At A Glance Author Natasha Contact ndiazmcr@yahoo.com When Two years ago Artist Me Studio My Bathroom Location Lawrence, MA
WARNING: I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND ANYONE STRETCHING THEIR EARLOBES IN THE MANNER I USED. I AM VERY LUCKY NOT TO HAVE HAD COMPLICATIONS.
My interest in punk music began my Freshman year of high school and once I was introduced to the scene, I fell in love with it. I grew out a mowhawk, studded a leather jacket and started going to every local show I could get someone to drive me to. The next logical step was piercings but since I was fourteen and in the state of Massachusetts you have to be either 18 or have a parent sign (since my mom dispised my lifestyle and did not approve of it all, it wasn't going to happen) I was pretty much on my own.
In a period of about a year and a half, I pierced my own third set of ear piercings, nose piercing, two side labret piercings and middle labret piercing. All of which came out perfect, in spite of my retrospective terrible methods and tools, except for the nose piercing which my body flat out rejected. I've grown quite fond of piercing myself and am currently in the process of acquiring hollow piercing needles and body jewelry to do my own navel piercing and double nose piercing. But that's not the point of this story so moving on. My best friend at the time had 4g Flesh Tunnels and I thought they were the sickest things I had ever seen. After some discussion with her and investigating gauge sizes online, I decided I was finally ready.
We took a trip down to Boston (about 45 minutes from where I live) and my friend showed me this amazing little body jewelry shop in The Garage in Harvard Square. I picked out 2g Flared Plugs and a 8g to 2g stainless steel taper. Once I got home, I made a beeline for the bathroom and got out a bottle of rubbing alcohol. I wiped down the plugs and the taper with alcohol and popped a few Ibuprofens to help the swelling I knew was bound to happen. My right ear was pretty simple because my nephew had pulled on an earring about two years earlier and it had ripped to about an 8g. I slipped in the taper and pushed until it went all the way through. Then I lined up the plug with the thicker end and it slipped neatly into place.
My right ear was a different story. I've always used heavy gold and silver earrings most of my life so that ear was stretched to maybe a 14g or a 12g. I used a twisting motion to get the taper through and by the time I was at about a 6g it started bleeding. I pushed through the pain and the blood actually acted as a sort of disgusting lubricant and the taper got all the way in. Now to get the plug in.
After all that work, I was exhausted, my ear and fingers were covered in blood and the stupid plug would not go in! I suggest that no one used a flared plug to initially stretch their ears; you have to gauge your ears to the next size for them to go in if your ears aren't already stretched. Anyway, I was so desperate I did something pretty dumb. I cleaned up my ear and the sink and leaving the taper in, I went into my mom's room and started rummaging for something tapered to use. What I found instead was a pair of those little scissors you use to trim your eyebrows. I took these back to the bathroom and slathered them in alcohol. I took out the taper and slashed the newly stretched hole a little and slipped in the plug. It went in smoothly and I was so damn happy.
My ears stopped bleeding almost immediately but they were swollen the rest of the night. The next morning there was a ring of blood crusted around my plug. I cleaned it off with a bit of warm water and twisted my plugs regularly every couple of hours. I got crusties for a couple of days and cleaned them up with either warm water or some alcohol. It's terrible I know but that's the only aftercare I used after such a massive stretch yet within a week my ears were fine and I didn't even remember they were there.
About a month later, I changed the plugs to white silicone flesh tunnels and I've had them ever since.
As you can plainly see, I was very inexperienced and hadn't even heard of websites like this one. I now know that I disregarded many of the commonly accepted guidelines for stretching including only stretching one size at a time and using salt soaks. I consider myself very fortunate not to have suffered a massive blowout or some other ill effect.