Alyssa Liu's 'Smiley' Piercing and the Terms of Her Olympic Return
alyssa liu has confirmed that the bright flash in her smile is a frenulum mouth piercing she did herself, and she is balancing that personal style with a carefully managed comeback to competitive figure skating as she heads into the Olympic Free Skate from third place.
Alyssa Liu's frenulum piercing
The silvery element visible when she smiles is a labial frenulum piercing, often called a "smiley, " that hangs over her two front teeth. She pierced the thin tissue connecting upper gum to lip herself more than two years ago, working with a mirror while a family member held her lip. Her approach used a piercing needle rather than improvised tools and she has described it as a personal, trusted practice rather than a professional studio visit.
DIY piercing and personal style
She has said she learned piercing as a hobby and defended the DIY route as both economical and precise; she purchased proper supplies and emphasized placement and safety without using a gun or makeshift methods. Her mouth jewelry is one visible element of a broader personal aesthetic that also includes distinct horizontal platinum blonde stripes in dark hair. She has added a new blonde ring each year, viewing each stripe as a marker of personal and professional growth that she has continued for multiple years.
Olympic comeback and outlook
alyssa liu made her Olympic debut as a teenager, stepped away from the sport, and later returned with explicit conditions for how she would compete. Those conditions include autonomy over wardrobe, music, diet and breaks, priorities she placed on maintaining control of her skating life rather than letting the sport subsume her. Since returning, she won a world title and earned a team gold at the current Games. After finishing the short program in third place, she goes into the Free Skate on Thursday with a realistic chance to add an individual Olympic medal to her achievements.
Her choreographer embraced elements of her look, citing the piercing as an aspect that helped project her personality on the ice. That collaborative relationship aims to foreground her individuality within programs and to translate her off-ice choices into on-ice expression.
Looking ahead, the immediate indicator to watch is placement after the Free Skate on Thursday. If she maintains a top position in that segment, she will be positioned to contend for an individual medal; if scores shift in the Free Skate, the podium picture could tighten or change. The coming performance therefore serves as the clearest near-term test of whether her stylistic and competitive comeback culminates in individual Olympic hardware.
