| At A Glance | |
| Author | Sir Loin <3 |
| Contact | alexinspain@gmail.com |
| When | N/A |
| Artist | Me |
| Studio | Several Places |
| Location | Kidlington [UK], Los Guajares [Spain] & Motril [Spain] |
It all began when I went to stay with my grandparents for six weeks in the UK. Six glorious weeks away from my Mum. Brilliant.
She had forbidden me to expand my earlobe before I went away, so of course I was going to go ahead with it as soon as I left Spain, where we are living at the moment.
When I got to the UK, I relaxed for a bit as you do, went to a concert etc, then when I was in Oxford city centre, I went to Tiger Lily, the best place I know for ear expanders and the like. I went in there, asked this man working there who seemed to be about 18 [I never got his name, and he was a great worker & helped me out several times] if he could get me a 3mm taper. He pulled out this evil looking spike, clear in colour, and said 'will this do?' I was like, 'yes! It's perfect!' So, I payed him the £3 it cost, and went off to do some more shopping around the town, taper in my pocket, crying out to be used. I managed to ignore its cries to be used & loved, and waited 'til I got home to try poking it through my lobe.
Once I got back to my Grandparents' house, I went straight into the bathroom and poked it straight through, no hassle, no resistance, nothing. I was thoroughly surprised at how simple it was to get in, but maybe that is because my lobe got ripped once before. Anyway, that was my first step to stretching my ears entirely.
About 6 days after successfully stretching my first piercing to 3mm, I went and had my hair cut in Oxford, and decided to go and buy a 4mm taper. I actually bought a taper [clear with pink stripes] and a blue UV screw tunnel, which cost me a mere £6. I didn't wait until I got home to stretch this time though, and figuring that it would be as easy as before, I sat in the car looking in the rear view mirror whilst my Dad was in McDonalds getting food, and poked the new taper through. I was shocked when it stung, but glad it didn't bleed. It was at this point I realised my lobe had always been at 3mm due to it being ripped.
As soon as I got home, I looked in the mirror, took the back off the tunnel & pushed it in, using the taper to keep the hole wide at the same time. By this point I already wanted to go to 5mm.
I bought the 5mm as soon as I was back in Oxford, again at the tiny price of £3, and this one was black plastic with white stripes, and it looked mega-cool.
Again, with this taper, I couldn't wait until I got home, and did it on the bus! There was a child behind me with his mum, and his mum pulled a face at me as I sucked in air when it stung and mumbled 'fuck'. But it was in. I couldn't believe how easily my lobe was stretching. I had gone from a normal stud to 5mm in around 19 days.
I was in Oxford again around three days later [I spent a lot of those six weeks of my holiday in Oxford] and I bought two UV plugs with O-rings, one bright yellow, and one red. They were both translucent, by the way, not solid colour. I stood in front of a shop window & fitted the yellow one in, then later in Primark I was changing it to the red one, unable to decide which I liked best. =]
After around 5 days, I went into Oxford specifically to buy a new taper, of 6mm in diameter. This is how big I originally thought I'd wanted to go, but as I will tell you later, that was not the case! Anyway, this taper was bright translucent red, and incredibly long compared to my previous ones. I also bought a yellow plug like the 5mm one. I went home [yes I waited longer this time] and tried poking it through, but this one REALLY hurt. Stupidly, I forced it, and it went in, hurt a lot, bled, then I changed it to the plug. DON'T do this. I then had to take it out around five hours later and size back down as my friend had accidentally punched it. Not the best thing for a fresh & bleeding stretch.
Later that evening I put the plug back in, left it overnight, and it was perfectly fine in the morning. Slightly sore, but not like I would have expected.
Over the next few weeks I was buying a plug or tunnel everytime I was in Tiger Lily. One time I actually went back and bought another one on the same day when I was near the Banbury branch. I was officially a plugaholic.
See what I did there? Plugaholic... I'm a one man rave, I am.
Well, by now I'd decided I wanted to stretch my rear piercing. So I got the 3mm taper, poked it through, and took it out fairly swiftly when it bled & stung like a bitch. Ouch.
I did it again, but with the 4mm taper about a week later, left it in for ages, then removed it as I saw the signs of a blowout, and put the 3mm taper back in. The next day I put the 4mm back in, and it was perfectly fine. I think this hole was proving harder to stretch because it a lot closer to cartilage.
I left them as they were, at 6mm and 4mm until I came back to Spain, after my Mum had freaked at me, and after I'd explained that they would still shrink down to a normal piercing size.
Then I got bored one day, craving to put my 6mm to 8mm but unable to, and did my 4mm to 5mm. That HURT, but I went through with it, and spent ages trying to put the red plug in. It was all split & 'gooey' inside after that for about a week. By gooey I mean when you took it out there were sticky strings of something that I don't want to think about, and it absolutely stunk.
Now, 8 weeks after doing my first piercing to 3mm, I did my second to 6mm, which for some reason slid right in, so I had two 6mm plugs in at once. Then, later that day, when I was in Motril, I bought an 8mm titanium screw tunnel for €12, which was bloody expensive compared to what I payed for my other plugs & tunnels! Well, I went into their bathroom and stood in front of the mirror for 15 minutes, trying to force it in. I got it in the end, and it was soooo tight in my lobe.
The next morning I removed it to make sure it hadn't blown out, and when I tried putting it back in, it bled like I'd had it scalpelled instead of stretched the day before. I also had to use two pairs of pliers to get the back off, as it had jammed. Now I have an 8mm O-ring on the back instead, as I don't want my lobe trapped in a titanium tunnel all the time.
Right now, my lobe looks great, even though it IS a little bit crusty. And the metal tunnel is now removable, but it still bleeds a bit when you put it back in, but it's not a battle getting it back in.
Cheers for reading, guys, hope you enjoyed my account!
Here is my lobe as it is right now:
And here is a picture of selection of items at Tiger Lily in Oxford:
