I had just gotten done reading Shannon's article about his magnetic implants that he had removed. In the article he said something that had caught my eye, "Let me be very clear about this: things go wrong all the time. It's part of the game. But when things do go wrong, rather than hiding it, we need to share everything we know about the problems so they are less likely to happen to someone else."
At A Glance Author Mikie Ears Contact mikieears@gmail.com When A year ago This made me think for quite some time, and I have decided to share the story of stretching my ears, and how one lobe has now ripped in half.
When I was 16 my father took me to get my ears pierced at the mall. Soon after getting them pierced, I started to find out more and more about the body modification community. The first time I ever saw stretched ears were on BMEzine.com, instantly I knew that was what I wanted to do. I had no idea how far I could take it, but come 3 years I would find out.
I began my stretch from an 18 gauge, I went to a local piercing shop and found out that it was not illegal to get your ears stretched when under 18 due to the fact that it is not a piercing. So I started, as anyone should, from an 18, to 16, to 14.
I noticed however that my ears were incredibly fast at healing, and that I was able to stretch my ears almost twice a month. I however slowed down at about a 8 gauge due to lack of funds.
The stretching however was never a problem. It was always done with a taper and lube. It would pinch for a quick second, then the pain was gone, and I had new larger gauge jewelry in. Never had I had any problems with blowouts, tears, anything..
After I past a 000 gauge, I then began dead stretching my ears. By which I mean I would put lube on the ear, and just try and slide the jewelry in by putting pressure down on the ear. The only problem I noticed here was that every so often during the stretch my ears would swell somewhat and there would be a little blood. However there were no blowouts or tears to be seen. As I said before my ears would heal within two weeks and I would feel ready to stretch again.
Once I got to an inch in both ears, I noticed that the circulation in my ears were somewhat poor, and often times if it was windy out, or slightly cold my earlobes would have a purple-blue tint to them. Very minimal however, I wasn't worried at the time, mostly because I had seen thousands of pictures of people with stretched ears and a good percent of them had the same thing going on.
Eventually I finally reached my goal of two inches. My problem was that once I stretched my ears, they looked fantastic, and I was always happy with the size. However after about a month I would look at my ears and say, "hmm that doesn't look all that big, I'm sure I can stretch again." I had thick enough lobes to do it, so why not.
I then began stretching my ears way to fast. I went from two inches to two and a half inches in one month. That's when I noticed that my left lobe was beginning to thin, and the purple-blue tint was darker than ever. I also encountered my first and what would be last tear.
I always slept with my jewelry in, and one morning I woke up and my ear was coated in blood. I quickly ran to the bathroom and began cleaning my ear off. Turns out, somehow I tore my ear while sleeping at the very bottom, horizontally on the inside of the lobe. I immediately took out the jewelry, but that was no good. The ear began thinning and thinning more and more, no matter what I was treating it with. Until finally one night I placed some pressure down on the lobe and my finger snapped right through it.
Of course I freaked and went straight to the emergency room. When it was my time to see a doctor, all he did was clean my ear, and stop the bleeding. He said he was unable to sew the ear back together because it was to thin and it was not something he had ever done. I left with a split earlobe and a high emergency room bill.
My ear since has healed, but still remains in two pieces. The healing process took about two weeks, when the sides both healed I went to see my family doctor about it. His reasoning was that stretching to fast cause the lobe to thin, and when I got the tear in it, there was not enough circulation left in the ear to fully heal it. So it began dying away until I was able to snap it the way I did. Several body piercers have agreed to this, and to me it makes sense.
I recommend if you are stretching your ears to first off listen to what your body is saying, and doing. Followed by talking to people in the field and finding out all you can on stretching before going past a point of no return. I hope this helps others, not by scaring people away from stretching, but by educating them in some of the warning signs that can occur.