I've had my ears stretched, to some degree, for 10 years now. It was a decision that I made almost instantly after piercing my ears when I was 17. Through the course of the next 10 years I learned a written and oral history of the process that I was undertaking, which only served my passion to make my ears bigger. At one point, my ears were comfortably at an inch and 7/8th. This is the story of how I came to have my ears cut from barely an inch in diameter, up to over an inch and half, and how I currently have 2 inch holes with no signs of stopping.
At A Glance Author Stephen Contact Stephen@bme.anon IAM Sacred When Three months ago Artist Tyler & Sque3z Studio Anomaly Location Pasadena, Ca After piercing my ears myself, using a pair of my moms piercing studs, I began searching for something larger to wear. At this point in my life, I had only read about ear stretching, mainly in old issues of National Geographic in my school library and RE/search's Modern Primitives. I quickly moved through the smaller sizes, finding myself moving along on roughly a monthly schedule. At this point I didn't have a good working knowledge of a time frame in which I should be making my stretches, but by listening to my body, stretching when it was comfortable (physically as well as financially) I found myself at an inch inside of 2 years. I also began and finished my apprenticeship for body piercing and increased my knowledge considerably.
One inch led quickly into an inch and a quarter, then before I knew it, an inch and 5/8th. Time passed and my ears relaxed more and before I knew it, I was wearing beautiful handmade wooden plugs that were an inch and 7/8th. I was well on my way to 2 inches and I was pleased.
At this point in my life, I was 23. It had been 6 years since I had initially made the holes and they were treating me very well. At this point, I embarked on a cross country move from New England to Southern California with my girlfriend relocating for experience and adventure. Inside of 3 months of moving to the Golden State, while traveling on highway 101 North returning from an evening in Hollywood with my best friend, we were struck by a drunk driver in a white pick-up doing roughly 75-80 miles per hour. Traveling in the left most lane of the highway, we were struck in the right rear quarter panel, throwing us into a controlled skid. The driver swung out wide and came back in and hit us in the right front quarter panel this time, driving the nose of the car we were driving directly into the concrete jersey barrier, shearing parts of the car off at first, until it finally caught and throwing us in an uncontrolled spin across 5 lanes of Los Angeles traffic at midnight.
My girlfriend, driving the vehicle, tried to pull us out of the spin, acting as we would in New England on black ice. It was working for a moment, and then we struck the barricade on the far side of the right lane. We slammed into it with almost as much speed as we had been traveling and finally, the car came to a rest. Recognizing that I was not seriously injured, I lept from the car to check on my friends. Both were banged up and scared but with no serious injuries. In the next 120 seconds, I made a few startling realizations: first that the driver that struck us had driven off on, according to witnesses, the rims of 3 blown tires. The second, that an Los Angeles Fire Department training class had been dismissed around a half hour ago and there were fire trucks, paramedics and CHiP Officers on the scene almost immediately after it had happened, and third, that my left ear was incredibly sore.
The car was totaled. The front 2 wheels hung off at odd angles like they were made for hovering instead of rolling. The front end looked like a gutted skull, two cavernous holes where the head lamps should be, fluids running out of it like a beaten boxer waiting for a decision. We made the trip to the hospital and were examined, but I kept the pain in my ear to myself. If there's one thing I had learned through experience, it's that doctor's working knowledge of piercings, let alone stretched lobes, would not serve my best interest. I returned home and began the physical and mental recovery from the accident.
Over the next week, it was becoming readily apparent that damage, while not outwardly visible, had been done to the tissue around the bottom of my left ear. The skin had begun to rapidly thin, going from thick, healthy tissue to a red, scabby mass. I weighed my options and when all was said and done, I decided I would rather lose my plugs than my entire left lobe.
The process of my ear shrinking from an inch and 7/8th was an interesting one to watch. For the next 3-4 years, I debated my options. My ears had healed comfortably and closed to an estimated even inch. I would wear light weights in them occasionally, but more often than not, they were simply naked. It was during this time that, now, I recognize that I was generally, my emotions were behaving quite a bit different. Having the plugs in my ears for so many years, they had become part of my identity. No one else seemed to care quite as much about the loss as I did, and looking back; it affected my mental state quite a bit. Towards the end of the 4 years, I had begun looking into different options, re-stretching, collagen injections, none of which I did with any great effort. In the late part of October 2006, I began to consider another option; Scalpeling my ears to a bigger size.
The tissue in my lobes had thickened in the years without any large plugs in them and even the area that had thinned out was back to a thicker, workable size. After thinking this over for a few weeks, I approached my good friends and partners in crime, Sque3z and Coffiend, about opening me up.
And so, after closing up shop one fine Sunday evening, the deed was set. I had selected a beautiful pair of solid Jade plugs, near an inch and a half wearing surface and a slightly larger flair on either side. With all the preliminaries out of the way, we were ready to begin. Prep consisted of what one would expect, the area to be cut was cleaned and marked. I'll spare the mathematics of the procedure, as for me, this was more about the experience than anything else.
Ive had taken part in some fairly intense procedures in the past. I had recently under gone my first suspension. I wear 3 8g subdermal implants. I don't consider myself a superman by any means but I wasn't extremely comfortable sitting down to face the blade. I had the utmost trust and comfort with my friends in the procedure; it was the scalpel I wasn't too friendly with.
With all in place, I began my deep meditative breathing. Focusing on the breaths I was drawing deep into my chest and on their slow release, the cutting began. The way it felt? Think of the sound that elementary school safety scissors make when cutting through thick construction paper. It was painful and there was blood, two things I am normally fine with, but worse than either of those, this was a completely new type of sensation, and that's what made it so intense.
The cuts were finished and the plugs were inserted into my ears. After not having the weight and feel of large plugs in my head for so many years, I was ecstatic to have it back. Within minutes, I was back in the comfort zone of my favorite jewelry. My ears throbbed and the pain was still considerable, something I was going to come to deal with for the next week.
My ears were secured with gauze tied through the center holes of the plugs for my 30 minute drive home; ironically, passing the exit on the freeway where my original plugs met their end. Once home, the blood had clotted to the gauze, as was to be expected, and I stood under a warm shower for 15 minutes on each ear until the large mass of clotted blood and gauze slipped out of the plug and into the tub. Once clean, I took something for the swelling and attempted to go to bed.
Sleep did not come easy, as I spent most of the night propped up, more dozing than sleeping. I woke up to the expected mess of blood on the T-shirt I had pulled over my pillow as well as the familiar pain that did not allow for sleep to come. I took the next day off of work and remained in bed avoiding physical exertion that would cause any leaks, minding the small amounts of blood and discharge that would occasionally make themselves known. Buy the end of the first full day, the pain was at a minimal level.
For the next week, I delt with the small amounts of blood and the discharge that I could feel on the back of my ears as they slowly healed. After the first week, I was removing them in the shower to clean them with greater ease. After the first 2 weeks, I found that I actually had a lot more room than the initial cuts provided and I moved up to an inch and 5/8th. I had been warned that me ears would stretch very quickly after the cuts, but I was unprepared for exactly how fast they would move. Every other week I would pick up a new set of stone eyelets, which at first would fit wonderfully, but after a full 10 days of wear, daylight could be seen in great amounts towards the top.
At this point, I currently wear 2 inch cobalt blue Pyrex tunnels, and even the small amount of weight of the glass has caused a gap in the tops of each ear. I imagine within another week I will be able to accommodate 2 ¼ inch jewelry, but once again, I must wait until I'm financially comfortable. The emotional and mental effect replacing my plugs has had on me has been immeasurable. I've had friends tell me that I seem like my old self again, though no one ever told me that I seemed depressed or down while they were gone; apparently no one else noticed the slow decline in my mood until it had been boosted back up. As for my current goal? I'm planning on taking my ears as far as they will let me go comfortably, be it 2 ½ or 3 inches or beyond.