TEMPE, AZ — Athena Zafirakis just wanted more fullness in her lips, nothing dramatic.
What she got was anything but subtle.
Her lips seemed huge after she got them injected with filler.
“The bruising is crazy, and they kind of hurt,” she told ABC 15 in an interview. “That was the other thing. They were painful.”
A friend referred her to the provider, who advertises on Instagram. The price was hard to beat: Less than $300 per person when lip filler usually goes for more than twice that at med spas.
Looking back, Zafirakis said there were other red flags besides the bargain price that she didn’t recognize because it was her first time getting lip filler.
The provider only communicated through Instagram and required a $50 deposit through Cash App. The woman also worked out of her house.
Once she arrived at the appointment, they began talking and “she did say she was a nurse,” Zafirakis said.
“It took like two hours,” she said. “I kept, kind of taking breaks, like ‘tapping out’ because it was so painful.”
She took a video of her new pout, showing a bruised upper lip.
She wasn’t worried; she figured the swelling and bruising was normal. She began to worry a few days later. She said it hurt to brush her teeth. She was still in pain a week later. She noticed a hard bump on her upper lip.
“Like a ball,” she said.
She showed her lips to a friend, Kayla Marie Vandel, an esthetician at Third Eye Beauty Lounge in Tempe. Vandel’s sister, Katrina Amburgey, is a registered nurse and does cosmetic injections there.
Amburgey recommended that she get injections of a hyaluronic acid enzyme to break down the filler.
“There is always a chance that this treatment may fail,” she told her before the procedure started. “I wasn’t your injector. I didn’t inject your lips. I don’t know what type of filler is in your lips.”
Zafirakis signed the consent forms.
“Please get this out of my lips,” she said.
As facial fillers soar in popularity, medical experts told ABC15 that unlicensed imposters are also cropping up.
People who get cosmetic injectables for the first time often don’t know that the person doing the procedure in Arizona must be a licensed medical professional – like a nurse, doctor or physician’s assistant.
Megan Davies is one of those licensed professionals.
“There are so many people out there that are unlicensed and unsafe,” said Davies, a nurse practitioner and medical director at DHH Med Spa in Scottsdale.
Davies didn’t work with Zafirakis, but she’s heard many similar stories. She said she’s had people crying in her chair after going to unlicensed providers for fillers. She’s seen lumps, bumps, and permanent scarring. In extreme cases, there’s a risk of blindness or stroke, according to research studies.
Davies is outraged that bargain injectables even exist.
“It can cost you a lot more money in the long run, if you have to turn around and fix these things.”
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ABC15 reached out to the provider who Zafirakis said filled her lips.
The woman told ABC15 over the phone that she’s not a nurse and has never claimed to be. She denied using cosmetic injectables.
She said she uses a hyaluron pen, which is a needleless device that uses pressure to push filler into lips. That doesn’t require a medical license in Arizona.
Hyaluron pens carry their own risks.
The FDA in 2021 issued a warning, saying, “The FDA is aware of serious injuries and in some cases, permanent harm to the skin, lips, or eyes with the use of needle-free devices for injection of lip and facial fillers.”
As for Zafirakis, she just wanted to get back to the way she looked before. Two weeks after getting injections to dissolve lip filler, she returned for a follow-up visit.
Amburgey, the registered nurse, ran her gloved hands over the lips, looking carefully.
“Luckily, we were able to dissolve it,” she said. “So the lumps and painful bumps that she had in her upper lip are no longer there.”
Zafirakis hopes sharing her story will help others avoid the pain of a similar situation.
Medical experts offer these additional tips:
- Don’t go to a house for cosmetic injectables; choose a med spa, clinic or business location.
- Get the person’s first and last name who will be doing the procedure and make sure they are licensed to do cosmetic injectables.
- You can check whether your provider is a registered nurse in Arizona by going to the nursys.com website. You can check licenses for doctors and physician assistants by going to the Arizona Medical Board website.
- Ask how much training the provider has had in cosmetic injectables and how often the person does these procedures.
Email ABC15 Investigator Anne Ryman at: anne.ryman@abc15.com, call her at 602-685-6345, or connect on X, formerly known as Twitter, and Facebook.
