This might be quite long, but it's my fairly detailed story.I had just recently lost my pair of standard earlobe piercings, and my only piercings. This was something I didn't really see coming, and was quite disappointing.
At A Glance Author Nina Contact Nina@bme.anon When It just happened I had my ears first pierced when I was a baby. So I don't remember a thing about experiencing getting my lobes pierced. I lived through with a standard lobe piercing which was at about 18g. I was always fascinated with stretched earlobes, because I would see many people around the city with them and I would see native tribes with stretched lobes as well.
My first experiments started first reading stories on BME,lots of googling,and endless questions to one who had gauged lobes. Highly influenced and saturated with stories, I tried out a couple of methods to start off the stretch. First I took a regular type of hoop earring, which must have been a 16g, and struggle getting it through the hole by pre-stretching it with toothpicks snapped in half.( I used alcohol at the time to sterilize them.)Eventually, I was able to successfully get them in. My friends said they were very red, so I ended up removing them.
After a month or so, I decided I wanted to use official body jewelry and learned they were better than using studs etc. I went to Hot Topic and bought a 3 pack of 14g CBRs(Captive Bead Rings), got them in with no problem, the right one bled a little, but they were fine.
I stuck with 14g lobes for a year, then I moved up to 12g with acrylic pinchers with no problems.
5 months after moving up to a 12g, I bought 10g pinchers&plugs that were clear acrylic. They first hurt like hell when putting them, until I used some lube to ease it. Again, the right lobe reacts. The whole lobe was swelling into almost a ball and it was making me freak out.As soon as I remove the pincher,blood and pus started pouring from the lobe onto my shirt and the floor. It was a complete mess. Within minutes I had a trash can full of bloody cotton pads, and my right lobe deflated back to it's normal size. I then got a new disposable gargle cup, filled it with warm water and 2 teaspoonfuls of kosher sea salt, mixed it with a cotton swab and soaked my lobe in it for 10 minutes. The bleeding stopped, and the pus was gone, but the lobe hole closed, and still a fresh wound.
After that happened, I downsized back to a 14g for both ears, then I gradually started to stretch again in weeks. I learned that using acrylics for stretching is a no no.Then I bought surgical steel pinchers and plugs, they went in with no problem at all.
The stretch to a 10g with steel jewelry worked perfectly, and I had decided to use the same method with the rest of the sizes. I went to an 8g and I thought I would stop there, but they still seemed small to my likings.
So 5 days ago I decided it was time to move to a 6g. I took a warm shower first to soften the skin a bit. I think I might have put so much force on the pincher through the lobe, because my ears were in sooooo much pain. I used ice to calm down the pounding that was coming from it and it was getting warm and red. I thought that was supposed to be normal for any new piercing/stretch.For 2 days I was cleaning it with saltwater soaks twice a day, and they were doing fine. They were on their way to a correct healing process, until I forget that my right ear is very sensitive and was healing, I started to play with it and rotate it. It only took minutes for it to become irritated and inflammed.I waited the next day to do something about it. So when the next day, I take the pincher out of the right ear, it was all bloody with pus again, so I cleaned it, and put in a pincher one size smaller.
During the day, it started to get more irritated and puffier and redder. This wasn't a good sign, but I kind of held my ground.
Then yesterday morning, I wake up to find it the same way, with nothing changed. The right earlobe was still infected. So I took the jewelry out, and cleaned it. I left it alone with no more jewelry so it would completely heal.
Couple hours later I notice the left earlobe tingling, then I find it so very very swollen that if would press it, it would spit the plug right out. Since I was at my cousins house at the time, I went to the restroom, washed my hands with Dial (did I mention that I am a clean freak, and sterilize my hands to the extent of OCD?. I took a clean piece of paper towel, layed out the O rings, then slowly and carefully I pulled the plug out to find a load of pus all over the plug and lots of blood from the lobe. I drained out the blood and pus from the lobe for a while till the bleeding stopped, washed the plug.
When I came back home, I did the seasalt soak on the left and right lobe to clean them.
Right now they healed pretty quickly that the holes have completely closed and I might reconsider getting it pierced again. Although I might have to ask the piercer if any type of piercing would be safe again due to the past infections I have experienced.
What I have learned is that no matter how clean you are with your piercings, no matter what materials you have, you should just be patient, eat healthy, and it's more your money's worth if you go to a professional piercer. It will save you time, future payments, well informed aftercare, and the proper process to a piercing/stretching.