Before I start my story there are a few things you should know. First off, I come from a very 'normal' family. Not many people in my family have any piercings, and of those that do I only know of one or two people with more than the standard one hole in each earlobe. One of these is my cousin Dan, who has a cartilage. Because of this, I am 15 and only recently persuaded my mum to let me get my ears pierced. (I did pass up a chance to get them done earlier in life because I was shit scared of needles and didn't know anything about the procedure hence why my younger sister had her lobes pierced before me *cringe*)
At A Glance Author Katie Contact Ktbleedingrose@googlemail.com When Three months ago Artist I never caught her name Studio Salsa and then My House Location Warrington UK The other thing is that I am awfully impatient and have a short attention span. That is, a bad combination of things to have when you're stretching.
Like any story, I'm starting from the beginning. I have stalked BMEzine for quite a while now, and although I have been unable to get a membership (my mum doesn't like the site and it would have to be done by credit card) I have dutifully read up on any body mod I have ever planned to get. Over the years (?) I have decided that I really like the look of stretched lobes, so I decided that I want to have some myself. My first major drawback was that I didn't have my ears pierced. So, after a couple of weeks, I managed to persuade my mum to let me get my ears done. I was originally just going to get it done without her permission, and I went into the only place in town I know that does body piercing (I was determined not to let the people in Claire's get a hold of my ears) Salsa. I went in there to ask a few questions, although I couldn't talk to the piercer, and I found out to my dismay that they didn't do 2mm needle piercings. They only did the standard ones, or 3mm and up with a dermal punch. I don't want to have a lump of tissue taken out of my ear, especially because I am afraid of having holes in my ears that won't heal up. (Yes I'm like that) Anyway, being 15 I couldn't get them done without parental permission and I told the people there I was 15 so there was no point in my going back and lying about my age.
A week or so later I returned with my mum. The look on her face when she went through the door was priceless. One thing about Salsa is that they have bongs in the front window... probably not the best place to bring your parents, but then again I really wanted my ears done. So my mum paid for the thing and I spent the next five or so minutes pacing up and down the bottom floor of Salsa while we waited for the piercer to sterilise her room. When I was finally called up my heart was racing in my chest. Although when I got up there I was a little disappointed. Turns out that my piercings would be gunned, and despite the fact that I knew this wasn't what I wanted, and not the best idea in the world, we had paid and I was there so I was getting it done. I never caught the name of my piercer, but she was really nice. She set me up, and spent quite a while making sure the holes on my ears would be lined up. When my ears were pierced I didn't even flinch, not much of an achievement but the piercer commented that I was awesome and she'd love to pierce me again, to which I replied I'd love to come back and my mum was horrified...
For the first two or three weeks I washed my ears religiously two or three times a day. After that they seemed to be healed, but I thought to be safe I'd keep the earrings in for the full six weeks. The amount of cleaning my ears received slowly deteriorated at that point, from twice a day, to once a day, to a few times a week. I would never recommend you do that. Like I said at the start I have a short attention span and no patience, so I got lazy with my cleaning. After a while of this I got what I thought was an infection, I didn't dare tell my mum, but I just started cleaning a lot more and hoped it would clear up. Turns out I was wrong, mostly because it wasn't an infection, as I was to find out when I tried to remove my earrings.
Finally the day had come when those blasted studs could come out, and I could finally get started on stretching my ears. The reason I got them pierced in the first place. However I hit a major drawback. The studs weren't made of proper materials, and the backs of them had corroded and melded together. So the ten minutes I had spent yanking at the backing of my earrings until my ears were sore and one was bleeding was of no use. At this point I would like to say that I don't completely blame Salsa, or my piercer. As I have said she was awesome, and everyone else I have know to get pierced at Salsa for anything else (lip rings mostly) have never had any problems with their piercings. I do however completely blame the earring manufacturers. So we had to cut my earrings off me, and I had to put in some nice plain studs and leave them to heal. Putting back my ideas of stretching by a week or so.
When I got round to putting the 14ga barbells in I found that my ears had healed better than I thought. In fact I found I had some trouble getting my normal earrings through the hole at the back of my ear! So I stuck two earrings in the hole, one going through from the front and the other from the back, for a few nights until they didn't feel sore any more. When I tried again the bar went through with minimal pain, just a little burning, and didn't hurt after a couple of hours. The same with my other ear. I was happy I'd finally started off on the way to getting my plugs.
Those barbells spent about three weeks in my ears. As I'd put the left one in earliest this was the one that got loose first, so that was the one I decided to first test with the 3mm taper. I found that I couldn't get it more than a few millimetres into my ear without finding a lot of resistance and a fair amount of pain. I probably could have just pushed through, but I'm not a huge fan of pain, and I didn't want to push it, so I decided to put in the 12ga barbell that had for some reason come with my packet of 14ga barbells. Maybe it was a mistake, whatever; it was a good thing anyway. So with minimal pain and discomfort I managed to get the barbell through my ear. As with the 14ga barbells my ears just felt full and slightly heavy, and for the first couple of days it was sore to try and move the barbell. As the other ear was loose, I started putting some of my normal earrings in with my 14ga bar. I'd put a new one in, and then after a few days when it was healed (or I thought it was healed anyway) I pushed another one in.
After about a week I had four earrings and a 14ga bar in my right ear, and the 12ga bar in my left ear was loose. So, me being me and rather impatient I decided to push ahead. I took everything out of my ears and started by pushing the 12ga through my right ear. That went in easily, it seems I managed to stretch my ears far enough with just the earrings to allow for the bar to go through. With the 3mm taper I found slightly more difficulty. As I got to pushing it through I realised I'd forgotten to bring my Vaseline from downstairs, and I was in trouble as it was for stretching my ears and my mum was downstairs I decided I couldn't go downstairs to grab it. So I went ahead without any lubrication. It was painful. Not hugely so, but a sharp stinging followed by a burning sensation that I disliked. I checked the ear carefully for any sign of a blowout or bleeding, but I saw none thankfully. This done I slid the o-rings on the ends of the taper. Put my hair back down and left it to settle- it was still very sore.
Time passed, a few weeks I think, though I'm bad at time keeping so it could have been longer or shorter. Both my ears felt loose so I decided to move up a gauge. The barbell came out and in went the 3mm taper, that hurt a little, more burn than pain, but after a few seconds it had settled down and rather surprisingly moved in and out of the hole without much fuss. So I went to go up to 4mm with the other. The taper slid in way too easily. I knew this wasn't right, and seeing as I was going into town anyway I decided to get the people in Salsa (the shop that sold me the tapers) to check it out. A different girl served me this time and confirmed what I had guessed. That was a 3mm taper. So I had to shell out extra money to get a 4mm one that was actually 4mm.
Once I'd done that I moved my curved blue 3mm one into my right ear because I thought it looked better and then proceeded to try and get the 4mm through my left ear, while my friend looked on going "wow that so cool!". The 4mm was being a stubborn git and I actually found it quite painful, but being the sort of person I am I just forced it though, figuring the burning sensation would go away. That was when my friend turned around and said "is that alright? It looks like its bleeding." I assured her it was fine and my ears usually turn a bit red after a stretch because they've been stretched. I was wrong.
The pain went away, but only after an hour or so of burning and soreness. And even after that it was incredibly tender to the touch.
When I cleaned them the next day I found out my ears had been bleeding, and still were a little. I cleaned them up really good with the salt solution until there was no blood left and I think it had just stopped bleeding. Gingerly I re-inserted the tapers and just left them to heal, cleaning twice a day at least. After four or five days they had healed nicely but I kept up with the cleaning regime. Now I can creep people out by sticking the straws from ribena cartons through my ears and I'm constantly getting comments like "Oh my god! Does that go all the way through your ear?" and "take it out, take it out, I want to see the hole. Ewwww!" which never ceases to make me smile. My mother also found out and told me I was "mutilating my body" and would "need plastic surgery to get rid of those huge holes" so I'll "never get into college, or university and every job I got for will turn me down because of my ears." All the usual stuff. Considering my ears are still only 4mm (6 gauge I think) I don't want to be telling her that I'm considering stretching up to 6mm when I get into sixth form, =]
So as an end note, I have two holes in my ears that I am very happy with and I can't wait to get them bigger. However the method I used wasn't the safest and I did have to put up with a decent amount of pain during the process. I never waited enough time between stretches, and I regret that. But I'm also very impatient and I doubt I will have learnt my lesson for when I go up to 6mm. But the rest of you please do learn from my experience and in no way use me as a guide for stretching your own ears. You will experience pain, possibly a blowout (I have been very lucky) and everything might not turn out so well.
Thanks for reading
Katie