To start this off I'll talk a little about my current 'mods', what I'd like to end up at, and my experiences so far which have caused a handful of memorable moments as I work at Target dealing directly with customers all day. Oh, and what happened at work yesterday ahahahahaha.
At A Glance Author Cris Contact ReverieFM@yahoo.com When It just happened Location Bakersfield, CA Bakersfield has been pulling a lot of amazing bands these past few years, and with that you get a community following where piercings and tattoos are very common and almost casual. This is where my curiosity sparked from. You go to a show and meet so many awesome people, I would see their lip rings and stretched ears and the fact that we were all there to see our favorite bands made for instant connections. I started asking where they had theirs done, what the costs were, and about their own personal experiences. I loved how this was a group of kids that took me in with open arms and would never judge me based on something so ignorant as appearance. We were all there for our common appreciation of music, each person is free to live their lives the way they choose, no matter what their personal preference may be, we're all brothers and sisters screaming along to our favorite songs.
Bakersfield isn't as conservative to a certain extent as other places are described, but there seems to be a slightly altered state of ignorance. This new generation of kids are going to these shows, a lot of them are going to want to fit in with their crowd, and they're going to get piercings and tattoos. Why is it so hard for people to accept that. At work I was really quiet and shy at first. I'm like that with everyone though until I get to know more about them. Now that I think about it, it was a serious lack of confidence. I started to see "you're so quiet, you're so shy" as "you're so boring". I wanted to stand out, to have something that would spark that first conversation that I avoided for the longest time. That was my first mod, snakebites! Single lip rings are awesome, don't get me wrong, but I wanted the extreme. This then lead to my 6-gauge ears.
I got my snakebites and the comments began. The typical, "did that hurt?""why would you do that to yourself" and many, many stares and weird looks hahahaha. Soon employees that I had never even talked to, or knew their names, were curious and had questions about them. I started talking to tons of new people, exactly what I had hoped for. I felt so good about myself like I never had before. Here, we have people with lip rings, a few with snakebites, people with stretched ears, and very few with snakebites and stretched ears. I wanted to keep going, so I started with 10-gauge plugs. The funniest reactions were when I noticed people looking at them, then say they're not rings, they're stretched, OH what the fuck!? LOL. A month later I stretched to 8g, and it was like round 3 of people wanting to know what it felt like, how far I was gonna take it, and meeting even more new people. I loved it so much, it's starting to get addicting almost. Now I'm at 6g in both, but let me tell you how that went.
My brother and I both have gotten snakebites and stretched to 6g together. I'm 20, he's 16, he knows I would never, EVER judge him and we'll always have each others backs, and it came to this...ahahaha it was a stupid move. We went on BodyArtforms.com and ordered our 10g sets there, 8g sets and we chose a 4g taper for our free gift. A month goes by and he kept telling me about how he was bored and tried pushing the 4g taper through his 8g ear. I would tell him to not be stupid and to cut that shit out. THEN I started thinking about it, ummm...we both want 00g and it's taking a while, what if...just this one time to see what it's like...we skip the 6 and go to 4? maybe? yeah? "OK, but you go first." So there we were after a quick stop at Hot Topic, double flare solid blue 4g plugs for him and double flare 4g tunnels for me.
I took the 8-gauge tunnels out, massaged tons of Emu Oil onto my ear, picked up the 4-gauge taper and this was it. I slid it in, wasn't even 3/4 in and it just stopped, so I was like OK I'll just push it through little by little. OH MY FUCKING GOD THAT HURT SO BAD. My ear was on fucking FIRE. I stopped and shut my eyes and tried not to move and just breathe. I sprayed Bactine on it hoping it would numb it, it worked a little. After it stopped burning I pushed it in more and it was unbearable pain all over again. I was LITERALLY sweating and my bro was just asking in a scared voice, "does it really hurt that bad?" that was funny as hell, but I could tell he was really concerned, and YES it did hurt that bad. I kept going and it was finally half-way in ahahahaha. He said it was almost at the end, just one last push so I did it and...I start bleeding all over the sink. Then the tunnel flare was about a 2 and it wouldn't fit. There was no fucking way I was gonna force it through, I could hardly even touch my ear at this point so I just left the taper in, cleaned the blood and put pressure on it till it stopped, and put the O-rings on it. I was gonna wear this for a few days till it healed a little, and maybe then try to push the 4g tunnels in. Oh yeah, this was all about 10 minutes before work too.
This is what happened later. I rushed and got ready, 8g tunnel in my left ear, huge 4g taper with O-rings in my right. I took the bactine to work with me, good ol' Target LOL, showed AP I had it so they don't think I was taking it from the store lol. We have 2 cash registers with 3 drawers on the sides in electronics, quick easy access to the bactine cause it was burning nonstop, I used almost half the bottle ahahahaha. It was maybe 2 hours into my shift, I was shaking a little. It was my first stretch like that and all I could think about was if a 4g blowout is possible. I don't know too much about blowouts yet, but I would hate for this to fuck up my stretch plan. I kept my teeth clenched, I was uneasy around customers and my ear just wouldn't stop burning. I called home and asked what my brother had done about his, he went out and bought two 6-gauge taper/plug sets ahahahahaha, he wasn't even gonna try it after that. I had him bring me my 6g set to work cause I just had to pull the 4g taper out NOW.
I told my buddy Manuel about it, he kept saying I was crazy and I laughed. I took the O-rings out right there, on the clock, in electronics. I started pulling the taper out and I see this look on his face, he was like "OH SHIT!" I was like, "dude, it's not that bad" then he yells "DUDE THERE'S BLOOD RUNNING DOWN YOUR NECK!" So I rub my hand on my ear, cheek and neck...and yeah, it was all covered in blood and it was all over my favorite shirt, A Day To Remember (awesome band). I start walking towards the spill station, took a handful of paper towels, sprayed Bactine all over and tried to clean up. Manuel was bringing more towels and was helping me clean the blood drops off the floor, I didn't want customers to make a big fucking deal about it, but there was no way to hide the paper towels I was holding onto the side of my face. It was really slow so there weren't too many people around, but they all kept asking what happened and I just kept walking. The front registers were packed though and they all stared, pointed and looked and it was a little embarrassing. AP pulled me into the office and gave me some latex gloves, towels and some antiseptic wash till it stopped bleeding. I sprayed the 6g taper with Bactine and slid that in and WOW, it felt a billion times better. I decided to just stretch the left side there and they all yelled, "NO! DON'T DO THAT!" ahahahaha, but 8 to 6 wasn't bad at all, it just slid in ahahahaha. Everyone talked about it after, and they would all come to look at it and remind me how dumb that was ahahahaha. That was my most memorable day at Target so far lol.
I know people who have stretched from 18-00 in a few days, I know people who have stretched from 10-00, 8-2...whatever it might be, sure...maybe it worked out for them, but there's far too many more other people who have had blowouts, bad infections, etc etc. It's not worth it, just take your time and do it right. I'm never skipping a size ever again ahahahahaha. That shit was scary and I don't think my bro's too worried about going fast and skipping sizes anymore either.