I remember when I first saw someone with stretched ear lobes – around the age of ten – I thought it was the scariest thing ever. I probably felt that way because I'd never seen them before, kind of like when you see a penis for the first time. After a couple sightings, disgust and fear becomes attraction and affinity. *grin*
At A Glance Author Hannah Contact Hannah@bme.anon When A week ago Artist myself Studio my bedroom Location Maryland Seven years later, I find myself in a bathroom stretching mine out. Armed with q-tips, rubbing alcohol, and some tiny, size 16 tapers, I beamed as the things went in marvelously easily. It started to hurt when I got to a 10. The 8s killed. By 6, I started to really love the stretching experience. I started to wait about two weeks (as opposed to one) in between going up, to make extra sure I was at least somewhat healed, and I would wait to stretch until I was in a stressed out mood. Then I'd slowly push in my new taper, and even though I still can't help but wince, the pain really does help me feel better when I'm on edge. Seriously – I'm sure a lot of you girls can relate to me when I say that fights with parents/boyfriends/teachers generally lead to Ben and Jerry's nights and lots of tears. Ear stretching is not only calming and beautifying, but it's free of calories.
I'm at a 0 now, and I think I only want to go up to a 00. My younger sister thinks they looked cute around a 6 or a 4, and I'm getting to the "ugly point". I disagree -- inch-wide plugs are, in my opinion, attractive as hell – but I don't want to get to the point where over 95% of the population looks at me funny. I'm okay with over 80%, though =)
Stretching my lobe piercing has been really enjoyable, also, because my parents won't let me get anymore holes until I'm eighteen (I just have two in each lobe), and stretching is safe to do by oneself. One thing that sucks, though, about stretching is that I find myself spending about twenty dollars a week on new plugs! I think it's worth it, but I'll be glad once I get to a 00 to not have to spend that money anymore. Plus, I want to get a new piercing or two for my eighteenth birthday, and that's not going to be free either.
The other day, I went to the mall with a girlfriend and we were looking for size 0 plugs for me to buy to gauge up. She decided that she wanted to try stretching her ears, too – just a little bit – and bought some 14s. We went to the mall bathroom, and I got the 0s in my ears in about one painful-but-soothing minute. She got ready to put the 14s in, and I thought she'd have a really easy, painless time because, as I said, stretching didn't start hurting for me until I got to bigger sizes, like 10.
She put the pincer to her ear, though, and it just wouldn't go in more than a millimeter. She worked at it for about twenty minutes (I ate a yummy pretzel and looked awkwardly at passersby for the duration) and finally told me, "You do it! I don't care if it hurts! I just can't get it in!" I was worried – I didn't want to hurt her, and I knew that, for me at least, one of the soothing parts about gauging my own ears is that I know what my limits are and I'm controlling the process myself. She persuaded me to do it, though, and said that 14s aren't that big anyway so it shouldn't matter.
I shoved as hard as I possibly could for about a minute. My hands hurt. I stopped. It still wasn't out the back. No matter how hard I pushed, the pincer would not go out the back. By that time, the skin immediately around her piercing was bright red and I was scared to death that some weird blow-out thing would happen. I told her we should probably call it a day, and that she should buy some 16s. She's still too traumatized by her first experience, though, to do so.
I'm really at a loss as to why she had such a hard time. I'll admit that sometimes it takes a bit of elbow grease (ew, not as a lubricant!) to get the tapers through, but it's always been doable for me. The pain is sharp, and sometimes it hurts like a bitch, but I never feel as though I'm damaging myself. I'd recommend stretching to anyone who likes the look. The pain becomes enjoyable (or maybe I'm just weird?) and, when among squeamish freshmen, taking your plugs out becomes an extremely entertaining experience.
YAY for sizable ear-holes!