" I have no intentions on stretching my ears, I like the way they look but it doesn't do anything for me, you know what I mean?"
At A Glance Author Steph Contact Steph@bme.anon IAM sweetcheeks When Three months ago Artist Me
Me during a conversation with my husband.Here's my small journey into a realm that I thought that I would never ever in a million years participate in. I have nothing against stretched lobes or anything else for that matter, it just wasn't my deal. Hubby had them done and scores of other people I know and as much as I didn't mind the look of them I quite simply just couldn't be bothered with them. Never say never though because that decision was changed in an instant the minute I got a beautiful package in the mail from my good friend Dallas (IAM: AnotherHole). You're likely asking yourself why I would bother to buy anything from Another Hole that was in relation to plugs since I was no into stretching.
One day while browsing through people's pages and forums I stumbled upon IAM:Total's page and he needed a logo and was also searching for a new slogan for his website Tuflon.com so he started a contest and if your graphic/slogan was one of the chosen ones you get rewarded by cool custom jewelry from the man himself. So I thought why not, I have nothing stretched but seeing as how I own my own business that it's body modification related I could just sell them. Well I didn't win, can't recall who did not that it matters as I only tinker around with doing graphics. However Dallas thought that it was a great idea so I was contacted through him VIA private message and was invited to join his contest. Same idea as totals with the same rewards.
Well this time I did win and Dallas contacted me and asked me what I liked and I told him just to surprise me with something nice. Seeing as how I had nothing stretched I asked my husband if there was something that he happened to like on Dallas's website and he really wanted the Hollow star plugs. So I told Dallas that I was going to get something for hubby to which he said I should have something for me as well and he would compensate me with something else that I could enjoy. So I gave him the run down of what I had pierced and what size I was at and told him to surprise me. I got a killer package in the mail that had some really lovely pieces of jewelry in it including 14g starter plugs.
Jeff was a little disappointed because I had gotten a different pair that what he had originally asked for which wasn't a big deal, he got over it quick because he was planning on going bigger anyway. So when I got home from work I wanted to see what Jeff was ogling over and when I seen these which Jeff felt were a little too "girly for him" I fell in love and instantly knew that I had to wear them! Problem was my lobes were gunned way back in the day and were I'm guessing to be about a 20g. So I worked in the 14g plugs that Dallas was kind enough to include with my fabulous goodies and I won't lie they hurt going in and it wasn't easy. Of course it's not like I bothered to read up on stretching or anything at this point.
Work posed a bit of an issue because I wasn't allowed to wear jewelry so I took them out while I was working and just tucked them into a napkin and shoved them into my pocket. I didn't bother to put them back in when I was done and just opted to wait until I got home and while I was emptying out my pockets I placed the napkin that they were still wrapped in and got caught up in something else and basically forgot about them for a few hours. Well Jeff had come home and accidentally threw them out. Minor oversight, so he gave me some 14g CBR's to put in instead. Those too posed an issue because I can't wear anything like that at work and I figured since I was taking the summer off of work I would deal with it than and that's exactly what I did. In the meantime I was on the IAM regifting forum and gothicphoenixx had some 8g acrylic plugs that she was willing to send out.
So I thought well once I move on from CBR's I'll need plugs to use as a base seeing as how I was planning on using tape to move on up from there. So I contacted here and we worked out all of the details and she told me that it would be better if I got my own O rings because she had read somewhere that it's been to have them new as opposed to used. I had no problems with that since on one of our gift exchanges on IAM I was given a $25.00 gift certificate to BME shop. So I picked up some 8g clear silicone O rings and put it all aside and waited for summer.
Finally on May 5th I was freed from that prison that is my job and I dug out my 14g CBR's put them back in my ears and I waited for a couple of weeks for them to stretch and heal. Not so painful this time as the CBR's went in with relative ease. After I felt that I was ready I moved onto 12g curved barbells that I had from a prior piercing and those went in almost too easy and I thought I could move onto 10g really easily and just skip the 12g all together but Jeff advised against it. Even though blowout and ripping which can lead to things like scar tissue are not that common with smaller sizes I wasn't looking to take any chances with my ears.
I'm not that vain but still, who wants ugly lobes. So I kept the 12g in for about 3 days and moved onto my 10g ½" CBR's. Than I noticed a difference and decided to hold off a little while because I liked the look of them for one thing and I figured the more I move up the more patient I need to be. I thought that I had given them ample time to weigh down naturally and I left them in for about a month. Than I moved on to the 8g acrylic plugs that I had been itching to put in since I got them. Funny how fast I went from no desire to stretch to not being able to wait to get to my ultimate goal of 0g. I got my CBR's out and as I was trying to insert my 8g ones which I lubed up with some antibiotic ointment because it was all my mom had at her place, the groove for the O rings was really deep and got stuck in the middle of my ear. That hurt, a lot! I was a little miffed because I had no way to get my 10g jewelry back in and my lobe felt like it was on fire so I preserved and managed to get the 8g in. I se cured my O rings in place and I was happy with that for the moment.
Because of the difficulty I had experienced I decided that it was best to wait a while before moving onto electrical tape. I was a little leery of using acrylic and electrical tape because my ears are super sensitive and I can't wear all materials. Thankfully for me I had no adverse reactions from either of them at the start. So once I felt that I was ready to move on I removed my plugs, washed them off with anti-bacterial soap and wound the tape around twice. Lubed it up with some Polysporin and tried to insert them. I couldn't get them in all the way without them hurting a great deal. They were quite snug but I though well I'm halfway there so I'll leave them in and gently try to coax them in throughout the day. Took me three days to get them in all of the way comfortably and they stung for the rest of the day and after getting up in the morning they were okay.
I did this every few days sometimes I would tape it twice, sometimes only once I just had an intuition of what would work and what wouldn't and paced myself. I thought since I was going to 0g that was a big jump so I started searching around for some stainless steel plugs that I could switch them up to because I didn't want to use that much tape. Since IAM has a jewelry exchange I did some shopping on there, I didn't want to spend a ton of money and since we didn't carry the sizes I needed and weren't due to put another order in a for a while this was the perfect solution. I thought I might have had a hard time finding what I needed since most items on there are quite large but thankfully IAM:vienna had exactly what I was looking for. So I took some 4g and some 6g plugs off of her hands and kept up with my tape in the meantime.
I have no idea what size I got to when the trouble started. After re-inserting my newly taped plug my ear got bitchy and irritated within minutes after insertion. At first I didn't think twice about it since my lobes always get like that at first. It was just the right one and it didn't get better after two days. I started to get concerned about the irritation but my ear looked okay and none the worse for the wear. I knew that I had my new stuff coming in soon so I wasn't too panicked about it. Thankfully it arrived the following day and after autoclaving it I thought well these should fit but wasn't a hundred percent sure about that. So in the bathroom I went washed my hands with anti-bacterial soap and tried to remove the plugs that I had in. There posed quite a bit of an issue. They were literally stuck inside my lobes. I think due to a combination of it being so hot and with there being so much tape on the plugs themselves that the tape had shifted and moved which exposed the adhesive.
My left one was a bit difficult but my right one which was giving me hassles wasn't be as co-operative. I had to remove the actual plug first which left the tape lodged in my ear and that had to be removed second. That was the leading cause of my irritation since they were stuck in there like that. They felt a hundred times better after the removal and I took some warm water and some anti-bacterial soap and washed the stuff out of and off of my lobes and inserted the 4g plugs with no hassles at all. They were a perfect comfortable fit and the felt instantly better. So I guess I skipped over the 6g mark but that's okay. If I ever need to downsize for some reason I have something to fall back on. I know I'm ready to move up because I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm actually past 4g but I'm in no rush at the moment to go any bigger.
Most people say that you'll end up going bigger than what you originally planned. I on the other hand can't because of my job and my future career choice as an interior designer I have to keep things somewhat simple and not too huge. I did buy some more beautiful plugs from Dallas that look like great big diamond earrings so I know that I can wear those when dealing with a client since they don't look like plugs and hopefully they won't freak people out since some people are still anti mod in this day and age. Hopefully I'll be able to wear my beautiful 0g jewelry soon, I'm almost there and I'll be patient in my quest. After all the horror stories I have read I have no problems with that. Jeff still mocks me by saying" I don't want to stretch my ears they don't do anything for me." I still blame Dallas for making me want to stretch my ears but I do mean that in the most loving way possible.