Hello, I'm Rach and this is my story of how I stretched my lovely ears.
At A Glance Author Rach! Contact toomuchtohandle_@msn.com When N/A Artist Jay Snr & my self. Studio Stigmata Location Bold St, Liverpool, England. After some serious consideration I began stretching my ears at round about age sixteen and it has taken me almost five years to get from 1.2mm to 33mm.
When I started out, my aim was to stretch my ears up to round about 3mm and get tiny tunnels so I could wear cheap earrings like my friends could, without having my usual allergic reaction. I managed this in about three months from starting but by then it was too late. I was addicted!
In the early stages of my stretching I had it done by Jay Snr at my local piercing studio, Stigmata in Liverpool. I would go to him nearly every week to get the next size up and nearly every week he would tell me off for being too hasty and I would have to go back the next week so he could have a look at how they were doing and decide if they were ready to stretch up that day.
The method he used was to stretch the hole with a sterile stretching pin, which had an indent in one end which the tunnel slotted into. Oh yeah, and lots of lube. Probably eight out of ten times my ears were loose enough and had had enough time to heal/settle for the new tunnel to go in effortlessly and I would go about my day with nothing more than a slightly warm earlobe.
Everybody wanted to know my secret and I was happy to tell them but sadly none of them were willing to pay the minimal cost (£10 which included the stretching and the jewellery) or willing to wait the time the studio insisted in between stretches but I guess I got the last laugh!
He gave me some brilliant advice and taught me how to stretch properly and responsibly and as hard as it was, I resisted the temptation to stretch up as fast as I could even though everyone I knew had been doing it. I couldn't be more thankful that I took that good advise now as most people I knew back then have been left with horribly damaged, numb and blown out ears and a lot of them have lost their lobes all together
After I got to 12mm I had a good idea what to do my self and began to stretch at home. I picked up some tips from other people I knew who had done theirs properly and even started giving people advise my self based on what I had learned from home stretching. From 20mm I began to do things a little differently. I took extra care to keep my ears from getting dry and started to take my tunnels out every night for bed so they could have a bit of a rest from the pressure my jewellery put on them during the day. Plus by this point they had started to put one hell of a dent in my jaw if I slept on them and to be honest I was a little scared. I'd feel the spot were I'd been sleeping on my plug and think "Shit what have I done to my self!? Have I made a horrible mistake?" but that panic quickly passed as I figured out ways to live harmoniously with my beloved tunnels.
For me it's been a pretty pain free experience. In that respect I would probably have to say the first 10mm was the worst but even then the discomfort was minimal and the bigger I got the lest of a strain the 1mm jumps became on my ears.
Where am I at now?
At the moment I'm giving my ears a little break as they aren't as thick and full as I'd like them to feel and I don't want to mess them up at this point all for the sake of a few millimetres. I've stopped stretching for now at 33mm all though I haven't reached my goal of a nice round forty yet and have even started to size down my ears temporarily, following the advice on a MySpace blog belonging to the legendary son of BME 'Pauly Unstoppable' which gave some good tips he'd picked up over his many years of stretching.
For now though, thanks to the good advise from the guys at Stigmata and brilliant sites like BME I have myself some pretty good-looking, healthy ears and I hope anyone reading this knows when to take good advise too!
These are the basics I was always taught to follow;
- Don't mess about/fiddle with your tunnels!
- Don't stretch too fast! One size every 2-4 weeks is more than enough.
- Never use household items to stretch your ears i.e. pen lids, candles.
- Keep your ears moisturised
- Go to a size you are comfortable with, not what you think is cool. Once you pass a certain point your ears will never be the same again
Stick with that and you can't go wrong but remember, if you're ever unsure then there are plenty of people on this new fangled interweb thingy that are more that happy to help you with anything they can.
Thanks for reading and happy stretching!