New scientific research suggests that cheek piercings were popular as long ago as 30,000 years, as chipped teeth and bones are examined. John Willman, a biological anthropologist, believes that his ...

The piercings many have been associated with community participation and major life events. Skulls from Paleolithic Europe’s ...

Though Willman wasn’t the first to propose the cheek piercing hypothesis, he conducted new analyses of original tooth remains and photos of remains that he could not observe firsthand.

A group of Ice Age hunter-gatherers living in central Europe may have adorned their faces with cheek piercings at as early as ...

John Charles Willman describes his study of dozens of ancient teeth with the patches and how he arrived at his conclusion. Labrets are a certain kind of facial piercing—holes are made in the ...

The wearing down of tooth enamel is a completely normal experience ... In Willman’s estimation, the dental damage was done by labrets—what we would now refer to as cheek piercings.