Ok, so since I was about 15 years old I have been interested in body modification. In fact, as long as I can remember I have always loved the sight of heavy gauged ears. Anyway, when I was 13 I got my left ear pierced at your typical store in the mall. I took very good care of my ear, but was never truly happy with the ear piercing (it never felt that important to me that is). I wanted to go bigger, I wanted to have a "ear to remember"; furthermore, I wanted to have a piercing for myself. So one day when I was in high school, I went up to a few kids who had some nicely stretched ear lobes and asked them where and how I could do that. At that time high school school was not fun for me, I had a lot of friends but was typically anti-social and refrained from many school and out of school activities. They told me that they did it themselves, and it quite frequently got infected. In fact, one of them told me not to bother. But I was determined... About 3 years later I was determi ned to stretch my ear. I went to the mall and bought a pair of lobe stretching claws that went from an 18 to 8 gauge. So when I got home later that night I began my work. I took the claw inserted it in my ear but after many attempts I was dumbfounded. The claw wouldn't budge, it just wouldn't move, I tried pull the whole or stretching it and pushing it in more...nothing. The next morning I woke up with a very sore ear and a small bump inside it! I immediately went to the doctor and was told that I had formed a keloid, not from stretching (yet), but from the gun. In fact, the earring went in on an angle, repetitive trauma eventually started the formation of a keloid. So later when I got home, I put my original earring back in and began to wonder how I could stretch my ear, yet again.
At A Glance Author PiLoT Contact PiLoT@bme.anon When N/A Studio New Life Location Alexandria, Virginia I had previously read on some personal web sites, that there are weights you can attach to your ear, etc... But I hadn't a clue where to find these weights; nonetheless, utilize them. So I started thinking and finally ended up take 2 14 gauge captive bead rings I had purchased from the store, and hung them off of my stud. I taped the ends, and left them there for about a week and a half. After the first couple days my ear became sore, and began to appear red and warm at the touch. So the next day I decided to take the earring out and see if I could actually fit one of my earrings in... When I took the earring out there was no problem at all, in fact I was able to put one of the 14 gauge captive bead rings in my ear, and the next weekend began stretching my ear with the claw. After I had stretched my ear to some point, my ear whole was big enough so the earrings would avoid the keloid formation. However, although I was delighted, I did not realize I was creating horrible comp lications that further required me to leave all earrings out of my ear. Since the keloid was at the top of the piercing, in the beginning bigger earrings or curved ones for that matter could not fit in (by the way, the keloid was inside the whole). However, when I got up to a certain size, the earrings were able to go in the whole, and fit under the actual keloid. However, the constant rubbing created irritation and the keloid only got bigger, and my ear became yet again, infected. So I was off to the doctor.
When I got to the doctor my ear was blood stained and filled with puss. Thus, the doctor had me take out the earring and decided he would lance my ear to rid the puss and infection and hopefully eliminate the keloid by injecting some form of steroid to soften it up. So, they numbed up my ear, and simply cut a straight line down and opened up the infection and 30 minutes later I was on my way home with a bandaged ear and bad attitude. I would not wear an earring for 3 years after that.
When I was 21 I became familiar with BME, and began to read up on a lot of valuable information that would of helped me tremendously with my first ear piercing and attempted stretching. But a few months later I began to hear of a process called dermal punching. Actually at that time I was in college, and was training to become an advanced emergency medical technician, and had heard of these punches, although I never knew they could be used for piercing. So one day I went to a piercing and tattoo studio called New Life Tattoo's in Alexandria, Virginia and asked what they thought of it and what they could do. The first guy never had heard of it and the second vaguely remembered hearing the idea somewhere but had no clue where to get the equipment. That was the case with many other shops, so I waited. A year later I went back for a tattoo on my arm, and they had in fact acquired these biopsy punches. I asked them how much it would cost, how safe it was, etc... and a week later was on my way to get my lobe punched.
I ended up deciding on a 6g dermal punch and a black titanium flesh tunnel for the jewelry. Anyway, he sat me down in another room, and got all the stuff ready and cleaned everything off. He measured my ear with something first, then removed the jewelry and punch from a little envelope and shined a flashlight through the back of my lobe, checking for any veins or vessels (thats what he told me). He marked my ear with a surgical skin scribe, clamped my ear down, and then took the punch and simply pushed it on my ear lightly to create a imprint of where it would go. Next he said that he would completely pierce the ear and told me on to exhale. He counted 1...2...3... and did it... The actual punching felt very similar to the initial marking with just a higher degree of pain, but nothing unbearable, in fact it had a similar feeling as to when you stretch your. Anyway, he simply cleaned my ear off, wiped all the blood away and then put in the new earring. It was BEAUTIFUL! He pu t some cotton balls are the ear and had me sit down for a couple minutes and wait for the bleeding to stop (I was his last customer of the day), gave me the care instructions, and sent me on my way.
On my way home I kept getting distracted when I would see my new ear piercing in my rear view mirror, not good. To date, I love my ear piercing just as much as the day I got it done. In fact, it healed perfectly with no problems or keloid, and since a 6g was the size I wanted my left lobe to be at since the beginning, I have had no yearn to stretching or mess around with it any more. Personally, I believe a lobe dermal punching is the easiest, and quickest way to stretch you ears. The process is quick, and the pain is relatively low (and I have a especially low pain threshold). Furthermore, it eliminates many problems that emerge during stretching, and gets you where you want to be in a day. I am thinking about getting my right ear done, either with an 8 or 6g and definitely plan to have it done via a dermal punch.