I never even wanted my ears pierced, but here I am with my ear lobes freshly scalpelled to 5/8". I first pierced them in a friend's bathroom a year ago while on tour with our band. I just felt like piercing something, and I had just got a bunch of professional stuff and 14g needles, so I did it. Then about a month later my ears weren't doing too well and I realized my jewelry was inferior quality (I had been deceived when I bought them), so I put my implant grade 12g stainless steel cbb from stretching my septum months before in one of my ear lobes, and it healed right up. Proof that the quality of jewelry IS important. So then I put a 10g cbb in that ear, and the 12g in the other ear that still wasn't healed and was still 14g. I never wanted to stretch my ears, I didn't really like the look of it, but then I guess my tastes changed and I kept wanting to stretch the holes. Each time I stretched I didn't really want to go bigger, but whenever I wanted to buy new jewelry I felt like it would be a waste of money to buy the same size I already had, or I found really good deals on the next size up....so I kept getting bigger jewelry.
At A Glance Author julia Contact julia@bme.anon IAM afilmbombs When A week ago Artist Jakk Studio Express Yourself Location Lackawanna, NY
In 6 months I was up to 2g with big stainless steel cbrs in my ears. Then I got one ear up to 0g with an acrylic plug, and the other up to 00g. Then for about 4 months I was wearing the 2g cbrs again because I liked them so much. I realized I couldn't get the 00g plug back in, and that the cbrs were causing scar tissue. Sometime before that I decided I wanted to get my ear lobes scalpelled...mostly just for the experience. My piercer, Jakk was always looking for opportunities to do scalpelling so I talked to him about it and he said he could probably get my lobes up to 5/8". I decided that was good, especially since I had just seen some beautiful dark blue glass 5/8" double flared plugs and wanted them.
Finally, after waiting for months, I went to Jakk's shop 4.5 hours away in Buffalo to get my ears scalpelled and my nape pierced. He had ordered two clear glass single flared tunnels to heal my ears with. But then the day before he told me there would be no power at the shop until 5 pm, but I was going to drive back to Albany after he did my work, and 5 pm was too late, so I told him I couldn't go. I was really disappointed, but I had already waited this long so I could wait a little longer.
Two weeks later I went back to Buffalo and on Sunday January 4th went with my friend Jenny to Jakk's shop. I had already decided I wanted my ears done first. I wasn't too nervous, but then I saw what he was putting in my nape later and that kind of freaked me out (I'll write an experience for that, too). He marked and cleaned my ears, and got ready with everything, then put a clamp on my ear. I didn't expect the cutting to hurt too much, but it was worse than I thought it would be. Suddenly I felt warm blood dripping all over my arm and so I started laughing. It just kept dripping and dripping, and that freaked Jakk out so he hurried up and finished the cutting, ripped the piece of skin off, stuck the taper through, and put the jewelry in. The taper kind of hurt, too. Finally the left ear was done, and it was time to move onto the right. My right ear was different because it had all this scar tissue in it from the 2g cbrs. I had worn glass tunnels for a couple weeks, and massaged my lobe to make the scar tissue go down, and that had worked a little.
Jakk used a different kind of clamp for the right ear and it seemed to make it easier and faster, and there was a lot less blood. I just remember him ripping the piece of skin off, it was a weird feeling. Now both tunnels were in, and Jenny had taken plenty of pictures. I didn't even look in the mirror for a few minutes. When I did, I loved them! It was a pretty big jump....0g to 5/8". I was glad I liked them so much, I wasn't sure what it would look like on me. Luckily I have big ear lobes, so there was plenty of skin to cut.
I then got my nape done and left the shop and went home. Overnight my ears bled on my pillow, and sleeping was very difficult because I couldn't sleep on either side or my back. The next day one ear randomly started bleeding, but stopped after about 20 minutes. It started up a couple more times in the day, also. Now, a week later, they've only bled a couple drops since the day after I got them scalpelled. They itch sometimes, but that's because they're healing. I took the o ring off to clean it, and the tunnel fell out. Looking at the hole without the jewelry was really weird....it was still a little scabbed, and odd shaped.
Healing these has been pretty easy. The best thing I've done, I think, is keeping myself from touching them. Not touching them has prevented them from bleeding a lot, and has definitely helped with the healing. I also suggest a lot of showers, so your ears can soak and all the dried blood and lymph comes off on its own. If you want to see some pictures, they are in the BME Lobe Scalpelling and Cutting gallery (here) and were posted on January 8, 2004. You may need a BME membership to view them.