| At A Glance | |
| Author | Marvin |
| Contact | malo_inc@hotmail.com |
| When | Three months ago |
| Artist | Hook |
| Studio | Kiss of Steel |
| Location | Lakewood, WA |
-Marvin
Before I write my story about my new modification I want to tell you a
little bit about my past experiences with my earlobes. I don't count the
first time my lobe was pierced; which was when I was 10 and in a barn with
a needle and some ice. I'll count when I was 14 and pierced them myself at
a 16 gauge, then I went immediately to a 14. As time went on I continued to
stretch about once a month until I got up to an 8 gauge. Then I transferred
schools and my new school made me take my plugs out. I didn't re-pierce
them until I was 18.
I ordered 8ga plugs and needles from BME. My lobes
went off without a hitch; I stretched to 6ga a month later. Then I
stretched to 4ga about 9-10 weeks after that. Well being 18 I moved out of
my parents' house and found a job, my new job made me take out my plugs.
Fast forward time a couple of years and now I'm 20 years old and work as an
apprentice in a body modification studio called Kiss of Steel. I figured
with this job my modifications won't be as limited. Not only am I now
living and breathing in a world full of modifications but I get to have my
own now. I love body modification; I've been reading BME for years.
Moving forward I talked to my mentor and he agreed to scalpel my lobes 2 weeks
prior to my apprenticeship starting. I have had them done for about 3
months now. I was going to write as soon as I got them but I wanted them to
heal a little bit so I could write about that process as well. I made the
decision to get them scalpeled because I didn't want to go through having
to stretch them again.
Before I got them scalpeled my lobes measured in at
about 5/8 diameter and about 12 mm thickness. I wanted to start at ½ inch
but we couldn't find plugs long enough to leave me cleaning room as well as
swelling room. So I settled on 12.6 mm plugs that were 15 mm in length.
Take my advice on this, it is a little bit more spendy but worth it if you
have thick earlobes. Find a shop that knows a company that will make custom
jewelry. I forget the name of the company my piercer ordered my plugs from.
The scalpelling itself went ok. I had a bit more tissue come out of the
left ear but it dried up and fell off about 2 weeks after being done. The
first night I had them done I couldn't wear O-rings on my plugs. So I slept
in my recliner sitting up to prevent blood from going everywhere and also
to help keep my plugs in. I swell badly, I know this from having my tongue,
and lips pierced. My industrial (retired) even swelled. So I took 3200 mg
of ibuprofen everyday for a solid week. This is in the normal aftercare I
followed for my snakebites, so I figured it would work for this swelling as
well. It did help a lot but my lobes remained really thick even after the
first month. I also bled everyday for a solid week afterwards.
To help clean I used castile soap in the shower and I used a sea-salt water
solution (teaspoon of sea-salt to every cup and ½ of bottled water) to
maintain it throughout the day. When I say a bag of Q-tips and that
solution was my best friend I really mean it. After about a week of having
them the bleeding completely stopped so I started sleeping in my bed again.
Bad idea; I still had no O-rings on my jewelry so my plugs fell out in my
sleep. I took a hot shower in the morning and managed to work my plugs back
in under the water. This routine continued for about a week before I went
back to the shop to have them looked at.
The swelling had gone down enough that I could fit an O-ring on the front of my plug. So he gave me some O-rings and told me to try to ride it out and see it my ears get any
thinner. It did help but at least one plug would fall out every night, it
got to the point where I was sub-consciously checking my ears in my sleep
and shoving the dry ones back in if they happened to fall out. It hurt like
hell and I know I caused damage to my lobes. So after tolerating my starter
plugs for awhile, my piercer ordered me some new plugs and gave them to me
at shop price. They were custom made out of medical implant grade surgical
steel. The measurement of my new plugs are 5/8 diameter on the outside, ½
diameter in the middle, the middle piece is 19mm in length. It is a
completely solid plug, the plug is internally threaded and the threads are
about 6mm in length! Needless to say I had no problem with these falling
out.
He used a ½ inch taper partnered with Surgilube to get the new plugs
in. The weight of these new plugs is tremendous. They weigh about ½ pound a
piece. I'm naturally stretching them just because of the weight. The
cleaning process and everything was a lot easier with my new shiny plugs.
After a few weeks of having those in; my lobes have thinned out completely
to being about 12mm thick. The new plugs started to bruise the inside of my
holes though because I slept on them and everything. I talked this over
with my piercer and even read Pauly Unstoppable's FAQ on his Myspace. Since
I could wear an O-ring on both sides of my starter plugs I started changing
to those at night and putting the big ones in while showering in the
morning.
I have been doing that for about two weeks now and my lobes are
getting healthier everyday. The bruises have cleared up almost completely.
I'm happy because I will be ready for 9/16 plugs in no time. I don't use
the sea-salt solution anymore unless they are really stinky; we have the
same solution here at the shop though so that makes it easy. I do still use
the castile soap in the shower for my lobes including my healed piercings
as well. I hope this helps, enjoy reading!
