This is a story of how I got my earlobes from non-pierced to a 2 gauge without much pain at all, and in 3 weeks. I had thought about piercing my lobes for quite some time but had never done it. I have always been a huge fan of tunnels but wasn't sure how big I would want to go with my ears. After looking over jewelry I decided that a 2 gauge is where I would love to be able to get to. I started talked to Elby (my fantastic piercer) about different options for piercing. I knew I didn't want to do a punch cause I have very little lobes, ok who am I kidding I really don't have lobes. They don't hang at all, they cut straight across and connect to the side of my head. I knew I didn't have a lot of room to work with and didn't want to lose any of the skin that was there cause I didn't ever want to end up blowing out my lobes. Elby told me that it was possible to pierce with an 8 gauge needle and that he thought that would be my best option if I knew I was going to want to stretch. I told Elby I would come back in a few weeks and get it done.
At A Glance Author designer26 Contact designer26@bme.anon IAM designer26 When A month ago Artist Elby Studio Captive Elements Location Blaine, MN I called Elby Saturday July 16 shortly after they opened to make sure he had large enough needles and jewelry sterilized before I came in. He said he did. That afternoon my girlfriend and I went in. He greeted us when we came in and said everything was already ready for us. I filled out the paperwork and followed him into the back room. He had all the sterilized packages labeled with my name on it waiting for me. I thought that was pretty cool. He washed and gloved his hands and started opening all the sterile packages and getting everything laid out and ready. I happened to glance over when he opened one of the packages containing an 8 gauge needle and let out a "WOW" under my breath. Amber heard me and asked what? I said "that's just a big needle that's all." Elby smiled. Amber glanced over at the needle and got a little queasy. I asked if she was alright and she said yea, I'll be fine. After a couple seconds the color came back to her face and she looked great again. We all had a bit of a laugh over it cause she had never gotten queasy during any of my piercings or during her own. Then again neither of us had seen a needle that size before.
Elby changed gloves and proceeded to mark my ears for proper placement. He was extremely careful and diligent to get both ears symmetrical and to assure the best possible placement should I decide I want to stretch at all. He measured over and over again with the caliper and showed me everything so I could see how it was all symmetrical. Once he got the final marks he was happy with he had me approve them before changing gloves again and preparing to pierce. I took a few deep breaths, trying to prepare myself for what was about to happen. I have never been worried about the pain of getting a piercing before, but this one had me a bit worried. I had done several piercings which were supposed to be painful; all without any trouble. But just seeing the size of the needle had me a bit worried.
After carefully measuring and marking my ears for the ideal placement, it was time to get pierced. Elby told me to take in a deep breath whenever I was ready and he would pierce on the exhale. I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath. As I blew it out, I felt him push the needle through. It was certainly a bit more intense than other piercings, but hurt a lot less than I feared it would. The main thing I noticed was how hard he had to push to get that thick needle through. It reminded me of a cartilage piercing because of the extra effort it took to get the needle through. Once he had the tunnel in place and the O-ring on the back he asked if I was doing alright. I said yea, that wasn't bad at all, lets do the other. I swear Amber almost looked disappointed that it hadn't hurt a little bit more.
The second ear went smoothly and was no worse than the first. Once I was all cleaned up (no blood at all believe it or not) I hopped up to look in the mirror. I loved them. He gave me aftercare instructions and told me to check back in and let him know how they were healing. He told me to wait 4-6 weeks before we stretch up to make sure it is nice and healed. Why risk tearing it? I paid at the front desk and tipped Elby and left. I got home and took pictures and decided that I certainly wanted to stretch. I loved the look of tunnels, but at that small size it looked like just a standard stud from far away. Unless you were close and realized "o my god I can see through it" you never would have guessed it was a tunnel.
I experienced some definite bruising on the backs of my ears which I hear is pretty common when using large gauge needles. Healing went well but after only a couple days I started having a problem during my sleep. I kept inadvertently rolling over onto them and sleeping that way, putting extra pressure on them. In the morning I would wake up and it was like they were trying to fall out the back of my ear. The tunnels (flare and all) were slipping into the middle of the piercing and the front of my ear was trying to heal over it. I forced the jewelry back into position (just a bit painful) and would be fine till the next night when it happened again. I called Elby to get his opinion and he said to come in so he could take a look. After looking at it he said it was possible the O-ring might be a bit tight and putting unneeded pressure on the ear. He loosened the O-rings and told me to give him a call if I still had problems.
Unfortunately it didn't fix it and I kept having problems. The next day (Thursday July 21st) as I was cleaning the front of the jewelry with a q-tip the jewelry slipped into the middle of the piercing. I began to realize that my ear had stretched itself already and my jewelry was too small. I gave Elby a call and told him what was happening. He asked if I was alright with the idea of switching to rings until it healed as that would eliminate the problem of the tunnel falling through. We decided to go with pinchers as I like how they look better. I went in after work and let him have a look. He confirmed what I thought that the lobe had probably stretched. He told me he was gonna use a 6 gauge taper to check. If the taper went through without resistance, he would put in a 6 gauge pincher. If he felt any resistance at all he would remove it and go with an 8 gauge. The taper slid right through. In less than a week my ear had gone up a gauge on their own. He put in the 6 gauge pinchers and I was on my way.
My ears felt great and I knew this would help them heal but I really preferred the look of the tunnels. As much as I love pinchers they just looked funny on me. I didn't like the idea of having jewelry that I wasn't happy with for the next month while it healed. I waited till Sunday and called Elby and asked what my options were. He said we could try doing a 6 gauge tunnel and see if I had any more success with that as it has a bit larger flare on it than the 8 gauge had. He said he really wanted me to wait a few days though. My ear had been through a bit of trauma considering it was only a week old. The pinchers were allowing it to heal. He said if I could wait an extra 3 or 4 days he would feel much more comfortable switching jewelry again. We made an appointment for Wednesday.
When I went in he removed the pinchers and looked at the hole. He said it was healing up nicely and popped in the 6 gauge tunnels for me. I was so much happier. I loved the look of the tunnels and liked the 6 gauge even more than the 8 gauge. Again the healing was going well until I started having similar problems. After a little while I would notice the tunnels falling through. I decided that I would try something different when I slept. Before going to bed I put a small band-aid over the back of my ear to help hold the jewelry up against my ear and keep it from sliding through. This fixed the problem of it falling through during the night. I still noticed it slipping in sometimes during the day and even had a few occasions when the jewelry would pull all the way through and out the back. I would always just clean the jewelry and put it back in.
I knew my ear had stretched on its own again and could probably take a 4 gauge tunnel but didn't know how Elby would feel about changing jewelry again so soon and even if the new jewelry would fix the problem. I decided it was no big deal and just continued to put the band-aid on at night. I did this for another week or so until Friday August 5th. Amber had ordered some jewelry that had arrived at the shop. After work we drove out there to pick it up. Elby came over to chat with us and asked how my lobes were doing. I told him about the band-aids and such and he said he would go up a size if I wanted him too. We talked about it a bit and he decided that he wanted to look at the hole and see how it was healing. If he was happy with how it was healing he would use a 2 gauge taper to see where I was at. If it went most of the way without problem he could stretch up to a 2 gauge for me as this was my eventual goal all along. Also by stretching up a size it would assure that the jewelry was nice and snug inside my ear instead of looser than it should be.
After looking at the hole and being satisfied with how it was healing, he lubed up a 2 gauge taper and slid it until he felt resistance. It made it most of the way through but not all the way. I was certainly at a 4 gauge already and even a bit beyond. He pushed the 2 gauge through, stretching my ears as he went. There was a very minor tear, but nothing at all to be concerned with. Stretching was a whole new feeling. I had gotten lots of piercings before but had never stretched. It is a very different sensation. Your lobes feel so warm and tight and you feel it squeezing down on the jewelry. Its an intense feeling. Once the first 2 gauge tunnel was in place I asked to see a mirror. He handed me the hand held mirror and let me take a look. It was so awesome to look at a 6 gauge in one ear and the new 2 gauge in the other. It was an amazing sense of accomplishment, as bizarre as that might sound. What a huge jump from a 6 to a 2. I loved it. He repeated the procedure on the other ear and I was on my way. I loved the new look.
Suddenly the realization began to sit in of what had just happened. I had gone from having my lobes non-pierced to a 2 gauge in 3 weeks, and barely had to stretch. I felt so fortunate to have had such an easy process. I expected it to be months from now before I ever made it up to a 2 gauge. I had said from the beginning that 2 gauge was my goal, and had given myself a 6 month to a year time frame. I knew I wanted to get to a 4 as soon as my ears would allow me to get there and figured I would stay there for a while before stretching up. Its crazy cause it all happened so fast that a lot of my friends didn't even know I had gotten my ears pierced and suddenly they see me with 2 gauge tunnels. Its pretty wild.
Its now been a couple weeks at the 2 gauge and I haven't had even the slightest problems. I'm pretty happy about that considering I really don't want to stretch any further than a two, especially not in the near future. I have made the promise that under no circumstances will I let myself stretch my lobes again before January. Give it a nice solid chuck of time to let them heal, enjoy this size and make certain I really want to go bigger. All in all this experience was a million times easier and quicker than I ever could have hoped for and I realize that I was very fortunate and that my experience is very much not the norm. Check out my IAM page for pictures of the different sizes.