I've been stretching my ears for awhile now, say 4 or 5 years. I have 2 holes in each lobe and have been stretching them both, usually keeping one hole a size smaller than the one beside it. Eventually though the amount of skin between the 2 holes grew smaller and smaller to the point that the 2 double flared eyelets that I wore were rubbing together and occasionally pinching. After much deliberation with myself I decided I'd have the two holes scalpelled into 1.
At A Glance Author Cornbread Contact cornbread624@comcast.net When It just happened Artist myself Studio my apartment Location richmond, virginia So like anyone else I call my local tattoo studio and lo and behold, they don't do scalpelling. Bummer. I open up the phone book and call around to a few other places in the area and none of them do scalpelling either. The only place that I found around here that did do it was highly reputable, but a little bit costly for my taste. Now I don't like to complain, but $300 is a bit much to cut a piece of skin that wasn't even 1/8 thick. After all this is decided, screw it I can do this myself.
Now I know this isn't the type of thing one should do, but I've pierced myself at least a dozen times now and everyone of them have gone off without a problem. So I took my eyelets out (0g and 00g) and tried to determine what size it would be once its cut. After making a few marks to connect the holes and taking into account the full stretch, I decided a 5/8 should do nicely. I order the jewelry and the scalpel and wait until they arrive.
The jewelry arrived on Saturday (thank god because I wanted to get it done and have at least a day to rest before going back to work) and decided that I would do it that night after the wife went to sleep. Now she wasn't at all happy about me doing this and I can't blame her, but when your wife tells you that if you bleed to death from your ears that she's not taking you to the ER, one feels a little hurt. So anyway, her and the baby fall asleep and I jump into action before the snoring even starts. I take all my equipment to the upstairs bathroom and set it all up. I cleaned the counter and sterilized it the best I could. Laid down paper towels and cleaned my clamps, jewelry, and opened my disposable scalpel. I marked the area of my lobe that was to be removed. So far, so good. I put the clamps on. take a deep breath and cut.
Now here the shocker...It didn't hurt. It went through so quick I didn't feel a thing. I take off the clamp and here comes the wet works. This takes a few minutes to stop but I'm a patient man. After about a dozen paper towels it stops. I put the clamps on the bottom half and cut again. Now this time I have a little more trouble because the flap of skin is moving around so I tighten the clamps and cut again and eventually I'm left with a little chunk of meat. Apply pressure to the fresh wound for a few minutes and slide in the new eyelets and TADA...left ear is done. Moving on to the right.
Now here's where it all went to shit. I guess I didn't clamp it high enough, cause when I cut it this time (which actually hurt this time), it went right through the middle of the lobe, leaving 2 little nubs instead of one larger piece. So I try to stop the bleeding and this ear is taking forever. Now I'm getting bored waiting for the bleeding to stop. It must have taken a good half hour before the bleeding stopped on this ear. Eventually it stops and I try to cut the top flap but its just not big enough to clamp, or even grab with my two fingers. I tried a smaller clamp but that didn't work either. I eventually had to find a pair of tweezers to hold each little piece so I could cut them off. So I get the two small pieces removed and I decide to take a break. After a few minutes I try to put the eyelet in, but it won't fit! DAMNIT! But with a little work I use my thumbs to stretch it a little bit until it finally went it
I clean myself up a bit. Cleaned up the bathroom (which at this point looked like a scene from CSI) and put everything back in my box. My ears are a little tender right now and it just dawned on me that sleeping tonight is going to be a real treat. I think I'm going to go pop a couple ibuprofen right now just to be on the safe side.
And I guess it goes without saying, don't try this at home. Yeah I did it and I may be a cheap bastard but all kind of things could have gone wrong. Find someone in your town who can do this right, safe and clean. later days.