About 3 months ago I was sitting around, relaxing with my friends when one of them (let's call her Catie) decided it was high time to pierce my ears. Now, my parents are really body piercing freaks, and I knew they wouldn't approve, but I decided to get them done anyways.
At A Glance Author Cameron W. Contact Cameron W.@bme.anon When Three months ago Artist Brianna Catie's friend (let's call her Brianna) pierced my ears with starter earrings...you know, the sharp ones. Then we played Guitar Hero for a bit while I looked for a good way to hide my new decorations. I found Catie's 14 gauge tapers she had used to stretch with. They were clear, and I figured they would work well enough. Before I left to go home, I asked for Catie's 14 gauge tapers to stretch my new piercings with when they were healed.
The next morning I made one of the biggest mistakes. EVER. In my entire life. I woke up, walked to the bathroom, and shoved one of the 14 gauge tapers through my ear. It did NOT hurt, but at that point I thought to myself "hey, let's start going bigger!" I went over to my friend's (let's call her Gus Gus) house and asked if I could use her tapers, with the intention of going to a 2. However, Gus Gus told me she'd give as many dollars for as many gauges I had gone up, but only if I stretched it right then and there. You know, like 10 dollars for 10 gauge, 8 for 8 gauge, blah blah blah. She dared me to go to 00. I made 40 dollars and ended up stretching my left ear to a 4 gauge that afternoon. Every time I would go up a size it would only hurt a tiny bit, so I just kept stretching.
That night at work things started to go wrong. My ear began to get a little sore, but nothing serious...yet. At close to midnight (I work at a theater so I have to stay way way way way late) my ear began to hurt really badly and I took out the 4 gauge taper. The inside of the hole was full of pus, so I squeezed it out and the swelling went down. "Problem solved" I thought. Not quite.
The next morning I woke up and my earlobe looked like a fucking tomato. My parents saw it (but not the other 14 gauge ear) and exploded like Mount St. Helens. They demanded I take it out, so I did, thinking the problem would be solved. It wasn't.
The hole remained so I could see all the way through my ear and absolutely foul-smelling brown glop was crusting around the hole. After about a day or so I started to try to squeeze the pus out. I lifted up my earlobe to wipe the back with Neosporin....there was a faint bubbling, spitting sound and rivers of pus practically shot out of the back of my ear, dribbling down the back and onto my shoulder. I kid you not. It was pale yellow/white, and the more it oozed out the more bloody it got. I was seriously about to cry. I thought my ear was going to rot off the side of my head. I went around asking for advice on what to do and most people just ended up laughing at me. My mother took me to a doctor who told me my hearing was going to be affected and that he was going to have to operate on my ear to scrape out the necrotic flesh. I didn't believe him about the hearing problems, but it scared the shit out me when he said that my ear might actually begin to rot if he didn't treat it.
My ear did not end up falling off and I hear just fine (stupid doctor...). With a couple days of Neosporin and hot water soaks, the swelling went down and it cleared right up, and it ended up closing about the time my right ear healed. In all honesty, I believe Neosporin was sent from God to save my earlobe. I re-pierced my left ear and stretched it the right way, and I am now up to a 6 gauge in both lobes, with the intention of stretching my second holes to either an 8 or a 4 WHEN THEY ARE HEALED. The only after-effect I can see is the edges of the new hole look rather red and wrinkly, and you can see lumps of scar tissue on the back of my ear, but other than that, lesson learned for sure! I think my parents have given up on body piercings after they saw my ear.
PLEASE WAIT BEFORE STRETCHING. And when you do start, don't go too fast. You'll just end up making your ear look like a volcano.