At A Glance Author Sean Contact keomrinnem58@hotmail.com When Three months ago Artist James Location newport Beach, CA I got my ears first pierced ( unprofessionally ) in ninth grade. Two years later, I stretched up to an eight gauge, then I left them in for another two years. Noticing at an 8 gauge, that the piercing was a little lower on the lobe than usual. I wondered, if I wanted to stretch further would this be a problem? I decided that the piercing being a little low would be ok, and I decided to stretch my ears up gradually.
I stretched by simply inserting the next size up when the size before would become lose. I never had any pain. The only time I bled was when a keloid that had formed years before, broke and bled slightly. I did my best to heal the keloid on the back of one ear. In this process of healing the keloid, the keloid turned into a slight blowout. Had I known better, I would have downsized immediately to heal the keloid so it wouldn't have turned into a blowout. I let both ears sit at the gauge they were at (00g) for about 3 months.
I went to a tattoo convention in Paso Robles, Ca. I was in search of tapers to stretch further. I ran into a guy named James ( who later scalpelled my ears). He told me, instead of using tapers, because they didn't always go up as gradually as they should, I should try black electrical tape or Teflon tape. He said to start with one wrap and continue at a comfortable pace. For me it was about two wraps a day, every other day until I reached ½ inch. I let the ½ sit again, like the 00g, for about 2 months. Then I saw some really cool amber. I bought them without realizing how big the flare was.
In order to fit my jewelry, I had to go bigger. Using the tape method, after ½ inch, seemed to not work as well as my last stretch with the tape getting one ear to 5/8 and the other only slightly above ½ inch. Once I got there I didn't think I could stretch anymore due to my thinning lobes. That's when I looked into ear scalpelling.
I went to talk to a local piercer to ask his opinion. He referred me to a friend of his in L.A. I called the guy and set up a consultation at a near by tattoo convention. After he looked at my ears, he decided it would be no problem. I set up an appointment with him and made plans to make the 3 hour drive.
The month leading up to the scalpelling was filled with lots of nervous anticipation. Although I have piercing and tattoos, I had never been cut with a scalpel before. It didn't help to look at gruesome pictures of broken earlobes ( although I do love BMEzine!) . This only made the anticipation worse.
I got my ears scalpelled on a Saturday. I walked into the shop after a lunch which the scalpelist recommended . First we looked at the jewelry to make sure they were what I wanted. Then the scapelist measured the jewelry to make sure they were right at ¾. He had asked me to bring a taper to help with the process as well . Since the taper had come from a professional piercer, he didn't think it was necessary to measure it. Then he sat me in the sterilized room and began the preparation. He taped a bib on me to catch blood. He laid me down and began the cleaning process and drawing the cut lines. Then he had me look at the lines and we began. I was planning on cutting up to ¾ inch. He started with the smaller ear because he knew it was going to be more work. As soon as he made the first cut, I realized that I had worked it up way more in my head than it actually was. The cut wasn't that bad. He continued to make four cuts, all at an angle, all on the top half of the earlobe. Since some stretching is involved to hinder bleeding afterwards I became very nervous that my earlobe was going to rip seeing as how thin it was ,but the scalpelist kept telling me that he seen a lot worse so to not worry. Then he slide the taper through, the whole time I was feeling pressure. With the taper through my ear he placed the jewelry up next to it and began to follow through. That's when he realized that the taper was a hair smaller than the jewelry. It made it extremely hard to follow the taper through with the jewelry. He spent at least 45 minutes on that single ear. I had a 20 minute break and then moved onto the next ear ( which was 5/8). He first slide the taper through to see how much he would have to cut. Realizing that he would only have to make a small relief cut, he began cutting. Once he got the taper through we ran into the same problem with the jewelry. He spent another 30 minutes on that ear.
Finally I was at ¾. I went home and tried to relax. Over the next two months, I followed proper healing instructions. The scalpelist warned me of blowouts during healing, that he could trim off later. This did occur, one at a time. He said that I could use tea tree oil every three days to help dissolve the tissue of the blowout. It has been almost 3 months since I had my ears done. The smaller is still not quite healed because of the thinned tissue on the bottom although the cuts above are perfectly healed. It still looks "pissed off'. The larger ear, though, is healed, and I plan on getting the blow outs removed later this year.