So my first ear stretching experience began back in '01 or '02, I was working in an 'alternative' mall store that I'm sure many are familiar with. One of the things they sell are higher gauge earrings, and the bits one needs to get to said higher gauge. At first I was grossed out... Then I noticed a cute little 14 gauge CBR with a tiny metal skull instead of a ball. I couldn't resist, and it was so small! Not like those yucky big holes people got in their ears, ew. It went in easy and I was so happy with my cute little skull.
At A Glance Author psychoticanimosity Contact psychoticanimosity@bme.anon When N/A Artist Myself That was fine for MAYBE a week. I had soon begun eyeing the oh-so-cute yet still "small" 8 and 6 gauge CBRs... They came in so many pretty colors... So I bought an 8ga taper and a pretty light blue acrylic CBR, and began my first real stretch. I was in such a rush that at one point I tore my ear, I knew because I woke up in pain with a swollen earlobe(I was only stretching my left ear). I shambled to the bathroom, my lobe was shiny and red... I removed the taper, turned for some toilet paper, and when I turned back to the mirror blood was streaming from my ear! I cleaned it, put the taper back in at a smaller thickness and went back to bed.
After that I went very slowly, and got up to an 8 gauge without any other trouble. That 6 gauge was a bit rough to get in, but not bad. Once again I was satisfied with the hole in my ear.
About a month later I was flipping though a Japanese street fashion book and caught sight of the coolest thing EVER. It was a 00 gauge red acrylic CBR. It was so big and the color was so... intense! I had to have one!
So I set off to get up to a 00 gauge so that I too could have such a beautiful earring. It's been a while but I do remember learning the unpleasant lesson of using a porous material like Sculpey to stretch with. The healing skin layers stuck to it, ew. So I broke down and bought a 2 gauge taper, that went nice and slow and nearly painless. At the time they were out of 00 gauge tapers so I picked up a 1/2" taper and a 00 gauge screw tunnel. I figured when I got to about 00 gauge I could quit. It actually kinda worked.
I found a local shop with THE 00 gauge CBRs... but not in red. I got a deep purple instead(I should have gotten the bright blue, it matched my hair). I was quite the happy girl!
I had two extra holes put into my left earlobe just so that I had more to stretch. The second hole I stretched up to a 6 gauge, which was by far my easiest stretch ever, and inserted the previously mentioned 6 gauge blue acrylic CBR. The third hole was harder and maybe more unpleasant to stretch than my first! I didn't go past 8 gauge on the last one, I put a new dark blue acrylic CBR into that hole. The overall look was really very cute.
After a while I got bored of my nice fancy ear, so I decided to see how much it would shrink if I left out my 00. So I replaced all three earrings with silver 18 gauge hinged rings. The 8 gauge went back to an 18 gauge in about two days, the 6 gauge went to a 10 or 12 gauge eventually, and my lovely 00 shrank to an itty-bitty 8 gauge.
Last year I began Belly Dancing, BIG earrings look great on belly dancers... So I began wearing big thick conventional hoops in my first ear holes(I have five, three in my left earlobe and two in my right earlobe). I noticed that after a while the right ear would hurt from the weight but the left didn't.
So began my quest to gauge my right ear to a 00 gauge...leave it then let it shrink to an 8 gauge...
It didn't quite work out that way, though. After I got to a 6 gauge I was stuck! I'd given my 2 gauge taper to and former co-worker who'd moved out-of-state, so I had to buy a new taper. When I got to Mall-Store I fell in love with a 0 gauge blue glass tapered spiral. I bought it, and since it was a two pack...well I spent the money for both so I may as well use both of them! Thus I began to re-stretch my left ear. Ha ha... So once they were all the way in it was time to go 00 again and for the first time. Or not. It was still way too small and that 1/2" taper now hated me. I ended up slipping an 8 gauge CBR in with the pretty blue glass-thingies, which looked kind of silly but the freeness won over the aesthetics. About a week later I had slipped in my big purple 00 gauge CBR and my 00 gauge screw tunnel... bleh. The next day I purchased a set of stainless steel eyelets.
Once again all was right with the world! I could easily wear whatever large metal hoop caught my fancy and even better! The eyelets protected my sensitive ears from the nasty cheap metals that the cheap-o hoops were made from! Bonus! However... I began looking at other BIGGER gauges... By comparison my dinky little 00 gauges looked pathetic! They may as well have just been 18 gauge in my eyes! But around then a fellow dancer complemented the size that my ears were at, saying that "[My ears] were at the perfect size! Big but still very feminine." After that complement I lingered back to being satisfied, mostly. Off and on I'd think of how much better life would be with bigger gauged ears....*sigh*.
Since January I was rather depressed, and about three days ago I found a cure! A shiny gleaming wonderful set of tunnels at 9/16"! As soon as I began to stretch again so that I could accommodate these metal bits of pure joy I began to cheer up! Hee! I just got my 1/2" taper in last night. So close...
I only worry that 9/16" is going to eventually look small. =(