At A Glance Author Emma Contact everythinghitsonce@hotmail.com When It just happened Artist myself Studio my bedroom/bathroom. sterilised of course. Location texas, US I started stretching about three or four months after my thirteenth birthday, and luckily, I haven't had too many problems with my lobes since then.
I've had my bottom lobes pierced since I was about five, and as long as I can remember, I've been absolutely fascinated with all sorts of body mods. My older sister had her ears pierced eight or nine times each, along with her septum and navel, and growing up I always thought it was really pretty so I decided I would get as many piercings as she had.
As a lot of you know, body mods are extremely addicting, and once I had achieved my goal of eight in each ear, I felt that it wasn't nearly enough, so I started looking up all sorts of different mods. At the same time, a friend of mine had started stretching his lobes to 00g/9.5mm. When I saw how his were turning out, I knew I had found my mod.
Being as young as I was, I knew my parents would never let me do anything that "drastic" to myself, but of course, I did it anyway and listened to them complain. When I started the stretch, I was very uninformed about the proper way to stretch a piercing, and I jumped from a standard 16g to a 12g. Not too smart, I know. Luckily Mother and Father dearest didn't notice it.
I'm not proud of it, but my next stretch was even worse. It had only been about two weeks since I put the 12g in, and I was browsing good old Hot Pocket (Hot Topic... someone else on here used the same nickname my friends and I use for the store) with my best friend when I saw these beautiful 4g claws. Even though my ears were nowhere near the right size for the jewelry, I bought them anyway. (They were on sale, and I'm impulsive. Need I say more?) My friend and I went straight to the mall's bathroom to put them in. Skipping 3mm was not a good idea. The tip of the claws barely fit in my lobes, but being the stupid kid I was at the time, I told my friend "Just shove them through. I don't care how much it hurts, just ignore it if I start crying."
It took almost 15 minutes to get the left one through, and without even looking in the mirror, I told her to do the other one before I changed my mind. When it was done, I cautiously looked in the mirror and was surprised at what I saw. I loved the size, but my ears were bright red and bleeding, and when I checked the backs, I realized I had two blowouts. It wasn't pretty, and it hurt like hell.
Going home and waiting for my mom to notice wasn't exactly fun either. When she finally saw them, she freaked. I don't think I've ever heard her say "f**k" so many times in one sentence. Of course, it didn't end in one sentence, as wonderful as that would've been for me. But she eventually got over it. Well, kind of. She didn't grill me about it constantly, but every time I went up a gauge, she was definitely not happy about it.
I definitely learned my lesson about skipping gauges after that stretch though, and I waited more than a month before I even thought about stretching to a 2g. The story's pretty uneventful for awhile; I was smart and did everything the way I was supposed to. At least until I had made it to 7/16".
A friend at school had stretched his lobes to 3/4" and I wanted to get mine to that size as well, so I asked him if he happened to have any 1/2" or 3/4" tapers/ plugs/ tunnels/ etc he wasn't going to need anymore and offered to pay him, even though he was just going to give them to me, no charge, seeing as how we're friends. A day or two later, he came up to me and handed me this little box without saying anything. I opened it, and inside was this pair of 1/2" tribal spirals (perfect for stretching) and I was so excited, I decided to make the stretch right there in class. (Again, not smart. I know.) I had the back half of the class watching me, just to see if I'd actually do it. I think the majority of them just wanted to see me cry to be honest. But they went though smoothly, with no tearing, bleeding, blowouts, or much swelling. I'm sure there were quite a few disappointed people there; they really wanted to see me writhing in pain. They obviously don't like me too much. But that's beside the point.
The 1/2"ers stayed in for about 2-2 1/2 months, until two days ago when my sister bought me a beautiful pair of 5/8" double flared buffalo horn plugs. She doesn't know much about gauges so she didn't realize how much of a gap there is between 1/2" and 5/8", but you can't return anything to tattoo shops, and they're way too pretty for me to not wear. So I had to go find a pair of tapers (Hot Pocket, $10. How can you say no to that deal?). I haven't managed to get the new plugs in yet, but even if I have to stretch them further just to get the damn flared ends in, I will.
The lesson: Don't EVER skip sizes, not only does it hurt more, but it's dangerous. Skipping a gauge or more can cause blowouts, rips, excessive bleeding from ripping, and scar tissue, making it difficult to stretch farther, not to mention you could even cause yourself to have to downsize, which just plain sucks after putting in all the effort involved in stretching. Don't be a dumbass; consult your local piercer for information on stretching BEFORE you do something that could potentially hurt you.