At A Glance
Author	kay
Contact	kay@bme.anon
When	Three months ago

I decided about, three months ago I wasn't satisfied with the current look of my ears. I have 10 holes in my ear, 6 in the right 4 in the left; 4 of which I did myself. I've always had a high pain tolerance, so it was easy to stretch my first holes to a 00 gauge size. I also have 14 gauge rings in every hole including the 3 cartilage holes I did myself.

With this, I decided I needed a change. For me, stretching and piercing my ears myself was addicting, and the more I changed my ears, the more I wasn't happy and wanted more. So I decided to try and stretch my cartilage piercing on my left ear. I wasn't sure how I was going to do this, so I decided that using a taper would be my best bet. I had previously purchased a 2 gauge taper for my lobes, so i figured i'd just use this.

I easily fit a 14 gauge captive in, which made me VERY happy. Next a 12 gauge, then a 10, which all went in easily without the use of a taper. The 8 was not going to go in, so I pushed the taper in slightly, and the 8 soon went easily in. These stretchings all occured over about a week span of time.

Going up to the 6 gauge was definatly more difficult than the previous, but still no major hardships. In order to distinguish where on the taper I had to push to, i took an o ring off the size i was going up to, in this case a 6. I put the o ring on the taper and moved it up until it appeared to be the same size and the o ring on the 6 gauge itself. Once there, I moved it up slightly. This helped me to know when to stop pushing the taper to.

It became more difficult with larger sizes, but using the taper, lubrication, and sliding it in a littler more each time was working awesome. When I got to the 6 gauge and was about to stretch again, I prepared everything I would need and sat down in my living room. I took the taper, pushed it in slightly, and my ear began to hurt very badly. I sat in the living room with the taper sticking out of my ear, and every 10 minutes or so, I pushed a little more. I then realized that when I pushed it in and waited for it to stop throbbing, my ear was pushing the taper out. Hmm, I got another 4 gauge o ring, and after I slid the taper in more, I slid the o ring up a little. This solved the problem, and soon enough I was at the point in the taper where I had put the first o ring, to let me know where I should stop. I slipped the taper out, and the 4 gauge went in easily, with minimal pain. I went from an 8 gauge to the 4 in about a month.

I decided i wanted to go up to a 2 gauge in my cartilage. I tried one day to do so, and I got the taper through surpisingly easy, probably because I had the 4 gauge in for over a month. The taper went through easily, but every time I took it out and tried putting the plug in, it wouldn't go. I got frustrated, and also remembered promising to a coach of mine that i wouldn't go any bigger up there, so i stopped and put the 4 gauge back in. I figured I would just wait until the season is over to put the 2 in, and i won't have to worry about anybody else but me.

I've read that stretching lobe piercings should be done over a two months time span, each. I think it depends on the person. Listen to your body. Tapers are a magnificent invention, and I think they should always be used. if you experience some pain, I think that's okay, depending on the amount of pain. If your about to cry, it may be better to wait a little and stretch later. If you stretch and your ears get infected and nasty, go back down to your last size, wait, and try again. Just listen to your ears (ha ha), pay attention to the way they respond to the changes you make, if you do that, you'll most likely be fine.

I'm not an expert, so please don't write to me on how you took my advice and had a horrible experience. I'm just writing based on my experience and everybody is different.

I'm very happy with my experience and am looking forward to my next home body modification. I don't have the money to get piercings professionaly done, so for me it's easier to do it myself. I don't recommend this to anybody, i have an extremely high pain tolerance making it easier do. I'm looking forward to doing something in the near future, because I'm already bored. I'm thinking of maybe doing an orbital in the little room still left on my right ear, and then possibly my left tragus :)

Thanks for reading! enjoy