Hmm. So I am considering stretching my ears, but I want to be pretty informed about it first.

Do you have your ears gauged?
What size are you?
What size do you plan on going up to?
Pictures?

If I do end up getting it done, I don't want to go too big. I know there's supposedly a "point of no return" and I don't wanna get that far. Anyway, thoughts?

And Rigo, I expect you to answer.

My right ear has a 5mm green glass tunnel in it . That's equivalent to 4ga. I don't currently plan on going any further, though that's not to say I won't ever.

Whole ear:


The tunnel:


As you can see, the piercing is the second hole up. I originally stretched my central lobes to 4mm, but one went wrong and closed up :/. I prefer having it in the off-centre one, though, because I can still wear dangly earrings .

I can offer advice on stretching if you have any questions. The best thing is to do it slowly, though.

Basically I agree with Lemon. Start rather small, and go slowly. I've heard there is a point of no return, but I think it depends on the person. Most of my friends have gauges and some say that a 0ga is the point of no return, some would say where Lemon is the point.

For you, Steph, I would say start at like a 10ga and work your way up. I think they look cute on girls if they are done right, I think for your ears maybe getting them as big as Emily's. When you do start, I would say ask Emily more on the subject, and Amanda(freezexbrand) since they have more experience in gauging.

Emily, I have always loved your gauge, just saying.

Ditto.

Whats the point of gauging

Thanks for the input guys!

Question, how does the sizing work? I tried googling for a chart, but they don't make sense to me.

ooooooook. i have a 0g in my left ear (i just wanted to do one) and i'll give you my input.

first, make sure you have had your ears pierced for at least a year initially, it just works better this way. they way they can heal up and you can see what type of metals your skin is ok with (i only use surgical steel). gauge down each gauge one at a time.

wait six weeks between each size so your ear will be able to stretch better to avoid blowouts, tearing, and scarring.

as the gauges get bigger and more difficult to push through i suggest the use of tapers (tapers are your friends dont worry what they look like). i also suggest the use of vaseline or other such substances to ease the streching process, it also helps to do it out of a hot shower while your skin is full of moisture and a little more flexible.

clean your gauges and tapers every day or every other day to avoid infection, i suggest the use of simple saline solution or anti bacterial hand soap, but do not take your gauges or tapers our to clean them just yet. do not use things like neosporin or bactine.

if you are borrowing gauges or tapers boil them first (well make sure you can, like they arent plastic so they wont warp or anything) or soak it in saline solution.

sizes go from 20g (being the smallest, you are usually pierced with an 18g) by 2's to (16g, 14g, 12g etc) 00g then they use mm and inches after that. the smaller the number the bigger the guage.

*do not pierce your ear with a gun*
*do not skip gauges*

i can probably think of a few more things here and there but i think that covers the basics. yes you can wait a few days between each gauge or skip gauges, but if you really care about the health of your earlobes, a little waiting never hurt anyone. i take body moding seriously and think everyone should know what they are getting into before they do stuff like this. you can damage your lobe pretty serverly if you dont take care of it.

maybe post a pic later, i just use a black 0g flesh tunnel. flare on one side o ring on the other

This post has been edited by freezexbrand: Oct 24 2009, 03:01 AM

Rad, thanks for the quick answer!

I've had my ears pierced all my life (literally, my crazy German grandmother pierced them when I was only a few months old) and so I'm used to having them.

If I do end up stretching my ears, I'll probably go no bigger than 12g.

I have some cleaning sea salt spray from when I got my nose pierced still, I assume that's okay?

The only thing that's kind of stopping me from doing this is the fact that I have a skin condition...it causes me to have really dry skin on my ears. I'm not sure if that will affect it at all, but it's still something to consider.

Anyway, thanks all of you for your advice!

I don't want to ruin all the fun, but does someone want to explain why one would want to stretch out their earlobes? ...for fun? I guess you could ask the same thing about piercing them, but I'm just curious.

It is gross.

Ehh, don't do it.

I stretched mine to a 12 a few years back. But I just jumped straight into that. Haha. I actually lost one of them in Africa (which I find ironic lol) and just went back to regular earrings.

Same here, its like mutating your body. I think its looks bad. Espeically stretching the ears is a very cultural thing in Africa and places like that.

I don't have any advice for you Steph my best friend has a stretcher but im not really sure about stuff but i just wanted to say go for it and listen to people who know what they are talking about. good luck

It's no more mutilating the body than a regular piercing, unless you go so far it'll bend the ear out of shape. Having stretched ears is part of the fun of caring after piercings, and it means you can buy SO much more jewellery. I'm currently wearing a pretty glass piece in my ear. You can't wear glass without stretching because you just can't make glass jewellery that small. Jewellery for stretched ears also comes in other materials like plastic, wood and other organic materials. Whether you're using these things or a tiny metal bar, you're still putting something through your ear for aesthetic purposes .

At small sizes like mine, it's not even noticeable that I have a hole there unless you look closely, so people don't go making weird faces at my ears even if I have my hair tied back.

I'm confused. Is that a bad thing?

Eh.. I don't really like gauges.
They kinda gross me out.

I just dont see the point, lol. This kid in my class has his done, and he would always stick pens through it, uhm that creeps me out.
But its really a personal opinion

Ok, I was going to leave this alone, but decided not to. Questions/statements like these tend to kill these piercing/tat threads. Nothing against the two that asked in this thread, just using you as an example. Most of the questions go unanswered, reason why is not because we don't have an answer, but because we're tired of answering. Many of us that have piercing/tattoos within Christianity get question more times than we would like to remember. Seeing as how we are online we'd rather ignore it or hope that someone else answers, than have to answer all over again, which more often than not leads to other questions, and possibly a debate. I'm not speaking for everyone here, but as for myself, yes.

If you really want to know the why, best thing I can tell you, is we like it. The same way you wear a necklace/rings/regular earing/certain brand of clothing, ets. Except in our case it takes a bit more commitment, and we know that. Also, if you are planning on getting something pierced just because it seems to be th 'in thing' (which sickens me) don't!! Be yourself.



Opinions.

What does African (and many other regional) cultures have to do with this? In my opinion, traditional cultural dress is breath-takingly gorgeous.

---
I don`t have any gauges, but can fit a 10-12 gauge in my ears because many of the earrings I have are very old and craftsman originals, so the part that goes through the ear is thicker. It wasn`t intentional though. When I wear danglies they sag a teeny bit though.

This post has been edited by Rave87: Nov 3 2009, 07:52 PM

Eh, sorry. I think it just looks kinda gross and trashy. I can understand doing it for cultural reasons... but I don't know why you'd do it just so you can load your ear up with more jewelry.

To each their own, I suppose.

There was a dude at my uni that had some big black ones, looked like they could be wheels for a skateboard. Then one day he came without them and the remnants of his earlobes were just flopping around.

I think most of you guys have a misconception of stretching. Not everyone seeks to have "skateboard wheel" sized ear lobes. I think if it can be done tastefully, it will look quite beautiful.

Exactly. Most people I know who gauge their ears don't go the point of no return. Also it usually looks quite awesome.

I'm aware of this.

And I think it looks trashy. -Shrugs-