It was about three or so months ago now, I was so ready to move on to four gauges . . . so I thought. We are all in the mall and I had made up my mind about buying the four gauge plugs, so we go into the hot topic, seeing as there isn't any other place I can afford, as silver effects is very expensive. After looking for quite some time at the different choices I have with the plugs I picked some green and blue UV acrylic single flared plugs. I was thinking to myself " isn't it time to start using tapers to stretch?" I asked the guy walking around about tapers and he replied " nah if your at a six that's good enough, just shove them through." I asked my friend if this was a wise decision ( she was at double zero) she said it should be fine.
At A Glance Author Connor Contact Connor@bme.anon When Three months ago We were horribly mistaken. We went to a small pizza shop to get some food, this was where I decided I would "just shove them through.'' When I attempted the first ear it was so close to going in, so I decided to use something as a makeshift taper. We found a straw in the place that was about the size of a four. I bent it once then again so it was small enough to fit in my ear then slowly pushed it though. Little did I know at this time that its really stupid to try and taper using something like a straw, and with the support of a friend who has 00's I thought " hey she must know what she's doing.''
Once I finally got the straw through it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, my lobe was just really warm. So I thought " awesome must have gone fine." So I pulled out the straw and shoved in the plug as fast as I could. Not knowing that it would have gone much easier if I had gone to the end of the straw then followed it out with the plug. So I continued to shove it in. it went in all right, but then started to sting a bit. I didn't think that much of it because it wasn't a bad sting and there wasn't any blood.
So once again I thought everything was fine. I continued with the same process on the other ear. Same results, small sting nothing big, no blood. So we finished our food and continued around the mall for about another 45 minutes. Then my ears started stinging more and more as we walked. I just tried not to think about it, telling myself " if you stop focusing on it it'll go away." Boy was I wrong.
We got home later on that night. We were sitting around and laughing you know having a good old time. But my ears were still hurting. So I finally decided to go and check them out. I told everyone they really hurt and went to the bathroom to go and see what was wrong. I noticed most of the pain was in the back so I flipped the lobes forward. There seemed to be a ring of dried blood around the plug. So I just rubbed it off. I didn't know at the time that it wasn't blood but in fact a very minor blow out. After having the plugs in for that time, and the blow out being so minor I'm guessing that small amount of skin was just dead and easily rubbed off.
When I finally took them out, after having rubbed off the blowout, my lobes were bleeding very badly. So I kind of freaked out and just started worrying about the blood for a while then I thought, " I think I need to go back to the 6's and wait till they heal." So after waiting for the bleeding to slow, its actually amazing how much lobes bleed. I put some Neosporin in the holes and put the 6's back in.
After about 2 weeks of recovery I decided it was time to make another trip to the mall and actually get that taper. So we went back and I bought the taper. This time after being horribly mistaken, I decided to wait until I got home to stretch. When I finally did stretch them it wasn't very difficult like the first time, but this time it was done with a taper and lubricant, so there were no issues at all. I was happily at fours. I definitely learned my lesson. I have also made a self-promise to never again half-ass stretching, and I am currently happy at 00's and still thinking about another stretch. It's the articles like these that I only wish I had, when I decided to stretch to fours with a straw.
Take it from me, stretch wisely and do it right the first time. As a note using "just any old plastic" in your ears for anything isn't sanitary because its porous! ( especially in the middle of a pizza shop)
~good luck!