At A Glance Author soze Contact soze@fork-bomb.com IAM instigator When Six months ago I started keeping this log of my lobe and helix stretches around April 2004. While I expect to keep my stretched pierces relatively small, I hope that this diary will help illustrate that such undertakings, when done properly, are much more of a journey than a fashion statement.
The current plan is laid out thusly:
Right ear: There are seven pierces in this ear, all cascading from the upper helix to the bottom-most lobe. I'd like to range these from 16g at the top down to 4g at the lowest pierce.
Left ear: There are four pierces in this ear; three in the lobe, one in the upper helix. I'd like the bottom three to range from 8g to 4g to match the right ear's bottom-most holes, and the helix to go to 10g because I've fallen in love with a Fractal Creations CBR.
January, 2004
I received a shipment of 18g CBRs and a 3" 18g stainless steel taper. After using them on my cartilage, I couldn't imagine trying to stretch my helices with the 2" mini-tapers. My bottle of Astroglide started living in the bathroom around now. I used really cheap-ass 18g CBRs I bought in a lot off eBay. The beads kept falling out while I slept, so I ended up just bending the rings shut with my fingers.
February, 2004
I got a 3" 16g stainless steel taper and some 16g CBRs. I only put the 16g rings into my lobes, though, because I was planning to get my first tattoo on my birthday.
February 27, 2004
Grandpa croaked back home in Chicago. So much for that plan. Everything awful happens on my birthday.
early March, 2004
Finally got the tattoo. Lost three 18g rings out of my helices, fortunately the fistulae didn't freak out about it too much. I fear The Bump.
late March, 2004
Man, Body Art Forms has kickin deals on 10-packs of CBRs. Why I didn't find them sooner I don't know. My tattoo healed up finally, so I felt confident inflicting some more damage on my body and having it heal well. I put in the shiny BAF CBRs with a 3" taper I had bought from them, and finally tapered in some 16g rings into my helices. I haven't felt anything while putting in larger gauge rings yet. Is it because of the excessive lube, or just because these rings are still so small?
April 11, 2004
Got some bitchin 3/8" circular barbells in 16g and 14g. Changed all my jewelry up. The smaller rings feel wonderful in my helices, and don't get yanked around nearly as much. While I stepped down in steel quality from 316LVM to 316L, the smaller size is far more appropriate for the location and irritation has gone down immensely.
May 17, 2004
I got my shipment from Body Art Forms. Among a couple of pretty 14g buffalo horn pieces, there were also some 12g plugs and a 12g taper I bought on a whim. I stretched up the lowest right lobe piercing just fine; it felt a little tight, but now that it's just sitting around in the lobe it's fine. The left lobe, however...
My left lowest lobe piercing has a somewhat traumatic history. Like most women, all of my ear piercings were initially gunned during a stupid and impulsive adolescence. However, my initial lobe piercings were done when I was 8 so I could wear pearl earrings. This was my own idea at the time. The problem was that I am also a tomboy. While playing hide and seek one day I managed to get my left stud hooked on something and not only yanked the stud out, but pulled the butterfly backing halfway through my lobe. My mom, being the level-headed woman she is, kept her cool and managed to fish the backing out with a pair of tweezers. I let both of my holes close up after that until I turned 14, at which time I decided I just had to get my ears gunned again. The jewelry store lady who did them the second time said that the scar tissue in the middle acted a bit strangely.
Some time later, I had a cheese-cutter type experience where a 20g earring was pulled down a bit through the hole in that piercing. I took out the earring to let the hole heal up a bit, but ended up leaving earrings out of that hole for a little longer than I had intended, and ended up having to poke a 20g wire through that I had buffed a bit on my Dremel. It hadn't closed over in the back, but it was trying to.
So the first three stretches with that hole seemed to go fine. From 20g through 14g, everything seemed fine. But this time, going from 14g to 12g, I had to relube the taper a second time and give it a harder push. The plugs seemed to be a touch larger than the end of the taper, and ohh man did it burn when I got them in! I rinsed my ears off and decided to sit down with my burning lobe for a while. I figured if the burning feeling didn't go down in a couple hours, or if I saw blood, I'd downsize and salt soak the bastard.
No blood, though, and the burning sensation went down in a couple of hours of intensive SimCity playing. I'm not looking forward to tapering up my cartilage after this experience, though. Maybe I'll give that a go tomorrow.
May 29, 2004
Well, that went well! Tonight I just took my left helix up to 14g. The lobe stretch to 12g really scared me, and from what I've read cartilage is even messier to stretch. Just took my left helix up to 14g. I know that doesn't sound like much, but I really had to conquer some nerves after that really burning stretch with the left lobe. The cartilage is pushed out slightly, but not blown out at all by any means, and barely any pain. I took the taper up to where I started feeling resistance, then went and dicked around on IAM for a few minutes while letting the taper follow its own weight through on the lube. The worst part was where I got the taper stuck in my hair while I was trying to follow the jewelry through with it. This stretch has really renewed my desire to complete the ear stretching project.
Damn, one for three tonight. The other two I had planned on stretching just didn't feel ready on the taper. Ah well. Next month, perhaps.June 17, 2004
Bloody hell. The 10gs stung and itched after they went into my lowest lobe piercings on either side. I attempted to take the second lowest lobe on the right to 12g, but even though the taper passed through, the jewelry just wouldn't follow. I was reusing the basic steel plugs from BAF, but they look to be measurably larger in diameter than the end of the taper. Do Industrial Strength and BAF have different ideas as to what a 12g should measure? I'm not sure what to do at this point.
June 25, 2004
I have decided to try something stupid. I've gotten my hands on some 10g circular tapered talons via eBay. I know from my recent horizontal clitoral hood piercing that I heal insanely well, and don't have material reactions aside from coconut products, so I'm going to attempt a "slow" stretching. I figure I'll leave one O-ring at the very end on the large side, and move the tapering one up as my earlobe moves along the taper. Fortunately I have some smaller 12g and 14g O-rings to help out on this.
July 6, 2004
Well, I've just taken out the talons and I've got steel plugs in my ears at 10g now. My ears performed as predicted, in a most amazingly un-bitchy manner, and the talons kept getting stuck in my hair so I decided it was time to go ahead and see if these lobes of mine would be able to handle a jewelry switch. Yep, sure enough they went in just fine. We'll see if it works as well with 8g talons in a few weeks, and then we'll see about purchasing some 14g talons and trying the same technique on the cartilage.
July 21, 2004
Wow, it's Huge Mega Happy Stretching Day, apparently! Got my BAF shipment today. I bought a bunch of 10g stuff for the wedding that I'm Maid of Honor for, so I may only go up to 8g on my lowest lobes, 10g on the rest, and stay there for a while.
I decided to go ahead and try out a steel 14g talon I'd purchased and see if the slower stretching method I experimented with on my lobes would make my cartilage a little happier as well. As it turns out, the talon went through just fine, and nearly slipped out again before I realized what was happening because my fingers were slippery. I took out the talon, looked at it, and compared it to the 16g ring I'd just taken out of that hole. No, it was definitely bigger. Odd. The same hole that had given me such trouble with a proper straight taper a couple of months ago was now just happy to accept a 14g ring on its own. For shits and giggles I decided to try a 14g circular barbell on it; nope, it wouldn't take the external threads, but a CBR went in just fine. Same thing with the second cartilage hole right above it. How odd.
Other than changing out the plugs I'd been wearing in my lower-most two pairs of lobe pierces for 10g CBRs (wow, I've forgotten how heavy actual rings are!), I decided to get started on the rest of the project. I'd lent my straight tapers to a friend, so I might as well try the 10g talons with the slower stretching on my third set of lobe pierces, which were currently at 14g. As expected I've gotten to about midway on the talons on both sides, but these should stretch up just fine. I'll probably lube them before I go to bed to give them some free play so they don't bitch because I moved in my sleep.
Compared to the fresh cartilage stretches in my right ear, the left cartilage stretch is still bitchy. I may just switch out this 1/2" ring for a 3/8" and see if it's just getting irritated from getting knocked around.
July 24, 2004
Motherfucker! I must have done something horrid to my left ear last night when we alumni invaded Psi U for some drunken revelry. The third lobe pierce was sore; not horribly so, but enough to notice it when it got brushed at all. I decided to cut my losses and take the talon out, and try to put in a 12g plug. The 12g plug went in easily; if it complained at all it would have meant downsizing right back to 14g for a month or two. I don't need to damage myself because I'm obstinate. Now if I can just keep my hands away from it during the Healing Itch.
July 29, 2004
Well, after some LITHA therapy (aside from pulling crusties off the rings), my third holes have settled down somewhat. I blame sleeping on the couch, which is much less clean than my bed sheets. For shits and giggles I even stretched my fourth lobe pierce on my right ear up to 12g. So it stands that the first and second lobe pairs are both at 10g, the third lobe pair are at 12g, the fourth lobe pierce on my right ear is at 12g, the one left helix is at 14g, the two lowest right helices are both at 14g, and the topmost right helix is at 16g. Two holes are at their final size according to the original plan, and the revised plan put in place for my friend's wedding is now fully in place. Now I get to buy shiny CBRs with 4mm bead gaps for all of them, and perhaps a twisty barbell for the left helix. Once we get past October, then we shall see where we are at.
I've been asked to stand up at a friend's wedding, and in keeping with her wishes I've decided to put a hold on my stretching for now. It'll be good for me, I think; I'll have some time to contemplate whether I wish to continue this path further. I still think that stretched lobes are beautiful and really fun to have, and I sure as hell don't plan to downsize, but I think I'd like to stay at this size for a while and enjoy it. It's really easy to fall into the trap that stretching is a race, that you'll win some sort of elitism award for having the biggest lobes. If I'm really doing this for me, then enjoying each pierce at each size is more important than that.