I've loved body mods for a while, and decided I wanted to do something. But of course, my fairly conservative mother would not allow it. She did say that I could put as many holes through my ears as I wanted, but I don't really like the look of multiple ear piercings, or just a simple lobe piercing. My mother never specified how big an ear piercing could be, though. I have love the way stretched ears look, and decided that this was what I wanted to do.
At A Glance Author Rachel Contact Rachel@bme.anon When It just happened Artist Brandon Studio Area 51 Location Muskegon, Michigan I didn't know much about the whole process of stretching your ears, so I came to this site and looked at as many pictures and read as many experiences that I could. I also read all the risks, and thought about negative things that people witch stretched lobes experience. So, I decided that I only wanted to go up to 0 gauge at the most, and I would make sure I took my time getting there. I don't want some huge, blown out holes when I'm older. A kid at my school stretched his very fast, and it's blown out and he has a keloid. I don't want that.
So, I approached my mother, and told her all the things I had learned about it. She told me maybe, but only if I wouldn't kick myself later in life for putting big holes in my ears. I told her that it's not like African tribes or whatever (you know, how they stretch their ears HUGE), and showed her some pictures of people with 2ga (2ga is probably where I will stop) plugs in. She said that I could do it.
It's been about a month since I asked her, and we went down to Area 51 in Muskegon yesterday. When I first went in there I noticed that it smelled and looked very clean. We went up to the counter, told the piercer, Brandon, that I wanted my lobes pierced, and he gave us some forms to fill out, and went back and copied my birth certificate, and both me and my mother's IDs. Then he came back and gave me some aftercare papers and sea salt, and discussed them. Piercers must be so sick of saying the same thing so many times, heh. My sister got her ears gunned at Claires a while ago, and the aftercare talk at Area 51 was MUCH more thorough and professional, as expected. It made me very confident since he knew what he was talking about.
Then he asked me to pick out some jewelry. I told him that I wanted to stretch my lobes so I wanted to start big. He discussed a few different things, and we decided on piercing at 10 and immediately stretching to 8. The only thing he had two of in 8ga were some large CBRs, and I'm just not a CBR kind of person. They're too "in your face" for me. I asked him if he had any barbells, and he said the ones that he had were too long for ears. I asked about plugs as well. He said plugs were not good to start with, because they can fall out easily when you sleep, and it's not good for a new hole. So, I decided that I would order some barbells. I didn't want to buy those CBRs, since I hate the way they look, and it would just be stupid not to wait for what I wanted. He told me that they order on Tuesdays and they might be in by the end of next week, but maybe not, due to Christmas.
So, I paid him $50.88 for two barbells, and left. I was a little disappointed, but I was glad that I didn't get the CBRs. Hopefully in a week I'll be able to finish this story!
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It's been two weeks (Christmas related things prevented me from getting down there sooner) and I just got back from getting it done.
I called and asked if they had my barbells, and they said yes. I went down there, and they said they had to sterilize it and it would take an hour. So I left and went to Burger King, and then went home for a little while. After that I went back, and they said that they'd be done in ten minutes. I looked at some magazines in that time, and then it was finally time for me to go in.
I sat down on the table/chair thing (I have no clue what it's called) and was pretty nervous. Brandon introduced himself and his apprentice, whose name is escaping me at the moment. Brandon put on his gloves and got all his stuff ready. He had his apprentice clean my ears while he was doing that. He asked me how big I was going to stretch to, and I said 0 at the most. His apprentice asked where he would mark that, and Brandon did the first ear and his apprentice did the second. I okayed it, mainly because I don't know where it should be anyways.
Then he got the forceps ready and put them on. I've read that these kind of hurt, but they didn't at all. Then he told me to breathe in real deep, and then when I started letting it out, he would push the needle through. He did the right ear first. As I let my breath out, I felt it go through. It didn't hurt at all and was just a small pinch. The needle was followed by a taper. This pinched just a little more than the needle. Then he put the barbell in. None of it hurt as bad as I expected, and I was glad. I actually felt kind of good after it.
Then was the left ear. It hurt more than the right. It was probably because I let my guard down after the first one. I could feel it go through the front layer of skin and then it kind of popped when it went through the back layer of skin. It was just a minor pain, though. Then he put the taper through it, and then the barbell. He changed his gloves (which took a while, they looked like they were sticking and wouldn't go on) and then screwed the balls on. I looked in the mirror, and was happy with them. My mom paid him and then we left. I just realized that I totally forgot about a tip and I feel bad. The next time I'm in there to get some jewelry or something, I'll have to give him a few extra bucks.
I went outside to get to the car, and the cold kind of stung a bit. My ears also started to swell up a bit and get really red. They are hot to the touch as well. When I got home I took some Advil to make the swelling go down, and did a sea salt soak, which felt really nice.
So there you go, my fairly generic experience. I'm excited for them to heal up, so I can start stretching. I'll be sure to write about that when I get to that stage. Thanks for reading.