3 Year Journey and a Promise Kept
At A Glance Author John When A week ago Artist Me Location Utah
My story from a standard gunned set of earrings to 1 inch. It all began about 4 years ago. It was in early 2004 right before my best friend commited suicide. He had no piercings at all and I had a self done tongue. He comes up to me with this crazy idea of stretching our ear's to 1 inch together. At the time I had no knowledge of piercings period let alone stretching. I had known that I wanted my side lip and I had done a crappy job at piercing my own tongue but that was about it. However I agreed because we were more like brothers than best friends.
So sometime in early 04 he had got his ears pierced and started stretching to I'd say about a 10 gauge. I got mine pierced at a Spencer's Gifts store in the mall with a gun and wasn't ready to stretch yet. April rolled around in 04 and during a cocaine binge my friend commited suicide right in front of me. That was by far the most fucked up situation I have ever been in / seen. The night it happened he kept talking about ear stretching and how I was pussing out. So I promised him that night I would make it to an inch to make him happy. After his death and reliving the horrible scene thousands of times over the next 7/8 months it was December 04 and I decided to start working on that promise. So the day after Christmas in 04 I had tons of spending cash and had finally started doing research on ear stretching. I headed down to the mall and started out with a pair of 14 gauge circular barbells (the horse shoe shaped ones) with flame acrylic beads. I got home and with a little lube and almost no effort I had completed my first stretch. I was now at a 14 gauge in both ears.
Here is where I started acting a little foolish but I was young and excited to stretch so don't hate me too much hehe. One week later I headed back to the mall and got 2 sets of ear jewelry. The first was a pack of 10 gauge horse shoe style circular barbells that also came with two 10 gauge CBR's. The second was the same thing only in 8 gauge. Well even though it had only been a week or so I got ready for my second stretch. The 10's went in smoothly and I kept them in for a whole 2 days before I put the 8 gauge circular's in. By this time I felt like the coolest shit around. I went to an alternative high school (aka a school for criminals/sluffers/etc) and to my surprise I was the only one with stretched ears. They got me a fair amount of popularity which I thrived on. Before this I was the shy little kid nobody acknowledged as a living person.
So I don't want to bore anyone reading this with hundreds of details for every little stretch so I'll fast forward a little bit. It was now winter of 2005 and I had 7/16 flesh tunnels in my ears. Life had started to progress for me and my ears were on their way up to an inch. Over that year I had slowed down quite a lot due to some shitty alergic reactions to acrylic I wasn't aware of. Anyways back to the story it was winter 05 and I had started hanging out with a new group of friends and pierced my middle lip and felt like I belonged in my little outcast kliq. I started smoking pot again (I had become sXe after my friend's death for almost 2 years) until one friend set me straight. He had this brilliant idea to brainwash me into joining the Marine's with him. I was close to graduating high school and it sounded like a future. So I fell for it, for almost 2 months I went to military physical training and had taken my lobe jewelry out, because the staff sgt told me if I didn't get them to heal on their own they were going to cut the lobe and sew it back to a normal looking one which scared the shit out of me.
In February of 2006 I had met the girl of my dreams. She had 3 labret rings, cute little 0 gauge plugs, a punk chick attitude and all around beauty. I was in love... It wasn't the first time, I had gotten out of a 3 year relationship only 2 months earlier, so I was apprehensive on how to approach her. Well my karma must have paid off because she got with me. She talked me out of joining the Military which was a very smart move. I stretched up to a ½ inch like a week before I met her out of rebellion to my marine wannabe friend. So instead of taking em out and continuing on with the marine shit I decided to start a serious relationship with the pierced chick and see what happened from there. Well it felt better to have my ears stretched again and it felt even better to keep them. They were at a half inch. I still had my lip ring, my tongue ring, and an eyebrow. My girlfriend and I had become the little punk couple.
Fast forward to September 06 this is where it went downhill in my journey. My girlfriend (the same one) and I had started hanging out and pretty much living with her older brother. He was in a drug program through the state court system called Drug Court. They took his daughter and made him do all this rehab and drug testing shit to try and get her back. Well in September of 06 he gave up on his program and his daughter and started using Crystal Meth again (which is what he got put on probation for in the first place). Well I started smoking Crystal Meth with him. 2 Weeks later my girlfriend found out and started as well. For those last 3 and a half months in 2006 we had all 3 turned into huge Tweeker Ass Meth Addicts. Until December 31st 2006.
Don't worry this will get back on subject and relate to my ears lol. Bare with me...
-December 31'st 2006-
This day was like no other day in my meth stage. By this time I had lost my girlfriend because meth caused her to lose her mind Literally! So there I was with her brother and his girlfriend. We had all 3 started shooting up Meth a couple weeks before. I was officially a junky... Well he asks me to drive some meth to a buddy of ours in a nearby town no longer than 5-10 minutes away from our appartment. I didn't have a license but I didn't give a fuck because I was the highest I had every been in my life that day from the massive amount I shot up. Well less than 1 mile from my destination I got pulled over. As you probably guessed I was arrested. I was charged with Driving With No License, Possession of Drug Paraphenalia, and 3rd Degree Felony Possession of Methamphetamine. HOLY FUCK! I WAS GOING TO JAIL!
So im chillin in the cop car on the way to jail and it finally hit me. Oh shit I have to take all my piercings out when I get to jail. I had lost everything from meth, but not my piercings. Not my precious lobes. I get to jail and sure enough have to take them out. I spent about 4 days in jail and got out on a plea bargain for 12 month probation with random drug tests. I left jail and had lost all my piercings. Better yet my lobes were now a fucking 8 gauge at the most. I was devastated.
March 2007 (3 months after I got out of jail)
I started fucking off my probation and getting stoned all the time, the way I saw it was at least im not shooting up meth anymore. I had stretched my ears back up to a half inch over the past 2 months and got my tongue ring back in. I got my girlfriend back the night I got out of jail and we found out we were having a baby. Life was going pretty good. Until I went to a court review lol....
Long story short they gave me another week in jail and once again I lost my piercings and lobes. Well I got out of jail and decided enough was enough it's time to go straight at least till this legal shit is over. I was sick of losing my personal treasures (my piercings lol) and I needed to step up if I was going to be a dad.
August 2007
By now I had gotten my ears up to a 5/8s with help from some silicone eyeletes after letting them sit and half inch for what seemed like forever. I had my snakebites done and my tongue repierced. I got my first tattoo ( demon strawberry with half his face ripped off) I was clean off all drugs. All of the sudden August 21'st comes around. We had our baby girl. Life got crazy but it was worth it.
In October of 07 I made a quick easy stretch to 3/4ths with help from a taper. I finally remembered what got me started stretching in the first place. That promise to my friend. From this point on I was determined to get to an Inch not only for my friend but for my own personal reasons, I felt like it would help me mentally overcome the bullshit that plagued my life earlier that year and the end of the year before.
January 08
It had now been over 3 years since I began stretching and as you can tell by my mini book lol... I had gone through some seriously shitty times in my personal life and with my piercings. I ran across some 7/8 silicone jewelry at the mall and bought them. That night those suckers went in with no problems at all. Ok now at this point in my story I once again get stupid with my ears but don't hate too much, they are my ears and things turn out ok in the end. I kept those silicone 7/8ths in for exactly 1 week and got some Silicone Eyelets in 1 inch. Yeah like I said I got stupid but it worked for me... I put the 1 inch silicones in and with a small amount of pain and soreness my ears had finally hit 1 inch. It felt amazing....3 years and almost a month later I had done it. Not only for my friend but for myself. My only problem was the silicones did not look like an Inch because the tunnel hole looked so small. So I went back to the mall again and forked out another 50 bucks for some screw on tunnels in 1 inch. I got them in within a week of stretching to an inch and they look amazing. They are healing ok and I have decided to stick with 1 inch for good. My daughter is 5 months old and my biggest fear is having her rip my lobes off lol!
Now assuming that BME takes my super long boring story and posts it, you have just read my journey to an inch. I'd like to leave some closing comments.
For all those silicone haters. Not everyone has mass problems with using silicone to stretch. I was almost afraid to use silicone to stretch after reading the countless anti-squishy silicone stories. I gave it a go and it always worked out fine for me.
Drugs are a waste. My girlfriends brother, the one in my story who got me hooked on meth is currently in jail and has been for 8 months. He has about another year and a half to go. He wasn't huge into body mods but he had a tongue piercing stretched to a Double Zero, and a wicked Demon Face tattoo. Just like me he lost the piercing, last time I talked to him he said he couldn't fit a 10 gauge stick in it. His tattoo looks like shit as well, from not being able to take care of his skin in jail. If you get deep enough into drugs you will end up in jail, everyone get's caught eventually it's just a matter of time. If your into mod's and either use tons of hardcore drugs or deal them then kiss your mod's goodbye. I would have easily been at an inch sooner if I hadn't been to jail twice. Now im not talking a bunch of smack on your social potheads I could care less about that. That is one of my main reasons for wanting to stay clean when I get off probation this April. I absolutely will not put myself in the situation to lose my body art again.
Safe stretching
Yeah I know I took shortcuts along the way and they worked for me. Not everyone is that lucky. I have never had a single blowout or anything. However I have been reading a lot of stories on here lately about people getting to inches and bigger in less than a year. All I have to say is the quicker you do it the worse it will be in the long run. My shortcuts weren't that huge considering I have been working on my ears for 3 years. But im not here to preach or hate on people. Do what your gonna do just be safe people...
I hope i didn't kill anyone with bordom I just wanted to share my experience all at once.