We have all heard the ominous warnings against stretching too fast. I am cheap and impatient to boot and that could be a recipe for disaster. However, so far I have had good luck but I know better than to push it any further.
At A Glance Author Kait Contact kaitlolz@tmail.com When It just happened Artist me Studio my house Location boston My father is extremely strict and I could not get my ears pierced until I was sixteen, despite numerous pleas. The weekend after I finally tuned sixteen went to a local mall and got them pierced. The 6 week healing period could not pass fast enough, I could not wait to be able to change my earrings. However, once I could I got really grossed out at the thought of putting stuff through holes in my body for some reason. I let them close up but regretted it pretty soon after and had them redone. In the last 3 years, I have had my ears pierced 6 or 7 more times, I have 3 in each lobe as well as 3 in my cartilage. I guess you could say I caught the piercing bug, and I got it bad.
Last year, soon after I turned 18, I got my nostril and lip pierced. I had been toying with the idea of piercing my nose for a few months and the thought of piercing my lip had just started to interest me. One night, after a particularly bad fight with my then boyfriend, I took 2 friends to Mom's Tattoo in Amherst, Mass. I walked in and said I wanted these piercings and walked out not even an hour later totally obsessed with body modification. I went back there a month later to get a chest piece but that is a seperate story. I moved to New York for the summer, and one day decided to pierce my septum. I went to a local shop and had it done, further cementing my love for body mods. A month ago I had my ear cartilage repierced (double on my left and one in the middle on my right) since they had closed up. The next week I had my septum done again (it was pierced too low originally and I had to retire it.)
I am running out of things to pierce since I am technically not allowed facial piercings at my current job and I am still busy saving up for a second tattoo. I was at a mall near my friend's apartment and there was a little body jewelery boutique having a "buy one, get one" sale. Spur of the moment I decided to buy two sets of tapers, one 12 gauge and one 8 gauge. I'm extremely impatient as well as cheap, and I figured those would be safe enough bets. Although most people are pierced at 20 since they get their original lobe piercings at a mall, wearing heavy earrings has stretched mine a little. I had also stuck a pair of 18 gauge hoops in so I knew where I was starting from. I was eager to try my luck, and tried to get the first one in once I was back at my friend's apartment. I settled for getting it halfway in and proceeded to do the same for the other ear. My ears burned slightly and I started to doubt if this was even feasible. When I got home that night, I took a hot shower because I heard that made it easier to get tapers in. This time, instead of pushing straight in, I tried twisting, almost like I was screwing them in. After a few minutes, success! My ears stung but I was a happy camper.
Two days after, I repeated the process but using the 8 gauge tapers. This proved considerably more difficult and my ears throbbed all night. "Crusties" developed overnight and my ears were just generally upset with me.
A night or two later one of the tapers fell out in my sleep because I'd lost an o ring earlier that day. I was scared I'd have to start back at square one but fortunately that wasn't the case. I simply switched the remaining taper into my now empty ear to try to keep it open. I went into town and picked up some 6 gauge spirals. They're glass and very lightweight, I keep forgetting they're in. However my ears had been pretty sore and oozing a lot. After my shower last night I put lots of Neosporin both on my ears and the spirals. My ears are so much happier now! I'm letting them rest a bit but I just placed an order at BAF, I'm going to try my luck with regular plugs for a week or two.
I fully plan to keep on stretching but slower since I'm scared of a blowout. I love the neosporin, it makes things so much easier! My goal size was originally only a 4 but now I'm thinking 0 or 00 but we'll see!