Childhood ear holes get a facelift

At A Glance Author Stretch Artist I shoved the metal through... Studio Sachs Location Albuquerque, NM

I have had my lobes pierced since I was a child. Eight symmetrical, standard, didn't-know-any-better-at-the-time, 18ga stud piercings up the lower rims of my delicate ears -- each lobe topped off with a beautiful ear cuff. I always thought of my ears piercings as a "project"...even long before I ever knew what a project was. I always added multiple rings in the holes...just so I could wear additional jewelry...not for the purpose of intentional stretching. Intentional or not, stretching happens when you put fill holes with more and more metal.

After reading, researching, and fantasizing about lots of different mods here on BME, I realized that I could associate industry terms with what I was doing to my ears...and explain intelligently to a piercer what my ultimate goal is. I realized that what I wanted was an orbital in each ear (upper holes) and two graduated talons in each (lower holes). I needed an easy way to measure the gauges my holes were and the distance between the ones I wanted to link up...so I headed into town in search of a piercing palace and a knowledgeable professional willing to answer my questions.

I arrived and was immediately and warmly greeted by a barrage of heavily modded friendlies. The shop is bright and they sport a large variety of jewelry. My eyes caught a group of talons that I thought would look remarkably attractive in my ears -- but I proceeded with my questions. I asked if the piercers would please measure the distance between the holes in my ears, so that I may create the orbitals...and to help me determine at what gauge they currently are...so that I could purchase the appropriate sized jewelry.

The piercer was a sport and waltzed me to the back room. He thought it would be best to first determine my gauges. I guess I didn't expect that he really had a tool to do this. He took it out of the autoclave sleeve and showed me that it was a taper with gauge measurement markers on it. He proceeded to gently push it into each of my holes and jotted down the respective gauges for each. Turns out that I had stretched the four lower child-hood piercings to 10ga, and the others were all 12ga. Not bad, but I realized that I wanted them bigger than that. Not too huge that I would go past the "point of no return" and wind up with a potential "cat-ass" lobe...but large enough to put some interesting jewelry in. Fortunately, I am techno-geek, so ear-stretching will fit into my life quite easily.

Before I knew it, he has whipped out the calipers and determined the distances between the holes I would be linking, and showed me jewelry options for the orbitals. I chose two circular barbells. I love the way they look...the smooth, round semi-circle in front and the nice balls behind my ears...it's a neat look. The talons for the lower holes became a different story. The ss talons that had caught my eye when I arrived to the shop were the only ones they had. Being somewhat impatient -- I bought them anyway -- even though they started at 8 gauge and tapered to 2 gauge. They are beautiful...silver, shiny, smooth...I didn't care that they were the wrong gauge to begin with...they were going in my ears that night.

Seated in my very soft, over-stuffed, leather chair with my feet propped up on matching ottoman -- I lubed up two of the talons (and my ear lobes) with olive oil and proceeded to shove the metal through the holes. I felt the sting and heat grow more and more intense as I slowly worked them in...resting every few tugs while I listened to some great music. It was really turning me on. I didn't know that stretching a piercing could feel so erotic. It felt so satifying to pull that talon through my ear...little by little...over the course of three hours, my two bottom-most holes stretched to 2ga. I was shocked at how easy it happened. I was very relaxed -- I went super slowly -- and kept my mind focused on visualizing the holes accepting the jewelry. It was so easy, that I spent some time looking for new jewelry (in bigger gauges) online before I decided to post my experience here. I want to go bigger! I know that it will be to my advantage to allow my lobes to rest at 2ga before I attempt anything else. So, I stopped for now. I can't believe how different my ears look now. The jewelry choice and placement in my ears looks really good.

This is addictive...Stretching feels really good...I am newly aware of a fabulous sensation that I could seriously get used to.