My stretching experience either started when I was about 5 years old and got my lobes gunned or about a year an a half ago when I got those same holes tapered open. When I was 5 years old I first got my ear lobes pierced with a gun. I, of course, didn't know any better at that young age and, apparently, neither did my parents. Although I don't remember what led up to my first piercings clearly, I have been told that I begged for months to get them done before my mother finally gave in and brought me to a jewelry store in the mall. I have slightly more recollection of the actual experience itself. I remember picking a pair of butterfly backed studs off of a tray with a whole bunch of different studs and then I vaguely remember the studs being forcefully shoved through my tiny little ears via a piercing gun. At that age aftercare consisted of turning the earrings regularly and cleaning them with rubbing alcohol. With aftercare like that, it should probably come as no surprise that my tender little ears became infected and I eventually ended up having to take my earrings out.
At A Glance Author Blackvampyremage Contact Blackvampyremage@bme.anon IAM Blackvampyremage When A month ago Artist Myself Studio My Home Location Victoria, British Columbia For years after that I would periodically force piercing studs through my mostly closed up holes. It would involve a whole lot of time, pain, and sometimes blood. Inevitably I would remove them shortly thereafter because they became swollen and irritated. Whether this was because of the abuse that I put them through in order to get the studs to go back into them, because of the very cheep jewelry that I was using or because I had inherited a more minor form of my mother's metal allergy I never could say. However, the end result was that I eventually simply gave up on my ears and stopped wearing earrings all together. The pain and hassle was simply to much.
I went for about 7 or 8 years with no ear piercings (or any other piercings for that matter) and very little interest in ear piercings (or any other piercings). That is not to say, however, that I had no interest in other forms of body modification. On the contrary, I had been craving a tattoo for years. A little after my 19th birthday I decided that it was time to finally get my first tattoo and, of course, that meant that I had to do some research. In my quest for both pictures and information, I discovered BMEzine. Needless to say tattoos were not the only thing that I looked at upon finding this place and I soon began browsing piercing pictures as well and among those pictures were stretched ears. I had, of course, seen people around with stretched ears but this was the first time that I really noticed and paid attention. And once I did notice, I discovered that I loved them and wanted a pair for myself. Nothing to big, I told my self, maybe around a 2 or a 0 gauge. And so began my barrage of research on how to stretch my ears properly.
Because it had been so long since I had worn earrings in my ears the holes had long since grown over. This was a new step for me and I wasn't about to make the same mistakes that I had made as a child and try to force a blunt piercing stud through them. Instead I was going to do things the proper way, by going to a proper piercing studio and getting a proper piercer to pierce them with a proper needle. The place I decided on was Urge, the same place that I had gotten my first tattoo and the same place that I had gotten my nipples pierced (another experience altogether) a couple of months prior. Upon arrival I spoke to the piercer and explained what I wanted to do. He took a look at my ears and figured that he could just taper them open for me rather than piercing them again, which is exactly what he did. Upon leaving I now had a pair of 16 gauge captive bead rings in my ears. In retrospect, were I to go back and do it all over again I probably would have gotten him to repierce them properly and at a slightly larger gauge rather than just have them tapered open. Not only was 16 ga a very small size to start at but I was soon to discover that my holes were slightly uneven. Nevertheless, I was happy with my new old holes, if a little worried that I might have the same problems with infection and irritation that I had experienced in the past.
Prior to my first stretch I had done extensive research on BME to figure out just what the best method would be so that I did not destroy my ears in the process. I have always been of the mind set that it is better to learn from others mistakes than to make the same mistakes yourself and, although this researched helped me a great deal, my stretches were nevertheless still no perfect, mostly because of my own impatience.
I did my first stretch about a month after I got my ears reopened. About a week prior to doing this stretch I had switched the CBRs in my nipples to straight barbells. Since my nipple jewelry was done at 14 ga I thought they would make the perfect jewelry for my first stretch. I had also decided that for my first stretch a taper probably wouldn't be necessary, but for every stretch after that, barring one, I used a taper. My actual initial stretch was uneventful, although the fight that I had with the CBRs afterward were far more dramatic and noteworthy. For the stretch all I did was put some lube onto the new jewelry, take the old jewelry out and slip the new jewelry in. It was easy and pain free and I met virtually no resistance. However, all was not well. This was the first time that I had tried to close a captive bead ring and, to say the least, it was not as easy as it looked. I fought with them for nearly an hour, first trying to just use my fingers to force them closed and then use a cloth and my fingers. This didn't work and just left me with very sore fingers. Finally I decided to use a pair of pliers with some tape around the prongs. With this method I had partial success. The ring closed around the bead enough so that the bead was not going to fall out but not enough so that it was securely in there. More than once I had one or the other of the beads fall out and would have to go through the painful process of trying to close it all over again. My first adventure (and it really was an adventure) was enough to strongly dissuade me from ever using CBRs again, at least in my ears and from then on I would use circular barbells.
My next stretch up to 12 ga I did far sooner than I had meant to due to the fact that the beads from my CBRs never were securely attached and kept falling out. I told myself that since I was only stretching up from 14 ga to 12 ga, a relatively small stretch, it wouldn't matter that I was doing it a couple of weeks earlier than I should be. About two weeks after my first stretch I did my second stretch. This time I used a stainless steel taper and y jewelry of choice as a pair of 12 gauge circular barbells. Despite the use of the taper it was definitely more difficult than my initial stretch, probably because I stretched so soon after the last one. This time I lubed up the taper and stuck it into my ear. It met some resistance but I managed to get it through without undue stress. My left ear was more difficult than my right ear and was defiantly a little sore afterwards and for the next couple of days. This would prove to be a pattern in my future stretching endeavors. I was a little worried that I had done some serious damage to my ears because I foolishly decided to stretch early, but as it turned out my body is fairly resilient and after a couple of days of being a little more tender than usual, my ears recovered fully.
My next 4 stretches were all rather similar in nature. They were done between one and two months apart each. I want from 12 ga up to 10 ga, then 8 ga then 6 ga then 4 ga. I was to discover in the process of doing these stretches that my ears didn't really like stretching. It didn't really matter whether I waited 4 or 8 weeks between stretches and I wasn't really patient enough to wait longer than that, but each stretch got progressively more difficult. With the exception of my initial stretch, none of my stretches were painless and all of them encountered some resistance. Perhaps I should have waited longer, but I really didn't have the patients for it. The pain accompanying them was not unbearable but it was definitely noticeable and my ears tended to remain tender for a few days after each stretch. Despite this, I never had a tear or a blow out and after a few days of being a little unhappy my ears fully recovered. For me, my 4 ga stretch was somewhat eventful since it was the first time that I was able to wear plugs in my ears, something I had been wanting since I began the process. It was also my most difficult stretch to date.
About 6 weeks after my stretch to 4ga I was ready to go to 2 ga. This is the first time that I made a major mistake. In the past all of my tapers and jewelry I had gotten online. This time, however, I got them at a local store called Culture Craze. Although I knew that their quality of jewelry wasn't as high as what I was used to, there was a sale there and I figured it wouldn't make to much of a difference since I would only be using it for a month or two. So I bought what I thought was a 2 ga talon and 2 acrylic plugs. I had never stretched using a talon before and was a little dubious about using it, but I figured I'd give it a shot. I knew when I got them that the plugs looked rather large compared to my 4 ga ones but I also knew that the jump to 2 ga was supposed to be a big one so I just dismissed it. Much like my previous stretches, I lubed up my talons and stuck them into my ears. However, no matter how much I pushed they wouldn't go in and I eventually gave up. About a week later I came to the conclusion that instead of using the talons I would use the Teflon tape method. Turns out all we had in the house was medical tape so I used that instead and it worked pretty well. Every second day I would put another layer of tape onto my plugs until it was finally large enough to fit my supposed 2 ga plugs in. When I got to that point I was ecstatic. I had worked long and hard to get those plugs to go in and had earned a little enjoyment.
It wasn't until I was ready to begin my next stretch that I discovered what I had suspected all along: those weren't 2 gauge plugs that I had in but were in fact 0 gauge. When I order my 0 ga plugs and taper off of my website of choice and they came in the mail I discovered that they were the exact same size as the ones that were supposed to be a 2 ga. It went a long way towards explaining why it had been so very difficult to get those guys to go in. For the first time I had stretched up two sizes instead of one, something I swore that I would never do. Despite my mistake, all I ended up with were some unhappy ears for a little while and a stretch that took longer than it was supposed to.
Initially I had planned only to stretch my ears up to a 0 gauge. However, now that I knew that I was all ready there I decided that I needed to go just a little bit bigger and then I would stop. Having decided that, I purchased my final taper and my final pair of plugs online. They arrived in the mail about a week and a half later. By this point it had been a little over 2 months since my last stretch and I was itching to get this done with. Ironically, my stretch up to 00 ga was one of the easiest stretches that I have ever done. It was also the one in which I encountered my most severe problem: a blowout. Strangely, the tapers slid through both of my ears with minimal resistance. They were a little tender for a couple days afterwards, but that was nothing that I wasn't used to by now. About three days after the stretch I removed my plugs one my one to clean them. My ears always lymph quite a bit after a stretch so cleaning them is a necessity. However, to my horror, my right ear had developed quite a significant blowout. I was horrified and crushed. It had been one of my easiest stretches and yet this had happened. Thankfully, the resiliency of my body's ability to heal saved me once again. Although I knew that I should probably downsize that ear and then stretch up again later, I had far to much pride (ego?) to do that. When I originally slid my jewelry in I went from front to back, thus creating a blowout in the back of my ear. This time I decided to go from back to front, thus forcing the flap of skin back into my ear. After doing this I checked on in and cleaned it every day and, four or five days later, the blowout was gone. My ear had completely reabsorbed it. About a month later, and both of my ears are happy and healthy 00 ga.
It has been just over a year since I first started stretching my ears. For the most part it has been a good experience for me. I tried to do things right, even though I know that I was far from perfect, an I did as much research as I could before hand. Despite some of the problems that I have had in the process, I am glad that I had to go through it in order to get to the size that I am at right now. I feel that I've truly earned the plugs that I now get to wear. In some ways I'm kind of sad that I'm finished. There was a real sense of being on a journey, taking steps towards trying to achieve a goal. Well, now that goal is achieved and I feel the loss of no longer striving for that special something. However, I am completely satisfied with the way things turned out and I don't think that I would change anything. For anyone considering stretching their own ears, I would highly recommend it. Just make sure you do your research before hand, leave enough time between stretches, and don't skip sizes.