This is the story of how I got my lobes to 7/16". I guess I should start at the beginning. I had my left ear pierced when I was about 15 at some store in a mall, with a gun. About a month later it was so badly infected that I had to struggle just to take it out. A year and a half later I was now 17, and I had just taken out my tongue ring. I wasn't happy about that, because now I had no mods at all. So I went down to a piercing shop that shall remain nameless and got my left lobe pierced again, this time with a 14ga circular barbell. A couple of months later I returned to get the right one done as well.
At A Glance Author Freddy Knockout Contact freddyknockout@hotmail.com IAM xFreddyKnockouTx When A year ago Artist Jen Studio Adrenaline Location Montreal, Qc, Canada Skip ahead another 2 years. My then-girlfriend Tasha shows up to college with a taper pin. Just a tiny one to get from 20ga to 14ga, but I was intrigued none the less. We then headed down to my favorite piercing place, Adrenaline. As we walked around the store, I passed by the counter that had the plugs and flesh tunnels in it. I looked at all these gigantic pieces of jewelry, and saw the 7/16" single flared tunnels. I knew right then that that was the gauge I wanted to go to. I showed Tasha, and she was kind of unsure, but told me she'd support me either way.
I discussed my intentions with Jen, one of the owners of the store, and seeing as I didn't have the money to buy jewelry bit by bit, she suggested I buy an 8ga acrylic taper pin. So I did. I went home and pushed it into my right lobe as far as it could go comfortably. That's the key word in home stretching: comfortably. My method for this was I would push it through until it didn't go easily, then slide the o-ring up to meet the lobe, thus holding the taper in place. Then the next day, I'd try and push it a bit more. Sometimes it wouldn't budge, but then other times, I'd get another millimetre or 2 down the taper pin. The pin itself was 2", or about 40mm long, so it took a while to get it all the way.
After I got it all the way through, I kind of chickened out, and put my 14ga ring back in. I left it that way for almost 2 months, and then the urge came back. So I started all over again.
After 3 weeks, I had gotten the taper all the way through again. I waited another week and went back to the shop to get the next taper pin. I bought the 0ga taper, and didn't think it looked all that big. Then I took out the 8ga taper. Wow. I was floored at how much I was going to be stretching this time. But I knew I wanted it. I still really liked the look of those 7/16" tunnels. So I went back home, put the 8ga taper into my left ear, and got started with the 0ga taper on my right ear. This one took a lot more time to get through. I remember finishing the 8ga on my left ear, and I still took another week before the right one was at 0ga.
Once I finished with the 0ga in the right ear, I went back to Adrenaline to get the next pin. When I got to the store, I was with that same then-girlfriend Tasha, and we started talking with Jen at the store again about my next stretch. Jen looked at my lobe, thought about it a bit, and said that she could get me to 7/16" right then and there. I talked about this with Tasha, and she said if I did it now, she would pay for the tunnel. That was reason enough to do it, because $60 Canadian was a lot of cash. So I filled out the forms, and Jen prepared everything.
I went into the piercing room, sat down in the chair and Jen began to prep me. She first cleaned off my ear, then put some sort of a lubricant all over and inside the lobe. She applied the lubricant to the clear acrylic taper pin as well. She used an acrylic one because I was going to buy it after to stretch my left lobe, and a steel one would have been too expensive and too heavy to wear for a prolonged period on the other lobe. Jen then asked me if I was ready. I said yes. She put the end of the taper pin in my ear, and told me to take a deep breath. She would push it through as I exhaled. So I inhaled deeply, and then...
OWWWWWWWWWWWW!
So that hurt a hell of a lot more than I had expected, but it was done. Jen then pushed the steel tunnel plug into the lobe. I got up and stomped around the room for a while, cursing and wincing. But it was in, and it looked great. I thanked Jen, and Tasha paid her for the procedure. We went back to Tasha's place for a while. I got started on getting the 7/16" taper into my left lobe.
So in all, it took me about 3.5 months to get from 14ga to 7/16". I've been told several times that I did it way too fast, but the only problem I've encountered is in the right lobe, which is a little loose, probably because I went from 0ga to 7/16" in about 1 second. It's not loose enough that the tunnel falls out or anything, it just doesn't hug the jewelry as tightly as my left lobe. I'm not saying that everyone can stretch their lobes this fast, and I'm not recommending that anyone else try doing it this fast. I just know that I did it this way and it worked fine.
It's been over a year that I've had them now, and I have no regrets as far as having done it. I've debated going bigger a few times, but I like the fact that my lobes still look like earlobes. They aren't stretched past their natural limits. Which can look amazing as well, but it's not what I want for myself. I just ordered a pair of Chatke-Kok 7/16" wood plugs from BMEshop and I can't wait to put them in.
Feel free to message me with any comments or questions.