Alysa Liu Teeth and the smile that became part of her Olympic comeback
aly sa liu teeth have become a talking point as the 20-year-old skater, sitting in third place after the women's short program in Milan, sports a visible labial frenulum piercing she says she put in herself.
Alysa Liu Teeth: the piercing and how she did it
The piece is a silver curved hook through the labial frenulum, the thin band of tissue connecting upper lip and gums, with small arrow tips that sit on her front two teeth when she smiles; the style is commonly called a "smiley" piercing, and Liu has said she performed the piercing herself with her sister holding her lip. She told interviewers that she used a piercing needle while looking in a mirror, a detail she shared on Jan. 26, and other accounts say she placed the piercing a little over two years ago.
Her terms for returning to the ice and Massimo Scali’s response
When Liu, who retired at 16 before coming back to the sport, decided to return she set clear conditions: wear what she wants, dance to the music she wants, eat what she wants and take breaks when she wants. Those terms have shaped a comeback that her longtime choreographer, Massimo Scali, embraced — Scali loved the frenulum piercing so much he joked it made him want another one — and he has tried to project Liu's personality onto the ice as she moves through the competition.
Style choices alongside competitive stakes in Milan
Liu is skating in Milan and entered the free skate scheduled for Thursday night after placing third in the short program; she was bunched tightly with a pack of skaters at the top, and commentators have noted that if she medals she would be the first U. S. woman to win an individual Olympic figure skating medal since Sasha Cohen's silver in 2006. The piercing shows up often because Liu smiles frequently, and she was part of the U. S. squad that won gold in the team event earlier in the Games.
Her off-ice style has drawn attention beyond the mouth piercing: Liu sports a halo hair design, describing the stripes as tree rings she adds each year, and she told reporters in January that she originally considered raccoon stripes three years ago but opted for the yearly halo concept instead. She showed horizontal platinum-blonde stripes and halos when she hit the ice on Feb. 8, and she has worked with a hairstylist to bleach the stripes to a milk-tea shade after several hours of work.
Scali, 46, has described his approach as exacting yet understanding, and Liu has credited him for trying to understand who she is; she said, "There's no way to describe how much he's done for me, " a remark that ties directly to the creative freedom she insisted on when resuming competition. The visible frenulum piece — the focus of questions about aly sa liu teeth — functions as one small, consistent expression of that autonomy.
With the free skate scheduled for Thursday night, Liu and her team will complete the second phase of the women's event in Milan; officials and coaches expect recovery, warmups and the program itself to determine whether her comeback, the terms she set and the visual choices that include the frenulum hook culminate in a podium result.
