My first experience with stretched lobes came way back in 2000 or 2001 when I started listening to Incubus. While looking at some pictures of the band, I realized that the lead singer had some weird looking things in his ears. Immediately I was curious. The next day, I went to school and noticed that one of kid in my gym class had some things that were quite similar to the ones I had seen in the pictures. I went up to him and asked him what they were. He informed me that they were called "plugs" and you got them by stretching your piercings. And so the story begins.
At A Glance Author Mike Contact Mike@bme.anon When It just happened Artist me Studio my super cool bathroom Location B-town, WI I had wanted stretched lobes ever since, but I never really thought about doing it until I started seeing more and more people with this mod. So earlier this year I finally got the balls to ask my mom if I could get my ears pierced. She said yes, but wasn't too happy about it.
Now comes the mistake. I hadn't yet stumbled upon the great BME zine, and didn't know that piercing guns were bad. My lobes were gunned at some kiosk at the mall and healed fine, but now I know that I should have went to a piercing studio. The next day my dad came over to pick up my little brother and saw that I had gotten my ears pierced. Long story short, he freaked out, and I tuned him out. The only thing I heard was that he thought I should be 18 before I get any piercings.
I waited four weeks for healing and then got tired of my crappy studs. So I, big surprise, went to Hot Topic and got a pair of 14 gauge black/white marble pinchers. By the time I got home, I was getting anxious to put my new jewelry in. Surprisingly, with relatively fresh lobes my new jewelry slipped in rather easily.
I left those pinchers in for a couple of weeks, and again got tired of them. So I went out and got a pair of 10 gauge stainless pinchers to wear. Because I was skipping a gauge I knew that this stretch would be a bit harder. So to prepare I took a nice hot shower and tried to put my left one in. No luck. I was just about to go and get my 14 gauge pinchers to put back in when I said, "F*** it I'm going to get those damn things in." So I went back into the bathroom grabbed the pinchers and put them through. It was kind of weird because that time they seemed to go in easily.
I went on with my day of school happy, because my ears were almost into the single digits. The next day, I woke up to pain. My right ear was red and swollen. And boy do I mean swollen! Even with my super sweet mop top, I couldn't hide it. All day I kept hearing, "Dude, what's wrong with your ear?" And all I would tell them was that it was swollen. I stuck out the pain, and two days later all of my swelling was gone.
Another four weeks pass and I really want to stretch again. The only problem was that I was flat broke. Then while checking out the Question of the Day section on BME, I found one on taping. So I decided to go for it. I scrounged around my house for some tape, and ended up finding some electrical tape. So I started adding layers every couple days for about a week. After that point I couldn't get my o-rings onto the back of my plugs.
I knew that I was bigger than an 8, so I decided to measure them. I found that I was just under 4 millimeters. So, still being broke, I went to school and asked one of my friend, who was at a 2 gauge, if she had any old 6 gauge jewelry. She said she did, and brought them for me a few days later. I took them home, properly sterilized them with rubbing alcohol, and washed them with soap and water. I put them in and it felt just like adding a layer of tape. There was a little pain at first, but it went away in a few minutes.
Later that day I went to a Battle of the Bands thing that was held in my town. All my friends were checking out my new stainless 6 gauge pinchers and giving me compliments. The next day I took out the pinchers and noticed that I could see through the hole. To me it was awesome, but to my little brother and mom it was gross. That was just a few days ago. I plan to stretch further, but only to a 2 gauge. That is my goal for now, but I most likely will go bigger because stretching is like cigarettes, addicting as hell. By the way don't skip sizes, because it can screw up your ears. I know I did it but that doesn't make it okay.