A few years ago I had stretched my ear lobes from a "normal" sized hole to 3mm. I was pleased and had intended to stretch them further (I've always found stretched lobes to be quite sexy on both men and women). I had even purchased 2 different sized tapers to help with the whole process and some 6mm jewellery as my target stretch. At the same time I had also decided to change careers and began training as a teacher. To avoid any odd comments I decided to take out the tribal spirals I had used and the holes shrunk back to their "normal" size. I was never happy with this though.
At A Glance Author paintedghost Contact paintedghost@bme.anon When It just happened Artist Me Studio at home Location UK Recently I had been thinking about stretching them again and so decided to do research, using BMEzine and the BME wiki. Stretching through various stages was the best option for me. It seemed less stressful and I wasn't keen on the dermal punch or cutting.
To begin with, I used a small gauge (about 1mm) CBR in my ear. I then increased this to 2mm about 2 weeks later by inserting another 1mm gauged CBR into each hole. I had then decided to leave it for a while, not wanting to create too much fuss at work.
During this week I had decided that I would stretch my ear further, with the intention of purchasing suitable ear jewellery for my work, and after I had managed to use my tribal spirals again to stretch my ear from 2-3mm decided I would have a go at stretching my ear to the full 6mm so I could use the plugs I had purchased all those years ago! Although I did think about stretching to just 4mm first, then wait for my ears to heal before going to 6mm. I couldn't find any suitable plugs, so I thought I would just go for it!
I had found some non fragrant oil that I would use to lubricate the tapers, set up a mirror so that I could see what I was doing, had plenty of tissues next to me, just in case, and set the jewellery out so that I wasn't fumbling during the procedure. I also cleaned my jewellery using surgical spirit.
My ear was still feeling a little tender from the day before where I had taken the hole from 2-3mm but I checked that they were clean and they seemed fine. I lubed up the first taper, a 1-4mm tool. It was a struggle at first, not only because my fingers were slipping (!) but because it hurt. It didn't hurt too much and after adjusting my fingers to push the taper through, I felt a slight pop (I can only assume that it was a piece of skin tearing from the stretch) and the taper went through quite easily.
Now at this particular stage I had only the intent of stretching to 4mm, but I didn't have any of the correct sized jewellery to go into that particular hole. I had the 6mm taper and it was staring at me, almost daring me to at least attempt the second stretch. I gave in to temptation and thought I'd at least try. I mean, I had just gone from practically nothing to 4mm so what's another 2mm? So I lubed that one up with the oil and pushed it through, again I had to give a bit more of a shove to get the thicker part through, but this time wasn't so bad. I gritted my teeth and bared it as the taper went through. I was really pleased when I had pushed the taper all the way through but then struggled to get the plug through! I had to repeat the process with the larger 6mm and then had the plug follow it through. I was successful and admired the new hole in my ear. There wasn't any blood either.
Now I had to repeat the whole process again in my other ear. I don't like not being balanced, although at this point I did almost decide to not go through with it, but I thought whilst I was on a bit of a high from the first ear, I'd do it.
So once again I lubed up the 4mm taper, this was a little more difficult to do I think because I was shaking, not from nerves, but I think more from adrenalin, I pushed the taper through, this time there was a little bit more blood and it hurt a bit more as well. I took a few breaths whilst I oiled the 6mm taper ready to increase the hole's size. I took a deep breath and inserted the taper forcing it through to stretch the hole again it was slightly more difficult as I was still shaking but I was successful and repeated the whole process with the plug, this again was slightly more difficult and I had to really push the plug through. It didn't help that my fingers were still slippery from the oil.
Over all I'm really pleased with the stretching, I'm looking forward to stretching the ear further! I'm going to wait until it's healed first though.