I first got my ears pierced when I was around 11 years old. My mom brought me to some place at a local mall where they pierced both my lobes with a gun, gave me a cleaning solution and told me not to touch it for a few days. They healed with no problem at all.
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact anonymous@bme.anon When It just happened Artist a friend who prefers to go unnamed Studio school Location Massachusetts
Soon two piercings was not enough for me anymore. I think I was about thirteen when I first started looking into plugs but my parents were fairly conservative when it comes to piercing and wouldn't allow it. So I had to settle for more standard lobe piercings which I did myself (this wasn't allowed either and my parents still don't know I have them). I now have five piercings in my left year and three in my right.
After all my homemade lobe piercings had healed I decided it was time for plugs. Since I had started with regular earrings (around and 18 gauge) I had to start stretching by going up to a 16. It turned out it is really difficult to get tapers and plugs in anything lower than about a 12.
Since I could not find any 16g plugs I used a big safety pin. I know that might not have been the best idea but its the right size and I put it in an autoclave first.
My first real plugs (if your willing to call 14g real) I put in about a month later. They were also fairly hard to come by.
On a semi-related side note, if you are going to get plugs I would recommend starting at around a 14g. They do not hurt anymore to pierce than a 18/20g and it makes it a whole lot easier to buy jewelry.
When I went to buy my 12g plugs the shipping was extremely slow for some unknown reason so I got impatient and just decided to shove something through. One of my friends had recently decided to take out his 12s so he had a lot of spare curved barbells lying around. I used a steel pair, covered them in a neosporin equivalent and started pushing the first one through. I figured if it hurt I would stop but it didn't hurt at all. The once I had done the first one it would have looked stupid not to do the second. It also did not hurt at all.
When the 12s I had ordered finally came I of coarse no longer needed them so I returned them for the same ones in 10s.
I ordered the 10s right away because I thought the shipping would be slow again but they came in about two weeks. As I mentioned before I can be pretty impatient so when the 10s came I decided it had been long enough and I could safely go up a size.
The next day at school I had my friend who had done all my other stretches put the 10s in. It was the same as any other stretch, I sat down and took my 12s out as my friend put neosporin on the taper. My right ear was first. When the taper went through I hurt more than the others had but I had heard that some stretches hurt more than others so I was not concerned. But then my friend was adjusting it and he noticed a little bit of blood on the back.
I had a minor blow out. It hadn't hurt too much going in but in only a few minutes it had gotten so sore and red. I took out the jewelry almost immediately and ran to the bathroom to get a paper towel with water. I held ice up against it which made the soreness and swelling go down a lot. I took some ibuprofen which helped the swelling even more.
That night I put a 14 back into the blow out ear so the hole wouldn't close. I still had a 12 in the other ear. The next day I put the 12 back into the blow out ear. The initial soreness was gone after a few days and I could go back to sleeping on that side but it still hurt if it was tugged on at all so I had to make sure to pin my hear back at night and be very careful when washing and brushing my hair. Throughout the whole thing it was never that painful. At times it was uncomfortable but never really bad. The only concerning thing was the swelling.
One cure that works extremely well for blow outs and at least other lobe piercing infections (it might work for others too but I don't know) is crushing a few (two or three ish) aspirin tablets and mixing them with some water to make a paste. Put the paste around the infected piercing, front and back, and leave it there until it dries or longer. Then wash it off with warm water. Do this once a day until it gets better. Disclaimer: this is not medically proven as far as I know but I always use it when my regular lobe piercings get infected and I have had many friends use it on blow outs and it always works.
It has been about a month since that incident and I just put then 10s in yesterday. It went perfectly this time. The blow out ear hurts more than the other when stretching but that is to be expected because I will always have that extra scar tissue in the ear.
I have learned that patience is always important in the healing of piercings and I for one will never go up a gauge without waiting the sufficient amount of time again. And I am planning on going up to a 4g approximately, when I get there I will decide if its right.