The first time I saw someone with stretched ears was when I was 14, the first time I walked into a piercing studio. The guy was totally covered in tattoos, but all I seemed to notice were his HUGE lobes (they must have been about 1'5 inches) and I was totally blown away; those looked so different from the piercings I was used to. However, those seemed a bit too hardcore for me and I kind of forgot about them until just recently. I had been having this urge for the past year to get some sort of neat and original body mod, particularly this tattoo on the back of my arm that I designed myself. However, I wasn't sure this was a good idea, since I am in law school and a visible tattoo could come in conflict with my future job. In the end I decided to wait.
At A Glance Author youretooclose Contact youretooclose@bme.anon When It just happened Artist Emi Studio Tattoo Dolar Location Barcelona Ear stretching came back to my mind when I saw it again on a bunch of musicians. I decided to try it myself at home, since I though 60€ for stretching both ears was way too expensive and I'd had my lobes pierced since I was a baby so it wouldn't hurt that bad anyway–bad idea. I rammed four regular earrings in each ear (the screw-on kind) and went out that night. My lobes bothered me when I touched them, but the pain was minimal, so I went on with it. By the time I went to bed it hurt just a bit more to the point where I had to sleep facing up, but it was still bearable. The next morning, however, my right ear was bleeding and infected, so I took everything out and let my ears heal. In three days everything was back to normal and I was wearing regular earrings again. Still, I kept on thinking about ear stretching, though I couldn't make up my mind.
Just 3 nights ago, I had this dream where I got my ears stretched and it looked great, so the next morning I decided to listen to my subconscious and go for it. I was determined to get them done on that day before I backed off. I already knew the best tattoo/piercing studios in town, so I just picked the nearest (reputable) one. I went to college as usual and recruited a few friends that were willing to come with me. We had at this japanese restaurant that's right in front of the studio and went to get the job done right after eating. I had never had anything done there before, but the place was clean and the people were nice, and a friend of mine had just had her first tattoo done there the week before and was totally happy with it. I asked about ear stretching. They explained the entire procedure, how far I could stretch, how I had to care for them. I wanted to get them as big as I could in one time, so I decided to go for 4ga – they had no 3ga eyelets left, but that was ok. I showed them my ID, paid beforehand, and walked up to the waiting room. I hardly had the time to sit down when Emi called me. She wasn't too talkative at first, she just warned me about the fact that I wouldn't be able to wear regular earrings as long as my ears were stretched, but I was already aware of it and told her so. She asked me to lay down and pulled out what seemed to me like humongous tapers, and before I could say a word she was already sliding them through my right ear. I wasn't in so much pain as I thought I'd be, though I did get this intense burning sensation. Now for the left ear. This one hurt like a bitch. I'm not sure why, this one always gets infected whenever I pierce it, and now it was throbbing from the stretching. Emi must have noticed the pain on my face, because she tried to comfort me and told me that, for some reason, people always complain more about the second stretching than the first one. Once it was in it was fine though, I just felt that burning sensation again. So it was done now, and it had only taken five minutes. I thanked Emi a few times, met my friends downstairs, and went shopping. My ears were pretty much fine for the rest of the day, they just burnt for a couple hours and were a bit swollen up. I did run into a few people and they all complimented me on my new ears, which made me feel great!!
That night I was a bit concerned about the sleeping; I though I'd have to sleep facing up (which I must say, I really can't), but by bedtime the pain was gone and I slept completely fine –on both ears! The next day they looked fine, there was no pain at all, and up until now they've been healing amazingly fast. Going from 14ga to 4ga in one go is pretty intense, but if anyone is thinking of doing it, I'd totally recommend it –as long as you get it done by someone who knows exactly what they're doing. My experience was totally worth my money; it's been only three days and my ears look great, I've had no infections, and there's been very little pain involved. I might try stretching down to 0ga myself in the future, but for now, I'm happy with these. Now I only have to find the perfect plugs!