissue connecting your upper lip to your gum. this is called a "smiley" piercing.
ReplyDeleteI have to assume this is a "smiley" piercing:
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lip_frenulum_piercing
That's a smiley piercing, a type of oral piercing located on the frenulum of the upper lip. This piercing connects the upper gum line to the lip, allowing jewelry to be visible when smiling. It is generally considered a low-pain piercing due to the thinness of the tissue. Potential risks include gum erosion and damage to tooth enamel if the jewelry is too large or constantly rubs against the teeth.
ReplyDeletehttps://bodyartforms.com/blog/smiley-piercing-what-you-need-to-know
It's a piercing above her teeth.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.the-independent.com/life-style/alysa-liu-teeth-piercing-b2924041.html
I took it to be piercing. Probably of the thin membrane behind the upper lip.
ReplyDeleteThis is a lip frenulum piercing. Liu has talked about it in interviews like this one https://www.nbc.com/nbc-insider/alysa-liu-explains-smiley-frenulum-piercing-mouth-did-it-herself
ReplyDeleteAs expected having a piece of metal in your mouth, there is a risk of enamel erosion
Codex: frenulum piercing
ReplyDeleteFrenulum piercing.
ReplyDeleteCodex: ps. Please don't ask me why anyone would.
ReplyDeleteThis stuff strikes me as a Cluster B manifestation. Symptoms. We're not a mentally healthy population even as we may excel in specialized areas.
ReplyDelete@Crowbar She's a 20 year old gold medal Olympian with a healthy body image. There is no personality disorder if she managed the discipline to achieve what she did. She's expressing herself, as many teens do. She spent her childhood skating.
DeleteCome on, don't be so melodramatic. Cluster B disorders are serious and stem from serious issues such as abuse. She's a young person with a piercing, oh my god, what a disaster.
DeleteI invite you to do a quick Google search on the subject of facial piercings and mental illness.
DeleteI invite you, Crowbar, not to let Google searches guide your moral compass or psychological diagnosis. It takes an average of a decade before a psychiatrist is sufficiently trained to make a diagnosis.
DeleteCluster Bs are partially outdated and imply severe dysfunction. She's a role model. Her piercing looks uncomfortable to me, but is just a piercing. The search you came across is likely severe body modification combined with severe behavioral problems. Not the case here. Armchair psychology can harm young people. Her hair will grow out, the piercing can be removed. A gold medal is forever.
I did not diagnose anyone in particular, nor could I, even if a person had numerous facial piercings, numerous facial tattoos, facial scarification and hair dyed 19 colors. Plus lizard-like contact lenses. But these might be seen as red flags. And there is some psychological literature that takes this beyond the realm of an idol hunch. As to Liu in particular, the notion that she's a "role model," setting aside the question of this, in my opinion, bizarre piercing, is not sound. I would not wish this kind of life on anyone. That is to say, the kind of life that leads to mental health crises in pursuit of perfection in sport (of all things). PTSD, etc. We want our children to emulate this sort of thing? So they can win gold medals and endorse products and live in mansions (Simone Biles comes to mind--another person who "won" but suffered one mental health crisis after another). I mean, what kind of values are we promoting? Of course, I'm speaking as a person who would eliminate the Olympics (as we know it) on the basis of environmental impact alone. This is akin to the question of how we go on promoting/consuming football, knowing the cost to players comes in the form of CTE. Here's how we go on: we just don't talk about it. But feel free to question my "moral compass."
DeleteIt's a frenulum piercing - the connective tissue between the lip and the gum. The "arrows" are screw-on ends to a circular barbell. https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/general/alysa-liu-s-frenulum-piercing-has-fans-talking/ar-AA1VZm4u
ReplyDelete(Be warned searching "frenulum piercing" - either add "mouth" or click with caution, because there's a similarly named genital piercing.)
News reports say she did it herself.
ReplyDeleteThat would be painful and bloody, I'm guessing.
DeleteI did a bunch of piercings on myself back in the 90s, with a solid rule of nothing above the neck, nothing below the belt. Nipples (multiple times until I got it right - nipples are TOUGH to pierce), belly button and whatever you call the skin between your thumb and pointer finger, which was THE most painful to do and super uncomfortable as well. Lasted a day before I took it out. Apparently they grow out anyway but I wanted to try it.
Made all my own ball capture rings as well. Which is a type of jewellery and not a weekend hobby device.
For me the hardest part of self-piercing was that every time I physically pushed the needle, my survival instinct was mentally pushing back.
I did some belly button piercings on other people (this was back before there was much of a piercing scene in Ireland) and it was pretty much effortless (for me), compared to having to get a razor out to let the tip of the needle through my skin when I did my belly button (first piercing). The tip was pushing the skin out so taut but I just couldn't bring myself to make the final push. Dunno if that's just me, or a common thing. Currently piercing free for decades.
the '90s will never die!
ReplyDelete*no matter how much I want them to
I believe it takes a young woman from being attractive to being not.
ReplyDeleteI may be old.
Hopefully old enough to learn that we're trying to move past judging women for their attractiveness all the time.
DeleteAre "we" also moving past judging men based on their competence? Does anyone really believe that physical attractiveness is not a real thing? That it can be wished away? Should we shame people for finding some people more physically attractive than others? Are women supposed to stop noticing when a man is more or less physically attractive? It worries me that this direction gets any traction at all.
DeleteI dunno. Some of the takes on here are awful. You've got 8 billion people on the planet and however you shake it up, most people find someone because what's "attractive" is not just about looks, but about personality, compatibility and, critically, availability as in whether they're amenable to you and also physically nearby. If you have a soul mate they're likely ten thousand miles away so people settle as the statistic bear out.
DeleteBut that doesn't stop the idea of a couple of old men leering over a young woman being creepy.
Mr. Rocket simply stated that he finds this sort of stuff unattractive. I responded to a preachy response to Mr. Rocket--a response which appears to me to be both attacking and divorced from reality. I'm not sure what any of this has to do with "leering old men" other than to the extent we're playing power games in which desire, gender and age are weaponized.
DeleteMy recommendation on this is, don't make people mad so they want to punch it in the mouth.
ReplyDeleteI got a feeling that thing would hurt a lot.
I mean even more than a regular punch in the mouth
She did it herself with help from her sister because most piercing shops refuse to do it for reasons mentioned above.
ReplyDelete