(I warn you now, this is pretty long, but hey, it spans over half my life...)
At A Glance Author Scuzzlebutt Contact Scuzzlebutt@bme.anon When N/A Artist Myself Studio My house, mainly Location London, England Ever since I was a little girl I've had an interest in piercing, when I was nine years old I (unsuccessfully) begged my parents for many months to get my ears pierced, until one day my mother begrudgingly gave in and I came home triumphant with a pair of gunned lobes, red and stinging from the trauma of the gun (thank god I now know better) and the cold weather outside.
For a few years I was satisfied, but inevitably got the itch for more, I'd try and pierce my lobes again next to the existing holes with blunt ear studs, and asked my parents if I could possibly have more piercings in my ears. Of course, the answer was no, and I eventually gave up and removed my earrings through boredom. Pretty, girly earrings didn't interest me, I wanted something different, and at the time I didn't know what it was yet.
Cut to age 10 in a small shop in the local mall:
A new person is working in my favourite shop, a place that mainly sold cheap jewellery and fake handbags.. looking back it was kinda a shithole, but what can I say, I was young... A tall, heavily tattooed man with an arm full of surface piercings asks me if I need any help. After staring in wonder at the large bars going through the skin of his forearms, my line of vision moved to his face, and the large shiny black plugs in his ears. I knew then that these were the 'different earrings' I was looking for, and made a promise to myself that one day I would have ears as impressive as his. Predictably I asked my mother if I could stretch my ears, and predictably she said no.. disheartened, and shocked by the anger of her reaction I left it for a while.
Cut to age 14:
I had gone back to wearing 'regular' earrings. Hey, they're better than nothing, right? While putting in a pair of dangling ones I accidentally put both in the same hole. It was only when I looked at myself in the mirror I realized what had happened, and how easily the second earring had gone in, which took me back to first seeing the man with his large beautiful lobes, and brought back my craving to have large, stretched holes myself. I decided to put two earrings in each hole and wear my hair down through fear of the parents. Every week or so I would add another earring to my holes, mainly hoops and dangly ones until I reached a grand total of seven. My parents hadn't noticed, but they had been commented on in school, and yeah, I guess I must have looked pretty ridiculous, so I decided to buy 2 3mm tapers. They slid in incredibly easily, I didn't need any lubrication, just pushed them through, so I decided to become slightly more adventurous and buy a pair of red acrylic 6mm tapers. These didn't want to go in my ears as easily, so I left them at a halfway point and was very careful not to show my parents.
Inevitably my mother saw, and without going into too much detail its safe to say she wasn't overly pleased, but I kept them in and a few days later reached my goal of 6mm. Through the next few months I stretched my right ear to 12mm using the tapering method, I experienced no pain whatsoever at each stage of my journey, and was an exciting experience watching my ear change with each stretch. To celebrate reaching 12mm I bought a beautiful glass plug which stayed with me throughout my school days. My left ear, however, I left at 6mm, with the same red taper as I had started with. I was happy and satisfied with my lobes and aquired a few more piercings in each ear (thankfully not with a gun this time).
Cut to age 17:
A close friend decides to give me a gorgeous 10mm buffalo horn swirl and I decide to stretch the left ear up to accommodate it. I promised myself I'd go to 10mm and no further, so started to stretch once more. Going from 6-8 was a breeze, I hardly felt a thing and everything was fine for a month until I decided to stretch up to 10mm. I put in my trusty blue taper and started to push, but was met with nothing but pressure and stiffness. This I was not used to so I pushed harder. Unwise move. My ear began to throb, burn and go red, so I decided to leave it alone for a bit. It took me several days of gradual pushing to get the taper to travel all the way through, but eventually I got there and wore my new swirl for a while.
Cut to 18th birthday:
After coming of age I decide to get my lip pierced and go to another friends party at a local club. An obscenely cheap bar meant we all got rather drunk rather quickly.... (which is pretty stupid with a fresh labret) When I awoke next morning, I discovered to my horror that my lovely swirl had gone. I went to Camden where it had been bought to try and find a replacement, but alas, all they had was a slightly larger 12mm one, which of course I couldn't resist. The new swirl slipped in easily, and I was happy with my newly even lobes.
Cut to Summer 2005:
Everything changed around May last year, leaving school became a bigger deal than I thought it would be, exam stresses were mounting up, and I had eventually found a half decent boyfriend. I initially wanted to mark this change with a medusa piercing, but decided to utilize the only consistant change in my life: stretching my lobes. I bought pairs of cheap acrylic plugs from ebay in 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18mm and spent the next few months going up a millimeter every week or so. Throughout this I once again felt no pain, most probably due to stretching a small amount at a time and making sure that the skin around the plugs did not feel tight or pressured before stretching. I stayed at 18mm for around a month before the itch returned and I wanted to stretch more. I ordered a pair of 20mm plugs with large flares, and for the first time ever felt the annoyance of plugs not going in first time. I pushed for what seemed like ages, feeling my ear get red and angry at me before giving up, defeated and popping in my 18mm ones once more.
After a few more unsuccessful attempts at this I began to use the taping method, and added a few layers of tape to my original plugs every day for a week. After a hot shower and preparing myself for more disappointment I shoved, jiggled and twisted the bastards in. Success.... Albeit success with two red throbbing ears, but I finally had my pair of big black gorgeous plugs that I'd wanted for so many years.
My ears have lasted at 20mm for quite a while now and I'm quite happy with the size, though I doubt this satisfaction will last very long... Of everything I've had pierced, my lobes will always be my favourite. As I've altered they have altered with me and serve as a reminder of the past present and future.
Hats off for managing to read all this by the way...