I've been stretching my lobes for about nine months, and until recently (when I moved out and started attending college) I have been doing it all wrong...
At A Glance Author brandon Contact brandon@bme.anon When Three months ago Artist me Studio area restrooms I used to live in this really small town where stretching piercings was about the most unusual thing that one could do. I only knew one kid who had done it, and that's who I got all my advice from. I assumed that they were just my ears, skin, and that they could always just heal up fine. I mean, skin heals all the time, you know?
So I started my gauging journey with getting my ears pierced in a bathroom with a safety pin. In hindsight this is a bad idea, because there is proper placement for a piercing intended to be stretched, and larger gauges you can start at to make the entire process easier. However, I had no idea what was going on.
So, there I was, with studs in my ears. With all respect to my friend, he did my ear very straight. Much straighter than I have seen gunned piercings (also a horrible idea). My friend said that the first gauge he started at was 10. That's right, from a piercing to a 10 ga. That's really not the best idea, I know a lot of kids do it... but you're going about it all wrong, and if you're in such a hurry, maybe you shouldn't be doing it at all.
I wouldn't really have considered myself in a hurry. I had no clue how long you were supposed to wait on these things. If I had had more money at the time, I probably would have gauged on a weekly basis. Lucky for me, I'm always low on funds. So it was on one fateful night that I decided to gauge my ears with a novelty sized paper clip filed down to a clean point. Honestly, nothing went wrong. I have abnormally elastic skin (like those people on that Ripley's Believe It Or Not show). The "tapers" went through without any resistance, and the next day my ears were fine. Unfortunately, I had put a safety pin as an earring in my second holes, and had a horrible allergic reaction causing my ears to puff up and turn purple. My lobes were so huge that the safety pin was squeezing my ear so tight I couldn't get it out and my CBRs wouldn't even turn.
It was by far the scariest thing that's ever happened to me on my ear modification journey. When I finally iced down my ears enough to lower the swelling/numb them, I took the safety pins out and the infection cleared up in about a week. After this. I kept the second holes in with a pair of proper studs.
I guess I should have taken the hint then that this stuff isn't really supposed to be done with random household items, and in fact for my next gauge I did. Unfortunately, I hadn't quite learned not to skip gauges. My friend had gone from 10 to 6, so I figured, take it one further to 4. I was such a moron. The process didn't hurt at all, but I attribute that to a lot of surgery and therapy in the past building up a tolerance to pain. My right hole bled, but not too seriously. This, unfortunately, didn't get the hint through my head. I left these earrings in until the end of my senior year, and in the meantime gauged my second hole to 10. Again, no trouble, but not the most advisable route.
For graduation, I had to celebrate. I saw some 0 ga flesh tunnels that I really liked. I had to get those in, so a few days before graduation ceremonies, I lubed up the metal tip to a pen and shoved it through followed by the tunnel. This is where I hurt my ear the most, and I have a nice hard spot of scar tissue in my right ear to remind me of my idiocy. These took a really long time to stop crusting over, or what I used to like to call "heal." Don't be fooled, the lack of lymph is only the first step to a properly healed piercing.
I left these in for a good amount of time, until about the end of summer. I was browsing though a body jewelry store when I noticed a really charming pair of 00 buffalo horn earrings that I thought would go really great with the 6 ga plugs I had recently put in my second hole (luckily) without trouble. These 00 plugs were double flared and organic, by no means suitable for a fresh stretch. Especially a stretch completed through excruciating pain and gauged with a Sharpie to accommodate for the flare. This one slightly tore both of my ears, but I thought this was normal. Like I said, I was naive, and regret ever moment of this. I still have a lot of scar tissue in my right ear from these foolish stretches.
Luckily I did a few slightly less foolish things, like use household objects of about 7/16" as earrings for sometime before stretching to 1/2" (finally with a proper taper again! so much easier). I did however use cut down marker caps for earrings, which was a bad idea. While at 7/16" in my first hole, I gauged my second hole to 4 ga. This was remarkably easy, it slid right in. I was so braced for some pain or something that I nearly didn't believe there was a gauge difference from the previous plugs. This is what clued me in to the idea of holes healing and becoming "ready" for the next gauge, so to speak.
My only mistake after this was trying to taper to 5/8" before I realized that 9/16" was an actual size. I screwed my ear up again on that, and ended up letting my second holes close up. They closed completely, something I'm still rather amazed about because of the gauge skipping.
After the failed attempts at 5/8" (they swelled up and started oozing yellow pus and blood non stop, the skin became so dried out that I thought it was going to break), I downsized to 7/16" for a month. This gave my ears a wonderful break, and later I gauged back up to 1/2". Recently I've downsized to 7/16" again and plan on letting them stay like that for about a year so that all the scar tissue can soften up. Vitamin E has become my best friend, and I've learned to love my piercings and what it means to take time to achieve perfection.
I guess the point of this experience is more to teach people. I'm not against self stretching, as it is cheap and relatively foolproof if done correctly. If you're buying jewelry from a piercing studio, get stretched there (it's usually cheap or free, and they take good care of you), but if not go ahead and give it a shot yourself. NEVER SKIP GAUGES! It is such a bad idea, and if you intend on stretching, go ahead and get pierced at a 10 or 8. It really will save you time and money. Make sure to really love your ears, massage them, use vitamin e or jojoba oil, do sea salt soaks and use proper materials. your ears will love you and you'll have healthy, virtually limitless stretching ability.
Luckily, my ears should be fine. I've had them looked at, and the scar tissue is softening. I may have to scalpel upwards due to the low placement of my piercings, but that's no big deal. Just the consequences for my bad actions. I've seen people at college with screwed beyond belief ears, and you really don't want that. Good luck.
-Brandon