I'm not really sure why I finally started stretching lobes. I had my eyebrow pierced back in '99, as a celebration on high school graduation and finally escaping the dull middle class suburbs of Long Island. The eyebrow looked great for the first year and a half but after a couple years of mild irritation I finally removed it, damaging the CBR in the process and resulting in the permanent closing of that hole this past summer. Now that I think about it, the ring was probably too small in diameter and put some pressure on the bottom hole, aggravating it.
At A Glance Author synaptic slush Contact synaptic slush@bme.anon When It just happened Artist self Studio home Location Boston So I started this final year of college feeling naked, almost like part of my identity was gone. Everyone commented on the loss and seemed to miss the eyebrow ring as much as I did. This, plus a lot of religious and philosophical turmoil that has been brewing and building up over the past year or two is, I think, what finally made me decide to stretch my earlobes. I strongly felt the need to change something about myself. It's frightening to be graduating college with absolutely no idea what to do in the future, especially when you used to think you knew exactly what you wanted to do. Perhaps I felt that if I could influence my physical body, it would give me a little more control over my uncertain life. I didn't know anyone who had done this and my friends found the whole thing kinda weird, with one friend telling me not to stretch them big enough to fit a finger in, but really, who knows what I'll decide to do. I can't imagine wanting them to be enormous though, rea lly I just want to wear pretty tunnels that I can see through. I started by buying circular barbells in every (even) gauge from 16 to 8. I only bought one earring in each size because at first I only wanted to stretch one hole, until my friend convinced me that symmetry would be a better idea. I'm glad I didn't buy pairs though because I saved a ton of money, and it wasn't too obvious that my earrings were different sizes. I got the circular BBs from thechaingang.com, and they are decent. I chose barbells over CBRs because they are easier to change.
I started stretching my right earlobe first, and then when it was time for the next gauge I switched that first earring to my left ear. This was how I stretched the entire time, rotating jewelry from one ear to the other. 16, 14 and 12 gauge were really easy to get in, I didn't need a taper or even any lube, I just slid them in after hot showers. I probably could have skipped gauges at this point but I already had the jewelry and didn't want to hurt myself. My ears were pierced when I was 9 in a doctor's office (with a gun, sometimes doctor's don't know any more than Claire's employees), and I don't ever really wear earrings so it was surprising how easily the 16 gauge slid in. Once I got to 10 gauge I ran into some difficulties though. The earring would not go in no matter how much KY jelly I used or how hard I shoved. And it looked like the back of my hole was getting pushed out of my earlobe. This worried me so I stopped, and looked around at BME to figure out how to open up the hole without hurting myself. I picked up a bunch of info and decided to buy some tapers to keep my ears happier. I ordered some inexpensive tapers at 10, 8, and 6 gauge off of pleasurablepiercings.com, along with a pair of 6 gauge, clear, Pyrex earlets. I definitely recommend the line of liquid glass body jewelry they have here, some of it is so beautiful. Most of it doesn't come in smaller sizes, unfortunately, so I may decide to go bigger eventually just so I can wear this stuff.
So my stretching continued, and every two weeks or so, depending on when I had time, I lubed up a taper and slowly slid it into my ear, sometimes glaring at myself in the mirror with the taper halfway into my ear because it had started to hurt a little. Then I would quickly get the piece of jewelry behind the taper and push it in, shoving the taper out. Sometimes I messed up and the taper would fall out of my ear before the earring was completely in, so I would have to do it again. Usually the process took about 15 minutes, since I would take a break in the middle and walk around my house (I live with 30 other students and they were pretty entertained by this) with the taper halfway through the hole, waiting for the burning sensation to die down a little. Once I pushed a piece of jewelry in over a sink and the taper fell down the drain. I retrieved it using some sticky marshmallow on the end of a chopstick (I am sure this is a crucial detail :P ). Sometimes I rubbed a l ittle olive oil into the hole so that I could play with the jewelry and stretch the hole some more. To get both ears to 6 gauge took almost 3 months. I didn't have any major difficulties once I got the tapers. My ears never ripped or bled. Sometimes they were hot for a few hours after the stretch. Mostly the stretches just hurt a tiny bit, but nothing worse than plucking my eyebrows, certainly not like getting pierced.
A lot of people in their experiences recommend waiting a month or more between stretches, but I didn't find this to be the case. Everyone's body is different, so just stretch when it feels right. Also at bigger sizes you might need to wait longer. Other people recommend getting stretched by professional piercers but this seems to be an unnecessary expense unless you've run into some major difficulties. I really enjoyed doing it on my own, having control over how fast I went and getting to watch myself in the mirror. It made the whole thing really intimate and I felt pretty powerful having so much control over my ears. I really want to stretch the second holes in my lobes to 6 gauge now and bring these first ones to a 4 or 2 gauge. They look great right now though and if you look closely, you can see through them. People take a while to notice them, which can be good or bad. I'm excited to show them to my sisters and mom when I go home for Thanksgiving break because they'll probably all shriek. It will be great.