This experience is about how I made a badly placed piercing into a great piercing. I got my first two helixes at the end of August last year. I wanted the top one a little more forward that it is as it is right at the very top of the outer conch area, and it looked a little daft so far up from my lower one. The way I had originally planned to fix this was to get two more between them to make it look better.
At A Glance Author Carlu Contact Carlu@bme.anon IAM Carlu When Three months ago That was my original plan, then I realised that they were both 1.2, but I wanted them to be 1.6 so I was a bit upset about that. So in December (after getting my scaffold in October) I got another helix above the lower one, this time at 1.6, although the ring they used was too small, and she said that and I said it was fine, that was my fault.
So a month later In Disneyland (woohoo!) I was on the Indiana Jones rollercoaster, and on the first turn I whacked both of my ears on the headrest, and couldn't enjoy the ride as I was to busy trying not to hit them again. When I got off the middle one had bled and I think one of the other's did, but my sturdy old scaffold was ok once the twinging had stopped. Then I cleaned up the blood and left it at that.
Back to school it was, and while we were away the teachers had started being more strict on uniform and someone had told my form tutor about my ears, which I got in trouble for because it's the rules (seriously, that's the only reason, the PE teacher was fine if I put a plaster over them!). The next day, being saturday, my mum took me to the better piercers to see if they could change my piercings to retainers, I could do the scaffold myself but I couldn't get the balls of the BCRs in my poor helixes. Now that was painful, I swore, I nearly cried. I don't have a high pain tolerance and getting my scaffold was awful, but this was worse! So she nicely popped in three 1.2 retainers and told me that the cartilage had ripped a tiny bit on the middle one so she downsized it.
I thought, Great, now I'll have to stretch them all!
School still hated the retainers, alhough I don't see the problem in three 3mm clear balls at the top of my ear. They gave me detention but I was away for the first week and had a school trip on the second week and then it was half term so they just forgot about it. Meanwhile in half term I had finally managed to take the retainers out and I had one retainer, one spike thing and one ring in my helixes. I couldn't take it anymore. They looked so cheesewirey! I had ordered a 1.6mm bar for my left lobe (As it was 1mm and my right by then was 6mm) and two 1.6mm Circular Barbells for my second right lobe, One day out of curiosity I poked the barbell through my highest helix, went straight in. I was seriously shocked, no resistance no pain or anything! The next day I tried it with the other two, the lowest took two goes before it slid in and the middle one had a tiny bit of resistance, but alas they were all in!
About a month went past and I tried to stretch my lobe to 2mm (with a tiny weeny taper!) with no luck. I just out of curiosity tried it on my top helix, and it almost slid in, just a little resistance at the end. I had no 2mm jewellery so I put the stem of a cotton bud in, then put a 1.6mm barbell through it to keep it on. Yes there was a little pain but it subsided in a few days.
This was the start of my Helix stretching fun.
As my mum hated stretched earlobes I didn't think she'd be too happy with a big hole in my cartilage so I couldn't order much and the stuff around town was expensive. Then my friend offered to get me some PTFE tape. I was exctatic. When I got it off her I got home and tried it on my lobe and helix. and it kept sticking in my lobe but wasn't as bad in my helix so I lubed it a bit more and left it. The next morning I took the barbell out my lobe and left it, it stuck too much and I found that it get suck whatever I lubed it with, but that's another story. I put the shorter barbell with a few extra layers of tape in my helix and it slid in without any resistance or lube. Then as I tired to get it out about an hour later, it was stuck. the bar was sticking out the back and the front ball woudn't come off either, I was screwed. I ended up having to soak my ear in olive oil and eventually pulling it out with a lot of pain. So I put the cotton bud stem back in and left it , seeing as it was really swolen anyway. The next week the swelling was gone so I tried it again, with loads of lube. It was fine. Then I popped down to the piercers and got two bullet septum retainers in 3.2 and 2.4. The 2.4 went right into my helix and the 3.2 went in my lobe fine. Then I put an old 3mm plug in my lobe and put the 3.2 into my helix, no resistance again. all fine.
I left those for a month I think and then I started taping the helix again, so I could get this 4mm tunnel in. Long story short It was too short so I had to leave it and put the taped 3.2 back in. So I found the plug from my right lobe when it was that small and put that in at the end of April. at the start of may I got a pretty package of plugs and crescents in the post. I got the 4mm crescent in my stubborn lobe (Eventually) and I had already started taping my helix up to 5mm for my new blue 5mm plug :D Which took about a week. Easy stretch. But the pretty red 6mm had been looking at me the entire time, It was my helix goal, and it was there, within grasp. I said to my friend I'd leave it 3 weeks before taping up again. That lasted another week. So just last week I taped up my 5mm three times (The week before) and the 6mm went right in. I was so happy I'd reached my goal. It looked so good if not a little tender and it made my ear on that side slightly pointier.
Cartilage stretching is loads of fun but I stretched too fast. And for you lot with stretched lobes you know how they often smell, it's not pleasant is it. Well you'll be gagging for the smell of lobe cheese once you get a whiff of my helix. It luckily only smells i I take the plug out and smell that but it's absolutely terrible! Once I'm not broke I'm gonna get a 6mm bullet septum keeper to put in it, although I have one in 7mm right on hand.... but no I promised myself I'd stay at 6mm.
Just a warning, be careful with PTFE tape, it dries out your piercings, and don't stretch too fast, especially with cartilage, I was once again lucky with my piercings.