At A Glance Author Moiya Contact Moiya@bme.anon When It just happened Artist Georg Studio High Priestess Piercing Location Eugene, OR The Beginning in Brief.
When I was 8 years old I got my ears pierced at Claire's, at that age I had no idea what ear stretching was, nor did I ever plan on stretching my ears. About the time I was in 10th grade i started learning more about the body mod world and got my first lip piercing and I had been curious about stretching my ears, so I started and got to 10g then after some complications I decided to give up.
Current.
About a year and a half ago at the age of 18 I decided to start again, using some not very smart methods but slowly moving up. Soon as I was getting to 0, 00, 7/16ths, ect..I realized my earlobe on the bottom was getting very thin, my boyfriend and some other friends informed me that I may need to get my ears scalpelled very soon if I wanted to continue to stretch so I wouldn't tear out the bottom of my ear. The whole idea scared the hell out of me but I knew they were right and I would never get to my goal of 1 inch unless I eventually did something to fix my ears.
A few months went by and my ears were up to 1/2 inch and I decided I wasn't going to stretch again till my ears got scalpelled. Three months went by and I was torn between cutting them bigger or just settling with 1/2 inch. I had gone into High Priestess a few times and discussed it with both Jim and Georg, and they both were willing to do it when I was ready.
Last friday was my payday, and I had a spur of the moment thought to just go get it done. High Priestess has a couple shops in the area so I went to the downtown shop to pick up some jewelry, Jim told me to pick up some 3/4 plugs, so I found a pair of clear single flair glass plugs. My boyfriend, a friend, and I then walked to the other shop on campus and Jim was working that evening, I told him I was there to get my ears done, we all chatted for a bit, Jim explained he was going to need to cut a chunk out and it was going to be very bloody, the mood was very light and we had a laugh about the whole situation, my nerves were still very uptight, I had worked 8 hours that day and had a bit too much sugar, so I told him maybe tonight wasn't the best night. We rescheduled for sunday, around noon.
I went home that night, hopped on BME and read some stories about scalpelling, mostly trying to scare myself so it wouldn't be as bad when i went back on sunday.
Sunday morning I woke up already very nervous, took a shower, got ready, and my boyfriend and I went to catch the bus downtown. We met up with friend, went to get a bite to eat but my nerves were getting the best of me and I couldn't eat much. Walking into the shop, I didn't see Jim anywhere, and it was fairly busy. Soon i found out Jim was out sick with a 106 fever and would not be in that day, but i was ready to get them done that day and didn't want to wait any longer.
Georg was working while Jim was out for the day and I had discussed the expanding of my ear lobes with Georg previously so he was willing to do it for me. Two hours passed of us sitting in the waiting room because the shop was very busy. Georg told me he would prefer to do my ears at 5/8ths because it would be a less dramatic jump and if I really wanted 3/4ths he would be glad to stretch again after the first stretch, but I said 5/8ths was fine. We went into the room, my friend was planning on taking pictures, so there were four of us in the room. He set all the tools on the table, gauze and a toothpick to measure and mark, a very large looking 5/8th's taper, and....a cauterizing pen. I said to him "Georg...thats not a scalpel.." and he told me "i know." I then began to panic, because I prepared myself mentally to be cut, not burned. Wondering why he had decided to use the cauterizing pen, he told me it bleed less and it healed faster, and it was more sanitary.
My ears were cleaned and I was told to lay on my back, put one hand under my bottom and my other had was tightly clenched onto my boyfriends. He asked me if I was ready and I very nervously said "yes". Right away I felt this horrible searing pain on my ear, it felt a lot like a red hot tattoo gun, except it was on my ear, Georg went up the front of my ear, then the back, then the front again, Im pretty sure I nearly broke Joey's hand, I was squirming. The whole procedure only lasted about 30 seconds on each ear, but worst of all the smell was horrible, burning flesh. He slid the taper in and it only went in half way, he shoved it through the rest of the way and I think that was the most painful part of the whole experience, and on top of that the plug was a tiny bit bigger than the taper, so that felt amazing to pop in, very little blood on the first ear. The pain made me cold and I began to shiver very badly. The second ear went much the same, hurt a bit more, and I was more vocal with my pain, that ear didn't bleed at all. Then I was done. They looked very awesome, bigger, redder, but over all I was happy
Georg started flicking my ears, he likes to induce more pain on his clients as a test of patience I think, he told me to sit up, cleaned me up and I got of the bed and I couldn't hardly see straight, got a decent amount of food in my stomach, my ears throbbing for hours now, but for the most part I'm really glad with the whole thing.
So here I am about to get no sleep, and a full six days of work ahead of me.