At A Glance Author Michelle Contact michelle_mouse76@hotmail.com IAM Shanhara When A month ago Artist Eric Studio Nomad Location San Francisco, CA So, this is my story of how I got my ears to a zero gauge. When I was 7 my mom took me to get my ears pierced, with a gun, at a jewelry store. That is a whole story on its own, but I won't go into it now. Well, then I got my ears pierced a 2nd time when I was 13, with a gun as well. From there I proceeded to get more. All done with a gun, a couple even done at the flea market. God I feel soooo lucky that my ear didn't get infected. I shudder to think of how stupid I was, but hell, I was only 15.
Well, years went by and my first holes began to stretch on their own, I really liked heavy earrings, but it never crossed my mind, nor did I even know anything about stretched piercing. Maybe about 5 years ago, I became aware of stretched lobes, but it was not for me. At all. I guess I just thought it was gross. Looking back, I find that funny. It was about 2 years ago that I discovered BME, but even then, though I no longer found the "big" ears to be gross, I still felt it wasn't for me. Then I met my current boyfriend, who had his ears at 0g. At the time, I was starting to notice, and be unhappy with the fact that my left hole was considerably stretched further down my lobe than the right one was. This would be a prime example of the "cheese cutter effect". It was to the point that I could see that one earring would hang lower than the other. It was at this point that I started considering stretching my ears. Lord knows I didn't want the hole to tear all the way through. I began researching in earnest, I scoured QOD and experiences and pictures. Finally, I thought I was ready.
My boyfriend had some 10g CBRs that he said I could have, so I started there. I really didn't feel that I would need tapers at this point, and decided that if I ever did, I would go to a piercer to do the stretch. So, I was at home one night and decided to do it. I set up a "clean" area in my bathroom, paper towel down, lube ready, and I started by soaking my ears to get the skin more pliant. After about 10 minutes of soaking, I was ready. I took those 10g earrings, lubed em up and shoved them in my ears. Surprise! No problem, in fact, my left lobe never even felt a stretch until I reached 4g, and the right one was sore for about an hour.
Now, I had read all about how NOT to stretch, and I wasn't going to do any of those things, so I waited for about 4 weeks until I went up to an 8. I had ordered some cool CBR's online, and as soon as they arrived I went through the same process I did previously. Nice, it all went really well. I really liked the CBRs, so I stuck with them for a while.
Then one day, maybe 2 months later, we were in San Francisco wandering around. I went in to Cold Steel and saw some cool talons in 6g. So, I bought them J. I have to say, during my whole process, the most painful part of this is all the jewelry I had to buy, that I will probably never use again. L. Again, I went home and put the talons in, same process as above, soak, lube and insert, hmm sounds kinky. This time my right ear was pretty sore for about 3 days, but the left one, still nothing.
It must have been almost 3 months later that I was in the City again visiting my friend Eric, that owns Nomad Body Piercing. I decided to go ahead and get some 4g CBRs and had him put them in. I really liked these. See, it was the hoops that got me into this in the first place. When I was younger (teens) I LOVED big hoop earrings, and I still do love that look. Fortunately, or unfortunately, these 4g CBRs were what made me realize that I was going to have to do something else, perhaps something drastic, to obtain the look I wanted. See, these CBRs were very heavy, and they made me realize that my holes were stretching in a downward angle, rather than all around. Of course my current jewelry choice was not helping in the least, but most of this came from allowing the "cheese cutter affect" to continue for so long.
In comes BME again. At some point in time I had read an experience from someone about Eric at Nomad doing scalpelling on his lobes. So I decided to approach Eric about this. I went to his shop and asked him if he could do this for me. He indicated that indeed he could, but I would have to wait as he did not have any scalpels in yet. I gave him my # and he said he would call me when they came in. He called me shortly before Halloween and said he got them but because of both of our schedules I was not able to make it up there for another few weeks. So the day came and I kinda lollygagged around the shop, went to visit Grime and Jason, 2 tattoo artists who own the shop next door. Eric was really busy so I just farted around for a while, being nervous and still not sure I wanted to do this. Finally I said "fuck it, let's go". We go into his little room, and I ask him to close the door since my daughter is there, and I was worried that she might freak if I bleed a lot. He marked my ears, tucked a paper towel around my collar, had me check the markings, then when I gave the OK, he had me lay down. He clamped my ears and told me he was going to cut. Ohhh, little slice and then ouch, jewelry in. Same for the next ear. I didn't even really bleed, well, of course I bleed but, it wasn't all over me or anything. I think the worst part was putting the jewelry in.
It was great, really. I got up and clapped, my holes were now in the middle of my lobes rather than down at the bottom. I thanked Eric, paid him, and asked about after care. He told me it was the same as any other piercing, salt water soaks, keep it clean, yadda yadda yadda, and it should be healed in 2 weeks.
That night I cleaned them carefully, after a soak, with some warm water mixed with a little Dr. Bronner's soap. That was about 4 weeks ago, and all has been fine. Though I have not taken the jewelry out yet (okay, one did come out in the shower while I had it soaped up), I am a bit nervous to see the holes. My mom recently came to visit and I showed her when we were in the car going home from the airport. She started gagging, lame ass. For some reason the tattoos don't bother her, she can even call them cute, but the piercings she can't handle. Oh well.... Thank god I don't live at home.
So to make a long story even longer, I love my ears and am very happy I made this decision. I find it funny when people find it "strange" or "gross" or whatever. Most of the reaction has been positive, from my work even, and those who don't like it and are friends, just give me the "only Michelle" look. I can live with that. I made my decision based on my needs so I am happy with that.
Last word, is that I would recommend Eric to anyone in the San Francisco bay area, he is really great. He knows what he is doing and is really very nice.