At A Glance
Author	anonymous
When	Two years ago
Artist	Self

To introduce myself, I am a 44 year old Senior Insurance executive, who now has the most perfect, beautiful and healthy 2g

stretched ears.

As I am a little older than many contributors to this site, I approached my stretching a little more sensibly than many of the peoples stories that I have read here. In return I am at 2g and in the process of getting there I have NEVER seen a single drop of lymph or blood, never had a 'blowout' and never had an infection or irritation of even the mildest variety !

I did however learn a few things that I haven't read elsewhere, so thought I could pass them on.

First off - Why ? Well, having had my ears pierced 30 years ago, I have worn every size, type and colour of earrings imaginable. I have noticed stretched ears before, and it was the variety of 'different' jewellery that attracted me. Wonderful designs of crystal, stone, titanium, amber act. Really beautiful.

I spoke to my hubby, who was quite fine about it (love 'im) and said he was happy to help me.

I did all my research, and decided it was something I would like to do myself rather than go to a shop. First purchase was therefore a pair of 1.6mm tapers and CBR's from Ebay. They just 'fell' through my lobes in an almost disappointing fashion, followed 2 months later with similar 2mm ones.

Eight weeks later, going up to 2.4 mm was the first time I encountered a problem. The short tapers, about 5cm long are actually spikes. They are the correct gauge and sharpened along half their length. This means that there is a 'ridge' up to the correct gauge, rather than a gradual taper.

I got the 2.4mm tapers through, and rings in but it was a bit of an ordeal, and took half a day. Biggest problem is that the taper is EXACTLY the same gauge as the jewellery, so its a tight fit get the new jewellery through.

I looked around for a better solution, and purchased a pair of 'proper' long insertion tapers at 3mm from the 'Bodyjewelleryshop.com' for £6 each. Now, these things are

the answer! There is a very gradual increase in gauge, and the ends are fractionally larger than the intended jewellery, making insertion so much easier. They are brilliant and for £6 each you would be daft to stretch with anything else.

I used a new set of these long tapers all the way up to 2g every couple months to where I am now. No problems at all, not one. So, here is what I learned along the way !!

1) Listen to the professionals. They are right.

2) I waited two months between stretches, and had NO problems. Work it out.

3) Use proper long 3 inch insertion tapers, everything else is inferior.

4) Measure you jewellery !! My hubby has a measuring thingy, and says that 8g jewellery can be 2.9 mm or 3.2mm, and by golly that makes a difference.

5) I stretched slowly, and didn't actually need to clean my ears other than in the shower. Even now they collect soap a bit, but no gunky stuff.

6) Straight jewellery is much easier to insert into fresh stretches than round jewellery !

7) Internally threaded good. Externally threaded bad, very bad.

8) Allow plenty of time to get your tapers through, lots of lube (KY Jelly) a little shove, wait for 30 minutes or longer, another little shove act. I used to pick a nice quiet Sunday morning, and I would be stretched up in two or three hours.

9) For CBR's bigger than 8g you need proper ring opening pliers.

10) Use quality jewellery if you can. The difference is huge. I spoiled myself with a pair of Anatometal jewelled titanium tunnels from 'Bodyartforms' The quality and craftsmanship has to be seen to be believed.

So, what do my colleagues and customers make of my big earrings ? Well, do you know they just don't notice! Even when I wear my hair up and have 10g jewelled CBR's through my sparkly tunnels. It's almost disappointing! The UK is now incredibly tolerant of bodymods in the workplace and pretty much anything goes, even for an old bird like me!

Will I go bigger ? Actually no, 2g is a nice size that I'm happy with, loads of beautiful jewellery is available in 2g and I have a huge collection of it that I couldn't bear not to wear again.

One strange thing, my husband cant remember my dress size, my birthday, my ring size or even what my favourite flowers are. Somehow though he always buys be perfectly sized and fabulous 2g plugs! Work that one out.