Ever since I first saw gauged earlobes, I loved the way they looked. I hated eyelets, but plugs were so striking to me. My earlobes were pierced since I was six years old, but I barely ever wore earrings, and often had to re-pierce my ears because the holes had grown shut. Earrings just looked weird on me. So when I considered gauging, it didn't bother me that I probably wouldn't ever be able to wear earrings again.
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact anonymous@bme.anon When N/A A little over a year ago, I decided to gauge my ears. I re-pierced the holes then let them heal with my 14 gauge studs. A friend of mine was gauging her ears before me, and had pinchers and tapers she let me use to gauge up.
When I went into gauging, I didn't do research. I asked my friend how to gauge up, and she told me you had to use tapers or pinchers, since they slowly stretched your ears as opposed to forcing a gauge in. At the beginning, I gauged up WAY too fast, and I was really lucky I didn't screw up my ear majorly. I would force a pincher or plug through, wait a few days, then force the next one through. Once I got to 8 gauge, I got a little smarter. I slowed down, always used tapers, and made sure everything was healed up and fully stretched before moving on to the next size. Everything worked out...until I finally went up to 7/16.
For quite a while I had kept a pair of rose quartz 00 plugs in. They were double flared and heavy, and after 2 months, they were slipping out all the time. It got to the point where if I tilted my head forward, or held the phone against my ear, the plug would fall out. I figured since my ears were fully stretched, probably almost to the next gauge, if I ordered the next gauge pair of plugs, I could put them through without having to use a taper. I ordered a pair of blue double flared glass plugs. As soon as I got them, I saw how beautiful they were, and naturally I wanted to put them in. I stood in front of the mirror, trying to force one through my left ear for an hour before giving up.
Since I didn't research gauging, and wasn't smart about it, I didn't know the risks that went along with gauging improperly. The edges of the flares on the plug were very sharp, and ended up cutting my ear a bit, making it bleed, and causing a blowout. I had no idea what the blowout was; I had never seen, nor heard of one before.
I put in my old gauges and thought the blowout would heal back up by itself. All I knew was that it looked like my ear had swelled up, and I figured the swelling would go down and heal up in a couple of days if I cleaned it and left it alone. It didn't. A flap of skin grew and healed on the back of my ear, and I had no idea what to do. When it still didn't disappear, I went ahead and tapered up, then put the glass plugs in.
I kept the 7/16 in for a long time until I decided to gauge up again. But this time I researched gauging much more. I looked up information on blowouts. I found on the bmezine encyclopedia that one girl who had experienced a blowout massaged olive oil onto the skin and put in a smaller gauge, and the blowout absorbed back into the tissue.
Recently, I have put in the 00 plug back in my left ear, and at least twice a day I massage olive oil onto the blowout. It has yet to heal, but I can tell the tissue has softened up, and it seems to be shrinking a little. If it doesn't help, I plan on getting an O ring for the plug to help straighten the tissue out a bit more.
My lack of research and information on gauging caused me to screw up the process. I don't regret it, because it caused me to realize I needed to be completely aware of the risks of every piercing I have, and will get in the future. But I am glad that now I am more careful with gauging, and I know how to stretch safely. In the past, I figured I could always do my own piercings without having to pay a professional. I thought it was okay to use a sewing needle for piercings, and then force the earring (or whatever ring) through. So many of my friends had done their own piercings this way. Boy am I glad I realized how dangerous this could really be before I tried anything too serious. I had self pierced my earlobes, my cartilage 3 times, and my lip. Now thinking back, because of the poor piercings, I had problems with all three. My cartilage grew lumps of scar tissue on the backs of the holes, and I had to take the piercings out. My lip ring I took out after only having it for 3 days, but had I kept it in, it would have gotten much worse; I was keeping a regular earring stud in it sometimes, and cleaning it with rubbing alcohol!
Now I know better. Since then, I have only re-pierced my cartilage myself, but with a sterile hollow PIERCING needle and after doing much research, and have not had any trouble with it at all. In the future, I plan on getting my sub clavicles pierced, and almost every day I read information on the piercing. My advice to others who are gauging up, or just getting a new piercing: ALWAYS make sure you are very well informed on taking care of the piercing, and make sure you have done your research. Unless you are a professional, find a reliable piercing artist to do all your piercings. Listen to your body, and if something seems wrong, take your piercing out.
P.S.- I recommend to everyone buying gauges to purchase from bodyartforms.com. They are reliable, and carry quality body jewelry with good prices and amazing customer service.