I had my ears gunned at the age of 10. It took me a week to build up the courage to go get them done, it then took me a further 2 years before I even had the courage to take them out. I had to remove them during PE at my secondary school so I had to learn how to take them in and out. It actually made me feel ill the first few times I took them out, but after a while it was fine and I could change jewellery to my hearts content.
At A Glance Author Emma Contact emmarushforth@hotmail.com IAM mekofairy When A month ago Artist Paul Studio Pro body piercing Location Bradford Just over a year ago I became more and more involved in the body modification community and had my first body piercing, which was my nipple. Followed over the next year by various other piercing. I have always really liked the look of stretched ears ever since I was about 11 when I had seen one of my parents friends with his ears done. The first time I ever saw Phil's ears I was a little scared but nonetheless in awe that he could actually do that to his body! Anyway on my journey into body modification I soon got bored with my standard lobes and decided to go up a size, so first came the 1.6mm, closely followed by 2.0mm, then 2.4mm. All these stretches had been relatively tiny and easy and were no bother at all. Then I made the biggest jump ever and my god did it hurt!
I had been at a pre-interview open day at Bradford university and I had met up with Sam who studies at the university. We wandered down into the city in the pouring rain and headed for Pro piercing in the city centre. We got there and I was immediately hit with that familiar smell of disinfectant and just that general piercing shop smell that I have know come to love! Paul, the piercer was talking to some other customers so I just had a look at the display cabinets containing all the jewellery, and chatting with Sam, trying to decide what gauge I wanted to go up to. On asking Paul if he stocked 4mm tunnels (that was the size I wanted to go to), he said that he only stocked 5mm. With this information I decided that I would go up to 5mm, doubling the current size of my ears. With a little extra encouragement from Sam I told Paul I'd go up to 5mm. I figured it was a now or never situation!
I went into the piercing room where Paul prepped up the equipment, getting out the tapers from the autoclave bags and putting the (what I thought to be) 5mm tubes into the mini autoclave so they'd be ready to pop into my ears. I took out the teeny weeny acrylic plugs I already had in and Paul lubed up the tapers and asked me if I was ready. He positioned the taper into my ear and started to push and to tell him when I felt the skin go tight. I did and he then sprayed freeze spray on my ear and pushed the taper the rest of the way through. OUCH, OH MY THAT HURT! (OK so maybe the language was a little more colourful than that!) He left the taper for a few minutes so the skin of my ears had time to relax before he attempted to put in the jewellery. Putting in the jewellery was possibly the worst part of the whole experience! It was a little tricky to say the least! But eventually the little bugger went in. Then came the second ear (my "bad" ear) He followed the same process, ta per in until the skin became tight, spray freeze spray and whack it the rest of the way through. This one was even more painful! Due to a dodgy healing in this ear there seemed to be a little excess scar tissue and in the words of Paul, it was like pushing a taper through rhino hide (pleasant huh?! it's a good job I'm not easily offended!!) After this comment and much teasing from both Paul and Sam about how I kicked my legs up when ever he touched my ear, he followed the tube through into my ear when he removed the taper. I felt like someone had held a lighter under my ear! I was handed a mirror and asked how I liked my new 6mm ears...SILENCE...What?!?!
Yes the cheeky bugger had put 6mm tubes in instead of the intended 5mm. So I finished up with 6mm ears, 2mm bigger than I had originally intended! But I wasn't too bothered to be honest! I LOVED them!!! They are fab, and provide much amusement to my friends who have a habit of seeing what objects from their pencil cases can fit through my new holes. They stayed swollen up for about a week or so, but with a bit of TLC they de-puffed and they are now doing well. As much as I love the 6mm holes I now have, I don't recommend doing this big a jump unless you know that your body can take it, because such a large jump can result in problems such as ripping or blowout during the healing process. Luckily my skin could handle it and I have experienced no problems whilst healing them. I like them as they are at the moment, but who knows when the 'itch' will strike and I'll want to guage up again. All I know is it WILL NOT be that much in one go!!!!