Well, I finally did it. I was successful in stretching my piercings to the desired gauge. This has certainly been a long and laborious process but it has been well worth it. Please read my experiences so that you will be able to save yourself a lot of pain and agony. I certainly paid a price in terms of waiting by doing it the wrong way. Fortunately, I was able to correct the problems as you will see below and now I'm once again a happy camper in terms of my nipple stretching. So let's get on with the story.
At A Glance Author Jeff Contact covertjy@cs.com When It just happened Artist Self Studio At home in the tub Location Home I will start with my latest success story and later digress to what went wrong in the first place. I got both of my nipples pierced about 18 months ago at Evolution in Providence, RI. I can't say enough good things about the staff there, especially Joe Yglesias. They are totally professional and extremely thorough, clean and informative. They were pierced about a month apart so as to allow for nipple play on the unpierced nipple. The original piercings were at 12 gauge, but I had every intention of stretching them and told that to the piercer, Joe. Since my right nipple was a re-pierce (I'll go into that later) Joe suggested that the nipple be pierced a bit deeper than the first time and that was the case when he did the left one as well.
So far so good. I actually waited an entire year before stretching them both to a 10 gauge. I like the looks of the circular barbell and that's what I've been using since the 10 gauge stretch. I then waited 3 more months to stretch them to 8 gauge. Then I waited 2 months to stretch them to their current 6 gauge using circular barbells from a company called Industrial Strength. Their body jewelry is a bit more expensive but it's worth the few extra bucks. They shine like crazy and they are the dimensions I wanted (6 gauge, 5/8 inch diameter and 5/16 beads in implant grade stainless.) If you can afford it, don't go with the cheaper ones if you plan to wear them for a while.
OK. Now for the best part. Stretch them yourself! I did it and I will never go for the quick taper and run method done at a lot of piercing studios. The bottom line is that they just don't have the time to stretch piercings by the best method that I've found. That being slowly in a hot bath tub. This was the method recommended by my piercer and I've got to admit it works!!! What I did was I ran a hot tub and removed my old jewelry. I submerged the nipple that I wanted to stretch for about 20 minutes and then used a taper (you can find them on ebay and they're about $10). I slowly worked the taper through my nipple about an inch every 5 minutes or so until it was almost completely through. I then put the new jewelry behind the taper and worked it through very slowly. It almost stopped at the end but it was almost like childbirth, it crowned and then I jiggled it through. The feeling was quite euphoric when it did come through then I put the metal balls on the ends and was done. The same procedure was done the next day on my other nipple and I am extremely happy with the results.
Thanks to all the great folks at Evolution for their advice and patience in answering my questions. They were by far the best source of information regarding my piercing and stretchings.
By the way, I did originally pierce my right nipple about 3 years ago and stretched it too aggressively by another piercer. I noticed it starting to migrate when I was working out on the Precor machine at the gym. I foolishly disregarded it and even covered my nipple rings with a bandage so that they won't move. If that's a problem for any of you I have a great way of working with it. I just remove the beads (They're the heaviest part of the circular barbells). I replace them with o- rings designed to fit on the 6 gauge jewelry. This removes the weight when working out so that you don't get the pulling effect on your nipples.
The first go round, the jewelry started to migrate but I had it removed in time to re-pierce it. Patience is definitely the key when it comes to stretching a piercing. Most importantly is to listen to your body and don't do anything that it is not ready for. Good luck to all of you in stretching your nipples. If you do it right you'll be really happy with the results.