I'm not very good at starting these things here goes, I've always had a huge interest in body modification ever since a viewing of a film a cannot recall at a young age. It was some 18th century based explorer love story type thing, very old fashion in it's perception of love and it's mannerisms.
At A Glance Author Moe Contact Moe@bme.anon When Six months ago Artist Dean/Me Studio Tattoo Time/ Home Location Bristol, England The basic storyline was; Some explorers where exploring parts of Africa in search of some rare animal, they hire native help.
This young African man had one of his ears stretched and he kept a small survival kit in it. I was taken by this is was such an interesting addition to the human body, yet I thought it was unattainable in our culture. So It continued to only be a dream.
Fast forward a few years to early teen hood, I notice a very beautifully modified girl waiting at my bus stop on my was to secondary school her lobes where stretched this got me thinking, but alas my parents being of a less tolerant generation did not understand it's purpose so it had to go on as only a dream.
Fast forward to the end of teen hood, Over the years I've been slowly building up with other more accepted piercings, I move out into the world on my own, my parents have come to the realisation I am my own person there love is unconditional. I decided to go for the lifetime goal I talk to a few friends and decided to start off with a large gauge piercing, 3.2mm to be precise.
The day I went to get the procedure done me and my flatmate when into the piercing parlour my regular place to go for my metal fix (The service is great friendly staff and great factuality's highly recommend them). I talked them into giving me the biggest gauge piercing they could (3.2mm). They told me that they had jewellery in stock but I would have to wait for t to be cleaved so I sat there in anticipation slightly nervous, I tend to always become nervous during any kind of waiting period whilst modifying my body. The barbells where expensive but well worth it in fact I think they looked wonderful in there own right. Which helped with not getting into a haste to stretch.
The process itself was quite painful in relation to a normal lobe piercing Dean said it felt like I had allot of scar tissue clumped together making his job slightly harder, and my lobes did actually bleed but all in all it was fine.
Since then I've really not had a hitch apart from nearly getting one of the 3.2mm barbells ripped out by some drunken idiot a day after I had them done. I've now reached 12mm in the space of six months and I have perfectly healthy lobes, the one piece of advice I'd give is listen to your body not everybody reacts the same.
My usual stretching procedure:
I usually buy one Taper and two plugs as I do not use the slow stretching method. I'm lucky to live in a city where this type of jewellery is widely available so it's an ease to find correct sizes.
I wait for my current jewellery to feel loose and comfortable then I stretch again.
I clean my lobes with antibacterial soap and massage them once a week.
I use KY jelly to lube the taper and I use it on both ears, sliding the jewellery in behind the taper. I've used a variety of different styles of jewellery and by far my favourite are two piece threaded styles allot less fuss in my opinion plus there more secure.
I may try the PTFE tape method as I gain in size but for now I'll continue with this method.
My favourite jewellery material is surgical steel I like the weight, although I've had no problem with the acrylic I've used. I'd like to next try some glass as I've seen some very beautiful pieces out there. I'm also interested in trying out some wooden materials maybe making my own jewellery.
All in all my experience has been a good one and they are by far the favourite modification I have. It's been nice to see them progress it's nice for it not to be instantly gratifying and it's nice to have some input into it. All throughout this experience my confidence to get more daring with my modifications has grown and I feel comfortable with my image finally.
My plan is to just keep going into I feel comfortable with my lobe size.
In ending I'm very glad with my results and how problem free it's been, considering the speed of some steps I've made. My ears are very healthy and I feel finally what part of my image was missing is now complete.