I started stretching my single lobe holes early this year, beginning from 20 or 18g holes that were gunned as a gift from my grandma when I was ten (that's 22 years ago when I had no idea about piercing with needles). I'm currently at 10g and about to stretch to 8, and 6 will be my stopping point since as it turns out they were gunned slightly too low on my lobes and I want something easily reversible. It's fun and I was really excited about it, but then I saw a picture of lobe orbitals on BME and knew I needed orbitals in my lobes.
At A Glance Author Iregirl Contact Iregirl@bme.anon When It just happened Location Toronto, Ontario I decided to do them myself solely for financial reasons. I wanted to keep my original lobe holes for stretching up with and have 14g orbitals above them. I have somewhat small lobes so I knew that the topmost orbital holes would be the most painful ones, as close to the cartilage as they are. I also 'knew' that I couldn't have the look of an orbital right away, since I read that it's better to let the holes heal with their own rings. (I'll get to why that's not quite what happened.)
So, I boiled my jewelry, got out the rubbing alcohol, cotton wipes and a needle and prepared myself to poke holes in my ears, starting on the right.
Lobes are surprisingly low-pain. I won't say pain-free, but it's a lot less pain than one would expect. The sounds are interesting, too, since you hear the needle going through the layers of skin very clearly. They're also tougher than you'd think. I had to push harder than I expected, but just kept at it and finally felt (and heard) the final break of the skin at the back. I'd done my reading on other people's experiences, so I let the pin sit for about five minutes. I could have let it sit longer, but I wanted to get on with things since I had three more holes to go.
Unfortunately, the jewelry was too big to go through. This is common, of course, but I thought I'd matched the needle size to the jewelry size. I ended up sanitizing a 12g SSS arch talon as best I could and easing the tapered points through the hole a little to widen things up. It stung a lot what with the rubbing alcohol and slight stretching, but it worked to get the 14g circular barbell through. I did the corresponding hole on my left ear in exactly the same way and moved on to the upper holes.
I started with the right again after marking off where the hole should be by swinging the circular barbell around from the first hole without the bead on. The only other ear jewelry I had that I thought were appropriate for healing was a pair of 18g circular barbells that had come in a pack with some others that I'd bought. I figured I'd let them heal, then stretch up. As I'd expected, these holes were more painful to pierce and also more difficult to get through, seeing as they were right where the lobe is ending and the cartilage starting. The worst part, though, was getting the teeny little jewelry through the holes. The end kept getting lost inside the fresh hole and moving around. I eventually discovered that coming in from the back works much better than the front, but this hole in particular was very sore and irritated afterward.
The last hole in my left ear went a bit better than the the one in the right, especially since I knew to insert the jewelry from behind this time. Getting the ridiculously tiny ball ends on was another difficulty, but since I have small hands and fingers it wasn't too bad, just fiddly.
After I was all finished I wiped my ears down with alcohol and admired my new piercings. I felt a bit faint and trembly after all that, so went and had a Coca Cola and relaxed, feeling that fresh piercing burn in my ears.
It's been a few weeks now and as of yesterday things were looking great for my bottom orbital holes, but the top ones were problematic, especially at the point on the back nearest the edge of my ear. My cartilage felt angry and if I touched it there was always a searing sharp pain there. I was worried that I had infections, but the holes themselves weren't acting up any more than the bottom ones in terms of lymph or pus. There wasn't undue swelling, either. I was a bit puzzled. I'd been keeping up on my salt soaks and trying to keep my hands off them otherwise.
I thought about it, and after looking in the mirror at them for a while realized that the sorest points were where the barbell naturally lay against the rear curve of my ear. I think that at night when I was sleeping the very thin steel was pressing into that point and irritating it. So, I made the decision to switch to orbitals immediately. I first took out the 14g circular barbells and cleaned them thoroughly, then reinserted them and cleaned the side that would be traveling through the upper holes. Then I removed the 18g barbells and did my trick with the 12g talon, gently stretching up the hole a bit. It didn't hurt much at all, surprisingly, and I quickly passed the 14g through before they shrank back down. Getting the balls back on was much easier with the larger gauge, thankfully.
That was it! I stood back and looked at my gorgeous new orbital piercings! They're exactly what I wanted. The best part is, the pain in my outer cartilage almost immediately went away. This morning it was down to a dull ache if I touched it, and now it's just a twinge if I really poke around (which I'm not doing, of course).
So that's the story of my lovely orbitals. I hope to have pictures up soon, and I'll be writing the story of my most recent self-done piercings as well. Self-piercing is risky, of course, and it takes a lot of common sense, planning and personal responsibility. Don't do it if you're going to be stupid about it!