| At A Glance | |
| Author | Amanda/gothicphoenixx |
| Contact | Amanda/gothicphoenixx@bme.anon |
| IAM | gothicphoenixx |
| When | N/A |
| Artist | various |
| Location | Toledo |
During that time, I got my my tragus and anti-tragus done as well as a custom industrial. After a few months, I decided to get my lobes repierced the proper way, at a studio. This was, in part, because having four piercings in my left ear and none in my right made me feel a little unbalanced, as well as made other people comment on this imbalance. It did amuse me sometimes, when people said it was interesting that I'd have all those before getting lobes. I didn't tell them I'd had them before. If they're going to presume lobes are prerequisite and seeing someone without them makes them think twice about that assumption, why disabuse them of that? I wasn't sure which cartilage piercings I'd want on my right ear yet, so I thought lobes would at least be the beginning to balance me out.
Also, I had sort of a weird crevice in my lobes, which doesn't really show up in pictures, but I knew it was there. I figured a good way to get rid of this would be to pierce my lobes, and to stretch them enough that crevice would disappear. Though I wasn't the biggest fan of CBRs in lobes, especially at larger gauges, I knew that my piercer would start me off with a ring. I knew that I could get a plug that looked decent as a plug in 8ga, but I didn't know if I wanted to start off that big. I decided to start off with 10ga, heal with the CBR, and then go on to an 8ga plug.
I went with Dan (IAM social irregular)to the piercer who had done my other four ear piercings (Jimi, at Studio 14) and told him what I wanted to do. He was excited, because he doesn't usually get to do larger gauge piercings on people. (I think perhaps this is a trait common to piercers, because Rob would later be excited at the prospect of doing my 10g conch.)
Unfortunately, that day, Jimi did not have jewelry sterilized in that size. So, he had us come back about a week later. The process was relatively quick. He drew the dots, made sure they were even, and put a cork behind one of my ears. He pushed the needle through, and it felt like a sharp pinch. I was surprised, as I thought that a 10ga needle would hurt worse than it did. (It did hurt worse than being pierced with a gun, but this didn't surprise me in the least.)
Healing was basic and relatively easy. I washed them three times a day with Softsoap. I'd recently learned that the dye in Dial causes irritation to some people, and my ears had gotten dried out before using it, so I switched to Softsoap, which is free of color, and has worked quite well for me. I also used this stuff he gave me,
Within a few weeks, it was healed enough to stretch to 8ga. Dan and I went to Steel Addictions in search of a plug I could wear for my friend's wedding (I was in it and wanted something inconspicuous). I ended up just getting steel barbells. I had Dorian stretch them. He asked what my eventual goal was, and I said that I wasn't sure. I didn't think I'd go very big (probably not past 2ga, most likely not past 0ga) but everyone I knew who said they were staying at a particular size always ended up exceeding it (Dan, for example, wasn't going to go past 0ga, and said the same for everything up to ¾"), so I didn't want to make a definite statement.
He nodded and told me that his main advice would be not to sink too much money into jewelry in a size I didn't think I'd stay at for a long time. He's seen a lot of people buy expensive jewelry and then stretch up and have no use for it (a friend had recently spent over a hundred on custom carved plugs and then stretched; he was at a size few people he knew had, so he couldn't even give them to someone). I think this is pretty decent advice and though I've lost pieces and bought new ones (sometimes at way more than I should have) I wouldn't buy really expensive plugs at a size I wouldn't stay at for awhile.
While he was talking to me, Dorian was setting up, getting gloves on, getting out supplies, and switching gloves. He was ready and had me turn to put on anesthetic gel, which was kind of cold. He slid a taper through and it felt like mild burning, but not much else. Then he slid the plug through and put on the O-rings. He did the other side, which felt the same. I thanked him, tipped and left. My ears felt hot afterwards for awhile, but that was the extent of the pain. I managed to lose one of the plugs later, and went back to get 8ga plugs, this time in dark purple. They weren't exactly the color of my dress, but they seemed less conspicuous than the shiny steel plugs I'd had. Those, I put in myself and kept for a few months.
I started thinking about stretching up when I was deciding what dress I'd wear for Dan's prom. I had part of a kimono (the actual part, but not all the necessary accessories) which I would have to buy if I'd wear it, or a blue dress I'd worn a couple years before. In either case, I figured blue would work, and I ordered some plugs from Gorilla Glass. I got solid, double flared, barium crystal, 6ga plugs in cobalt blue. (In case you're interested, I ended up wearing the dress, and the kimono over it as a jacket. Here's a picture of us rocking new plugs. Dan's came from Onetribe.)
I started wearing hoops in the mean time, to stretch the holes a little more. I had in a 10ga in black and one 12ga silver one either side of the 10ga, in each ear. I tipped them up horizontally on my ear, mimicking an orbital. I also put a couple other smaller ones in after a few days. This seemed to help them to stretch. But, when the blue plugs came, I couldn't get them in. I put the 8ga back in for the night, and when I got a chance the next day, I went in search of plugs. Dan's prom would be in a few days and I wanted to make sure I could wear them.
I drove around looking for places where I could get jewelry in 6ga that didn't have a flare (as these did, which made them bigger) and possibly someone to put them in for me. Studio 14 only had one plug in 6ga, and by the time I got out to Steel Addictions, they were near closing. The sign on Perfectly Pierced still said open, though their hours said they had closed ten minutes prior. I opened the door and asked the man at the counter if they were in fact open. He waved me in and asked what I was looking for. I told him that I was looking for 6ga plugs, and he pointed out a couple steel, which were nice looking, but I didn't intend to keep them that long. He showed me a couple acrylic, in yellow and purple. I already had purple; I figured I could always switch down a size for a day if I wanted, so I got the yellow.
I asked the guy if he could put them in for me. He seemed kind of put off that I asked, but he said he would. I briefly mentioned my misjudgment, thinking having the rings in would keep the holes large enough to put plugs in, "but I was wrong." As soon as it came out of my mouth I realized how dumb I must have sounded, and I mostly didn't speak the rest of the time. Even when something was brought up in a room next door that probably I would have commented on if it had happened at my regular studio, I didn't open my mouth.
I think that's the most uncomfortable I've been in a studio before, though most of it was that this was the first time I'd ever gone in somewhere totally alone (Dan is usually with me) and I'd never met this guy before. He did the same as Dorian had done, anesthetic, then taper, then jewelry. He asked if I wanted him to put the O-rings on or if I could do it, and I said it was up to him. He had me put them on because it was difficult for him to put them on with gloves on. Then he did the other side. I didn't feel anything as it happened this time, though like last time, they felt a little warm when he was done. He hadn't had me pay before, so he rung me up afterwards. I tipped him after I paid, thanking him for doing this so close to close. He seemed a little happier then, and I went on my way.
A couple days later, I tried to get the blue plugs in, and they still wouldn't go. Granted, the site says they are for fully healed piercings (and this had been recently stretched), and as I mentioned, they are also flared, which makes the outsides larger than 6ga, but I figured it was important to get them in. So, I decided to use vegetable oil on a Q-tip to get them through (since the wide end of the Q-tip is about the same size). I broke the Q-tip in half and passed it through. I did this a couple of times, trying to put the plug in backward and forward in between (since they are glass, the gauges aren't exact, and one side always fit better than the other, one plug better in whichever ear it started in than the other) and at one point, there was a little blood on the Q-tip.
This was a really stupid idea, and to this day I'm not exactly sure what possessed me to think this would be a good idea. I don't recommend doing it. (Although, at this gauge I'd found that once in awhile it seemed to help keep the piercing tighter to pass a Q-tip through the hole after washing. This was after it was already healed, however). At any rate, it eventually worked and I was able to get the plugs in. One of them, I had to push and it got a little red. I debated whether to keep going or stop and decided to continue pushing. It made a little pop and I worried I'd messed up my ear, but I washed it up and moved the plug a little, and the little red rim that was poking out went back inside my ear. (I think though, that ear didn't exactly heal correctly, and I it got irritated sometimes after that.)
I wore those plugs, alternating with the yellow once in awhile, for about four months. The blue plugs fell out once in awhile at night (and sometimes I'd leave them out a day or two to tighten them up). Though I'd originally thought I'd stay at this gauge for at least 6 months, I decided it was time to gauge again when they started seeming loose more often. I hadn't gotten a proportionate amount of use out of the yellow for what I'd spent ($18, very high, I know, but I was desperate), but I figured I had gotten enough use out of the blue ones.
So, I bought a pair of black 4ga Kaos silicone eyelets from BMEshop. They arrived about a week later, and I asked Dan (who's stretched his own ears many times) if he thought they'd be easy to get it in or if I'd need a taper. He said he could probably get them in and to wash my ear. I was showering anyway, so that wasn't a big deal. When I got out, I asked if I should use a Q-tip to clean my ears or not and he said I could (There was a misunderstanding. I thought I shouldn't do it, as it would dry the hole out, but thought I'd ask, since he planned to use Vitamin E oil and maybe that and water wouldn't mix well. He thought I just meant to clean the ear canal). Well, it probably still would have worked, even being dried out first, because he planned to use the oil, but then he realized that he'd left his oil at home.
He tried to get the plugs in anyway, not forcing, just seeing how hard it would be, and it wasn't going to work. He said I should put Vitamin E oil on them for about a week anyway before I stretched, just rub it onto the lobes before bed and put the jewelry back in. The next day, I went around trying to find Vitamin E oil, which wasn't an easy task in Bowling Green. I checked Kroger (where Dan had once gotten Vitamin E Oil in Toledo), The Pharm, and I think one other place, all without luck. Then, I headed the opposite way to Walmart because I knew that's where Dan had last gotten his oil (and the only other place he'd found it in Toledo). It was about four dollars for a 2 oz bottle. From Sunday to Tuesday, I put the Vitamin E Oil on at night and put the blue plugs in, washing it off each morning. On Wednesday night, I decided they'd be less likely to fall out if I used the yellow ones with O-rings (and I'd also get some use out of those overpriced plugs), and I kept putting Vitamin E Oil on at night until Friday.
I was over at Dan's on Friday and had said that I would use oil, so I wouldn't end up bringing mine and forgetting it at his house. But at his house things happened and by the time I went home, I'd forgotten. I didn't end up seeing him on Saturday night because something in Toledo kicked up my allergies, giving me a sinus headache as well. I took Benadryl, and felt so tired I thought I'd take a small nap, which ended up being about 3 hours long. So, Sunday, I asked if he wanted to stretch my ears, or if he wanted me to just keep doing the oil thing and wait until the next week, when I'd be back for fall break. He said we could just try it and see if it worked, and if not, we'd do it the next week.
I had Dan start on the left side (the side I'd kind of messed up in my own idiotic mini- stretch) figuring that would be the harder side to get in. If we could get it in that side, the right side would probably work, and that way I wouldn't get the right side in and find out that I couldn't get the left. Well, Kaos eyelets have to be folded so that you can put them in your ear, and then they expand. So, Dan spent a couple minutes trying to get this little 4ga eyelet to fold in half while coated in Vitamin E Oil to make putting them in easier (which makes folding them harder). He got it after a few tries and had me sit on his lap. He went to put it in my ear and couldn't get it in before it unfolded. So, he folded it and tried again. The only discomfort was that of him pulling down on my ear. I didn't even feel it go in. So, having had the left side take relatively little time or effort, I thought the right side would go smoothly.
Not so. He got it folded, tried to put it in and couldn't get it in. He put some Vitamin E Oil on the ear itself, and tried again, and the eyelet came open. He tried for several minutes to get the thing to fold and stay folded, complaining the whole time that small gauge Kaos plugs (anything less than a 0g, he says) are too much effort, and he doesn't understand how they expect you to fold this little thing long enough to get it in. Watching it take this long, I asked if he thought I could get away with just washing the plugs and keeping them in. He said I better find a way to, because he wasn't going to do this again. These are plugs that should stay in until I stretch up, or find other 4ga plugs I like. After about ten minutes, he said he was sorry and gave up.
Well, I wasn't going to just have one ear stretched to 4ga, so I told him to give me the plug and I'd try. I thought maybe with smaller fingers, I could get it to fold, but even if I could, I couldn't hand it back to him to be put in my ear, so I'd have to try it on my own. I, too, had trouble folding the thing. After a few minutes, I got just the front of it to fold and decided to try that. I started to get it in and slipped. I half-folded it again, and pushed it in. I thought it was going through, but I was on Dan's floor and couldn't see. I asked him if it was through, and he said he couldn't tell. So, I figured I'd try it by feel. I caught a little piece of it that was poking through with my fingers and pulled it through, no pain, no problem. (In hindsight, I realized there was a mirror in his room, I could have gotten up and made this a lot easier, but oh well). It felt a little tight, but that's about it.
The next day, they were really tight, so I put some Vitamin E Oil on the plugs, until I could move them back and forth. In the morning, I washed them off in the shower with Softsoap, and I was so nervous that I was going to pull on them too hard and pull them out. I didn't, and so I did the same for the next couple nights. I didn't put it on for a couple nights in a row, and they got tight again, so I started putting Vitamin E Oil on every night. I figured it couldn't hurt. After a week or so of that, I started putting it on just once or twice a week, and that seems to help keep them loose enough for comfort.
I like these plugs, and it's fun that they squish, but it makes me nervous not to be able to take them out, and they were such a pain that I don't think I'd put them back in if they did fall out. And for the most part, I don't notice the crevice anymore. I don't know if I'll stretch up soon to 2ga, or if I'll find some other plugs that I like in 4ga, but it's probably not good to do this not taking them out thing for too long. Though I didn't always stretch in the most orthodox, or intelligent, way, overall I'm happy with my lobes. At least, I will be until I get the itch to stretch to 2ga.
