Woman, 24, Left with 'Huge Scar' After Microneedling: 'It's Never Going Fully Away'

Melia Nielsen said she wanted to improve her acne scars — but that a microneedling procedure left her with a chemical burn and lasting mark on her cheek

A woman who underwent microneedling to help with her acne scarring said the procedure left her “bleeding” — and with a “huge scar” on her cheek.

Melia Nielsen, 24, started going to a skincare clinic in November 2023 “for chemical peels and stuff to clear acne,” she told Kennedy News and Media via the Daily Mail.

“We were moving on to microneedling to help get rid of the scarring,” she explained of the process, which uses tiny needles to pierce the skin. Devotees include stars like Kourtney Kardashian and Naomi Campbell, and it is believed to encourage the growth of collagen and elastin.

Related: Carrie Underwood Proudly Shows Off Her Scar From Her Accident in a Throwback Selfie

The finance worker from the English town of Grimsby said the first session was “perfectly fine.” However, during her second microneedling session this past July, she claimed the clinician went “over and over that same area to a point that it actually wore away the first one or two layers of my skin. So then it was essentially raw skin.”

“At the time, [the clinician] never said anything about it but I was actually bleeding. She only said five or six days later over a message that she'd noticed that I was bleeding quite a bit," Nielsen said, per the outlet. "Because I was bleeding she was cleaning the area with, I don't know if it was a toner or something, but it burned that brand new, raw skin.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

She also said that instead of the usual redness, she was left with a white patch of skin on her face, and the clinician “just said to me to keep an eye on it and don't use anything harsh on it.” Nielsen added that by the time she got home “that patch of my face was weeping. I was like, 'Surely this isn't normal.’ I was panicking the night that it happened. I washed it with water and didn't put anything on it.”

Per the outlet, she reached out to the clinician, who asked Nielsen if she’d changed her medications at home because “nothing different was used” on her face.

Related: Sam Champion Returns to GMA with Scar from Skin Cancer that Was 'Larger and Deeper Than I'd Expected'

When Nielsen eventually sought emergency care at a nearby hospital, the patch on her face “stopped weeping but it was wet to touch. It was really, really swollen. It was pretty much the entirety of my cheek all the way up to near my eye.” At the hospital, she was told she had a chemical burn — and for weeks, Nielsen said it was “was painful … It was itchy, it was swollen, it was horrible.”

And now, she’s been left with a permanent scar, which, according to the Cleveland Clinic, can be one of the risks of microneedling in addition to bruising and skin infection.

“Even now if I rub my finger over it now it's a completely different texture to the rest of my face. It's never fully going away,” Nielsen said, urging people to “make sure to thoroughly research, have consultations and choose your skincare wisely.” She added, “I've first hand seen how things can go wrong. I wouldn't ever want to risk going through that again.”

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.