So..I wanted to re-pierce my ears for a long time but due to the nature of wrestling, my ears take a lot of abuse. Luckily, I think, I hurt my neck and had to stop training which gave me a great chance to finally get some needles stuck into me. I figured I would have a few months to let them heal..rather under-estimating the addictive nature of the whole stretching game.
At A Glance Author kidtofu When A month ago Artist Camila Studio Tusk Location London, UK I was fairly sure that I wanted to wear the cool looking plugs I had seen around at various studios and online, so I figured I would get pierced at a larger size if possible. Nothing drastic, the idea of dermal punching or scalpelling scared the bollocks off me so I was aiming for 2mm or something. Most of the people I talked to at various piercers told me they would use BCRs, which I hate, and that they had no larger barbells I could use. BCRs are generally thought to be easier to clean and most people don't seem to have a problem with them but having worn them in the past I knew I didn't want that look at all and was determined to find an alternative or give up the idea all together. (I should note that I was yet to discover any of the huge barbells I have since found online!)
Feeling slightly depressed about it I retired to one of my country homes and spent some time reading up on the various studios in London. It seemed that Tusk in Holborn had a pretty good reputation and I remembered I had wandered past some months previously and had thought the layout looked pretty clean and professional. With fingers crossed, I walked out of work on my lunch break one day, jumped on the tube and headed their way, desperately hoping they might carry some larger barbells.
After arriving and talking to the super friendly staff I found out they could pierce me at 3.2mm and stretch to 4mm straight away..doing away with any steel and going straight to some cool little black plugs. No need for those big ugly BCRs! All of this info was very exciting but I decided to go grab some 'food' and think about it for 5 minutes.
My main concerns were unwanted attention, feeling I had been through my wacky external self expression stage when younger and was possibly too old for all of this, time to settle down with a nice career, family, pension, decent portfolio...cough...I was also a bit concerned about scarring but had read that 6mm was widely considered to be the limit for those wanting their holes to close up nicely so I wasn't particularly worried about 4mm. (BME was a huge help in gaining info on my piercing of choice so i hope this write up can be of use to others) Anyway, I left the studio and popped across the road for a Snickers bar and some orange juice. Healthy! Feeling refreshed and sugared up, I decided to do it.
The young lady that pierced me was very nice and gentle and the whole process was in a super clean room..all very reassuring.
She spent a while getting the position right and re-marked it a few times, checking that I was happy with it and enquiring how big I was planning to go and explaining that she would pierce a little higher than normal if I was planning on stretching up to a much larger size.
The first sensation as the needle went in was strange rather than painful..I had my lip, nose and ears pierced when younger but this needle was pretty freaking big! I did my best not to look at it during the whole procedure.
As I had read online, I found one ear was a little tougher than the other, we agreed that it was probably due to scar tissue from previous piercings. I had 2 or 3 holes in each ear pierced with a gun, yikes, when I was about 12 or 13.
The immediate stretch was a really hot, burning sensation but actually very pleasant and over with in no time at all.
After checking out my hot, red ears and the sexy new plugs, I paid the bill, got the aftercare advice and headed back to work.
My ears healed really fast and I can happily report that I had no problems at all.
One word of advice..I remember thinking that 4mm was going to be my limit...pah! After you get used to each size the temptation to stretch is too great to ignore! After a few weeks I bought a 6mm steel taper and some 5mm flared eyelets and pushed the holes to 5mm, about 3/4 of the way up. Again..this didn't really hurt and quite a sense of achievement was felt afterwards. I picked up some cool plugs and tunnels and stuff and was very happy...for a few more weeks! Another set of steel tunnels paid for and the
taper finally went all the way through and welcome to 6mm :)
The only downside I can see to this stretching lark are the jewellery costs..it's hard to stay at a particular size for long so the key is not splashing out on loads of cool jewellery that you will just discard after a month or so. Also, I initially thought 6mm would open up a world of cool plugs but in reality I found most of them are double flared and really need
a comfortable 7 or 8mm hole to fit no matter how much clever, lubed up, button style fastening you try and do.
I can highly recommend Tusk to anybody in London wanting quality service and super nice staff.