From Gunned To 8ga in Two Weeks
At A Glance
Author anonymous
Contact flyingmonkeymacaroni@hotmail.com
When A month ago
Artist me
Studio my bathroom
Location boston
The first time I ever saw a stretched ear lobe, my mom and I had to sit down and try to figure out how the hell they did that. He was in a music video, so we figured that it was just special effects. A few weeks later, I saw a guy at a local record store with ears that were only about 4 or 6 ga, but at the time I thought they were huge and gross. Who would want to be able to see through their ears, that's disgusting!

Flash forward about 4 years. I was watching the video for "Total Immortal" by AFI and I thought that Davey Havok looked DEAD SEXY with his stretched ears, but I never thought of doing it myself. It wasn't that I didn't want to or was even afraid to, the thought just never crossed my mind. During the next few months, I noticed some of the people at shows and around town who had really interesting body mods, and so one boring little night I decided to search around the net for some eye candy. (no not THAT kind) I happened to stumble upon BME, and was really intrigued by the ear stretches.

I showed my boyfriend some of the more interesting photos, and he said that he thought I'd look good with them. So I thought about it, and after a few days I decided that I'd become bored with the way I looked from the neck up. I got bored quickly with hair dye, because my hair is brown, and my mother wouldn't let me bleach my hair so my $10 bottles of hair dye would last me two days. I'd had my ears gunned (EEK!) when I was in fourth grade, but during seventh I stopped wearing earrings because they were a pain to clean, and I didn't like the girly-ness of hoops and sparkly jewels.

So my decision? Stretch my ears. I read hundreds of experiences on BME to find the best method. The best (cheapest/ quickest/least painful) seemed to be the wrapping-electric-tape method. But there was still the HUGE obstacle of asking my parents. My mom was okay with it, after finding out about what I had researched and how I knew about what I was doing. However, my dad is not as easily convinced as my mom. The first time I asked, I said "I was wondering if I could make the piercings in my ears bigger so that I could wear different types of jewelry." "You mean you wanna make it so you can see through your ears like those freaks at the music store" "Ummmm...no?" After a few minutes of talking, and showing my dad some of the smaller ear stretching pics on BME, I got a big, fat, disappointing NO. But, after talking it over with my mom, we decided to approach my dad again. I asked him, and he said that the answer was the same as it was before. My mom butted in and said, "you know , with all the things you see on the evening news about what some kids are doing, we should be happy that the only thing she wants to do is put a big hole in her ear. She's a moral person, she doesn't do drugs, she doesn't smoke or drink, she gets (sorta) good grades, I think that she's earned the right to experiment with the safe stuff." So my dad said yes. WOO!!!

On the first day, I got out my old studs that I'd been pierced with. I put those through to make sure that they fit, and then put a few layers of electrical tape around it. It didn't hurt too bad, just a little pinch. I left it in for about 2 days, and then put some more on. I kept doing this for about a week, and then the tape was getting wider than the studs and kept falling out. So I found a Capri-Sun straw and used that. After about one or two layers of tape, it was equal to an 8ga. Today, I went to my mom's office and fished around for stuff to wear, because I've heard that straws have a tendency to collapse easily. I found some book rings, which are also 8ga. I'm putting those in after I take a nice, long, hot bath tonight to loosen up my ears because they look like they might be a little more difficult to put in. When they get bigger, I'll write another experience, but I was very eager to write this to get more access to the rest of BME and find out what else is out t here. If you have any questions, don't be afraid to email me. I don't bite! Happy stretching!


Disclaimer: The experience above was submitted by a BME reader and has not
been edited. We can not guarantee that the experience is accurate, truthful,
or contains valid or even safe advice. We strongly urge you to use BME and
other resources to educate yourself so you can make safe informed decisions.


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