Right now, being some months off of being 18, I have only my left eyebrow pierced and my ears gauged. And it's the stretched ears that are my pride and joy, especially since I did them myself. (I admit I did it in a very, very stupid way, and DO NOT go through this process. It's just fun to talk about. I'm lucky my ears didn't fall off.) It was only last year around Christmas that I had even _acknowledged_ the very idea of gauging, as I didn't really think of those crazy bike messengers in Boston with huge, obnoxious holes. A girl who is a grade higher than me suggested it to me. She said that she had stretched her ears, but let them shrink back as she only gauged hers to a 10g. I was/am obsessed to get piercings, and this seemed like it could calm me for the time being, especially since the process could be reversed, and I was sick of my tiny 20g ear holes constantly closing on me.
At A Glance Author Nikki Contact kozmikjester420@hotmail.com When A year ago Artist me Studio my friend's bedroom Location boston, ma During winter break, I went to Harvard Sq. with a friend of mine to find some tapers. I felt like I did enough asking and research to actually try it. Unfortunately, Harvard Sq. had none, and neither did anywhere I could find in Boston, and neither of us had the means to order stuff offline. Sitting in my friend's room that night, dejected after getting myself psyched up, I thought my new obsession would recede in time. Then I saw that my friend had a big pile of hairpins sitting on her shelf. I didn't know my threshold for pain, really, but asked her if I could use them anyway. I grabbed about 4 of them, and sat in front of her mirror. I took my earring that was in there--a nice sturdy one--and pulled on it, slowly increasing pressure. I hardly had space to stick in a hairpin, but shoved it through anyway. I felt like I pierced my ear all over again, something I was used to as my holes closed a lot. My friend cringed at the redness of my ear, but I proceeded to the next lobe, and then had an earring and two hairpins sticking out of each earlobe.
Hiding it was impossible, and my mom asked what the hell was hanging off my ear. When I said it was just some hairpins, she dismissed it as me being weird. The next week, again in my friend's room, I took some more hairpins and kept sticking them in my earlobes to make the hole bigger. When I decided the hairpins were too much (five in each ear I think...), I replaced it with a multitude of earrings that I had. Two weeks passed, and I decided it was time to get gauged earrings from Claire's (the closest and cheapest I could find). I bought 14g's and spent about a half hour forcing them through my ears. My goal the whole time was to go to a 2g and stop there, so I was becoming impatient with the waiting. The next week I got 10g's (skipping over 12g's) and again forcing them through, with some pain and petroleum jelly involved. Claire's had no bigger than 10, so I stopped stretching until I found Chameleon in Harvard Sq. My next size was a 6g, and I found some nice, spiral earrings that I adored. And the plus was that they were like tapers in starting small, and ending thick. Now my mom was noticing the size difference in my ear, but didn't press me about it. I wanted to keep the spiral look, and thankfully Chameleon had 2g's just waiting for me to get.
The 2g's stayed in my ear for a long time, as I thought I was done. They were in there for about 6 months from February to August. Right before school started up, I decided that I'd go one more up, and then stop. I found black spiral earrings that have white polka dots on them, and the perfect size--00g. These have stayed in my ear since August, except for the taking out and cleaning of my lobe and the earrings. It seems that they're the only damn things people notice about me, but everyone so far has loved them. My mom let me off after some remarks, but admitted she liked the look, and knows that I really want to be pierced more, so she let it off, as I wasn't complaining to her about that. My old-fashioned aunts and uncles didn't like the look at first, and my conservative cousins think that I'm either really cool, or fucking crazy. My grandmother says I'm cute, though. I plan on getting plugs, just for a little big of a change.
In the end, I'm happy with it, and it took no time in retrospect, as I didn't follow the rules at all. My ears were only sore for an average of 4 days, and there was no infection or bleeding, which I heard was a risk. I don't recommend doing it my way at all, I feel like I lucked out. The only drawback to me doing it quickly and uncaring is that my ear holes are wrinkled when the jewelry's out. (A guy I talked to in Harvard Sq. warned me against what he called the "butt hole look." Oh well.) And I know I keep saying I carried it out in a stupid way and that you shouldn't attempt my way, but I'm not saying that stretching is bad. On the contrary, it's the best thing I've done so far, and I love how it turned out.
Still, stretching is virtually painless, looks cool, and has some cool jewelry to go along with it, so why not try it if you want to? Just be obsessively clean about it, or have it professionally done, I guess. One problem is it gets damn addictive.