For as long as I can remember, I've loved the look of stretched ears. Especially very large ones with clear or tunnel plugs in them so that you could see through them. When I was 15 (almost 16) I decided that I wanted to stretch my ears. But I had no transportation at the time, and new that my dad would never take me. So I found assorted things around my house (thumbtacks, toothpicks, etc) that were tapered that I could put in my ears to make them bigger. At first, the stretching was very painful. This was mainly because I was basically taking myself from a 20 to 14 gauge in one flail swoop. Bad idea. Several times when taking out toothpicks to clean my ears, I would find both dried and fresh blood on my ears and on the toothpicks.
At A Glance Author Chaos Contact Chaos@bme.anon When A month ago Artist Alex Studio ACME Body Piercing Location Cincinnati, Ohio I decided enough was enough, and bought 14gauge hoops. I put them in, and let my ears heal. Then with smaller, standard-sized (about 18 gauge) hoop earrings, and one ear at a time, I worked my way up to a 12. At that point, I bought my first pair of plugs. They were surgical steel 10gauge plugs, nothing fancy. But I was thrilled nonetheless. I couldn't wait for my ears to heal so I could put them in. What I didn't realize was that these plugs had screw-on backings, and were externally threaded. The grooves on the jewelry tore my ears to shreds, and I was in pain for about 3 days and dealing with dried blood every time I cleaned my ears. I also began noticing a smell. So I freaked out and asked several of my friends if this was normal. They told me the blood wasn't, but the smell was completely normal and didn't really go away at any point.
I had been stretching my ears completely on my own for about a year and a half and was completely happy with it. After my 10-gauge despair, I decided it was time I took it to a professional. I didn't know much about ACME, but a friend of mine worked there, and my boyfriend had gotten his septum pierced there for a good deal, so I decided to go to ACME instead of looking around for other places.
When I walked in, the owner automatically recognized me from being in a few months earlier with my boyfriend. I told him I was interested in some stretching, and we looked at plugs. He asked what size I was at, and I told him I was a little bit above a 10g, because I had been doing it on my own. He said that we would probably only be able to go to an 8 that day. I said it was fine with me, and picked out hot pink acrylic captive rings as my new jewelry.
We went into one of the piercing rooms and he got his equipment ready. Two metal tapers, gloves and a lubricant. He asked if I had ever gotten professionally stretched before, and as soon as I said no he stopped what he was doing to explain the entire process to me before doing it just to make sure I knew exactly what was going to happen. After I told him I understood everything, he opened the first taper (which would take me from a 10 gauge to an 8), put the lubricant on it, and slid the smaller end into my ear. He stopped and told me it would feel warm and tingly, and when I got that just to say something and we could stop for a little and wait for the feeling to go away, then go and finish.
I was sitting, waiting to feel it when I heard him say "well there goes 8 gauge, care to try for 6?" So of course since I was excited about the stretching already, I said yes. He got different tapers, and asked what kind of plugs I wanted. I told him I'd be fine with just black acrylic ones. He went to get them and then we started the stretch again. I still didn't feel anything until the taper was almost completely through, but it was immense. So we stopped, my boyfriend took some pictures (we photograph and document all of our modifications) and then as soon as the sensation had gone away, we finished. My second ear stretched quickly with almost no feeling at all, which I thought was odd. But he reassured me that it's completely normal for one ear to stretch easier than the other. I had finished my first professional stretch in only 15 minutes, including the 7 I spent deciding on jewelry and discussing my earlier methods with the owner.
He told me if I wanted to go bigger, to come back in about a month. So of course, a month later I was there. The owner was my stretcher again, and this time I picked out red acrylic plugs, wanting a different color each time. I sat down in the chair and he began to stretch my ear, but this time it started to hurt much faster than the first time. He noticed this too, and looked at the back of my ear. My scar tissue had dislodged! I had no clue what this meant, but he explained it to me, corrected the problem, and put my 6 gauge jewelry back in. My ears hadn't fully healed, because I had been sick for 2 weeks. So when I went back, they weren't as ready as they should have been.
So I let my ears heal, and continued going to ACME in about 1-month intervals. Before I knew it, I was at my goal of 00 and had enough money to buy the stainless steel single-flare tunnel plugs I had been eyeing since the first time I went there. This time, my stretcher was Alex, the same guy who had pierced my boyfriend's septum several months before. He asked me if one ear stretched easier than the other and I said that my left ear was usually the difficult one. I took out my jewelry and Alex said, "Alright, well we're going to do the pain in the ass first."
I braced myself for almost immediate pain, because my stretch to 0 took 20 minutes just for that ear because it's so stubborn. I felt Alex going about it slowly, and closed my eyes to wait for the warm feeling of blood pooling in my ear lobes. But I didn't feel it, and before I knew it he was putting the jewelry into that ear and saying "Well that was boring". I laughed and said, "Yeah, actually it was." He asked if I'd like him to do a little song and dance for the next one, saying that he took requests and I told him that he could, but only if he wanted to. He finished the stretching, gave me a discount of about $5, and told me he looked forward to seeing us again.