So here I am, another Sunday morning, on BMEzine, I have visited this site nearly daily for about 5 years. So I thought it's about time I shared my story too, a story about my love of body modification, most of all a love of stretching my ears!
At A Glance Author Hannah Contact Hannah@bme.anon When N/A Artist Myself Studio Various places Location Liverpool, England. As it stands my ears are now at 30mm, and I promised myself that is it, when I got a pair of beautiful plugs for my 20th birthday off my mother, but here I am 8 months later, 8 months with no stretching, looking at pictures on here and desperately wanting to stretch further!!
It all started about 4 years ago, with a tongue bar in the piercing that had been gunned about 8 years previously, then over the space of a few months I managed to squeeze I few more in then a 3.2mm tunnel, I wasn't too sure what was doing at the time I just though it looked "cool" it was then I started to research the idea of properly stretching, only I didn't do a very good job, I bought a 6mm taper and some Vaseline then just tried to cram it in, bad idea, VERY bad idea. In went the taper, and pop went my ear. What a disaster, but I left it in and it soon cleared up, thank god, I did the same with am 8 mm taper, again bad idea, but continued to do the same with the other ear, by the time id got both ears to 8mm I had finally realized that tapers were certainly not the way to go, it had been messy, painful, and to be frank completely disgusting.
So having decided that it was all to be done 1mm at a time, and having a job that didn't pay very well, it took me the next 2 years to get to 18mm where I stayed for a while, but back came that itch to go bigger, and go bigger I did, up to 20mm, however I found that after 20mm I could only purchase plugs in 2mm intervals, and what a nightmare this was, I tried everything (including using silicone tunnels, another bad idea!!!!) to get that 22mm plug in, and it just was not going to happen for me, and then for the first time in my stretching experience I went and got a little professional advice from a piercer friend, who suggested using electrical tape to make the tunnels up to that odd number that could not be purchased, and IT WORKED!!! And I found some pretty funky colours too, that I then wrapped around black plugs to find it made them look like liquorice allsorts!! Very funky indeed!!
And up, up, up I went over the course of yet another year, finding that the electrical tape was kinder to my ears than even the acrylic of the bare plug! Up and away to 28mm and then with my birthday fast approaching my mother decided she wanted to buy me a "nice piece of jewellary" And after explaining that "nice jewellary" really was not my thing at all, she agreed to buy me a pair of 30mm hybrid buffalo and silver plugs, but ended up getting a fantastic deal on them because my piercer could only get hold of 1 of the design I wanted, so I now have 3!! Two with stars on with red jewelles and one with the anchor I originally wanted! Now is the time when I rave about the buffalo horn, super comfy, no icky infections, no ripping, no blowouts, NO EAR FUNK!!! So so easy to keep clean! The best plugs I have ever had! And i'm certain that I will only use natural plugs and tunnels from now on!!
That feeling after stretching, is unexplainable, the feel of the bigger plug or tunnel, you just can't beat it, it feels so big and nice and new, but it just doesn't stay that way for long, after a month its the same its not as big and new as it was, it could have been there forever, and unlike most piercing, you know that there is something you can do about it, stretching is an addiction, not the worst addiction I could have, its just my personality, its just what I love, and its going to have to stop one day, weather that day is today or in years to come I don't know! Ill have to jump that hurdle when it arrives!
So, that's my story, 8 months after my birthday, 8 months with no stretching, And itching like crazy to stretch. I would never get rid of the plugs my mother bought me, it's not the end of the world if they don't fit, and I will keep them forever!
SO...To stretch? Or...Not to stretch?
X