"its a total pain in the ass and sometimes you just want to cry and flip things over, but there is no better feeling then pushing the gauge in and the endorphins rushing out"
How I did it: I had had my ears pierced for, well, years, and sadly it was from a Claire's gun (which i wouldn't have had used had i known at the time how unsanitary it was). It wasn't until 9th grade when i had move hundreds of miles away from my childhood home that i realized, i want to change something that is drastic, but modest. And then i remember seeing a girl in one of my classes, my age, with these huge earrings in her ears, and i said, why the funk not? I had started out with a 14g earring and up until, maybe a 10g, did i start to get creative. Around and about i had gotten my cartiledge and my second lobe done and i thought, why not gauge these? I had actually gotten addicted to that relaxing feeling after the endorphins rushed out, that i was gauging like it was nobody's business. I found myself using pencils, pens, anything that would get me to the next size, and sadly most of the time the objects that i used were EXTREMELY unsanitized, and even though i've never encountered an infection, i still hate myself for not taking things slow and doing it the right way. I just pushed and pushed and never allowed my ear to adjust and i thank my god everyday that i didn't suffer anything that could have destroyed my ears. In my nineth grade year alone i had moved up to about a 4g in my first lobe, 10 in my second lobe, and 14g in my cartiledge. The most pain however was in the cartiledge. It, unlike the lobe, is not elastic and your basically ripping a new hole, rather than stretching it. The pain was too much for me and once i had gotten up to a 10g, i called it quits for the cartiledge and let it grow close. I honestly do regret my gauging my cartiledges because now i have a "bump" on my ear, it's not that bothersome, but it would be better without it... Anywho. My second lobes have always stayed at a 10g, well at least up until my 11th grade year, when i decided to let them close down to normal sized earrings, that of which they currently are today... For a while i had been stuck at a 4g and over the course of 10th and 11th grade, i had (slowly, unlike when i started out) moved my way up to a 7/16g. They've been at a 7/16g since then and they are currently there... I want to move my way up to a 1/2g, and i have the earrings to do it, but i'm scared of a blow out, and although i haven't (gratefully) had one yet, i'm still aware of that certain risk. To be entirely honest, i didn't even know what a blow out was until my 12th grade year when i went and got my industrial done. I've been itching to go to the shop to get them stretched but, i just don't have the time to do it (between work and school), so i'm thinking about doing it myself, for old time's sake...
Lessons & tips: Take it slow. Don't rush yourself, and if you feel that you need to rush to be cool to your friends, then maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place. Popularity is a "spur of the moment" kind of thing, and gauging takes time, confident, and a hell of a lot of strength (both mental and physical), so make sure you are doing it for you.
Next, picture yourself in the next couple of years, make sure you are 100% confident in doing this, stretching is not a game. Do you see yourself respectively wearing your gauges like they are normal earrings when your are in your 20's or do you see yourself regretting it during reconstruction surgery. Third, keep it clean, i consider myself very lucky that i didn't get infections from the stupid stuff i did. Just because i was lucky, doesn't mean that you will be also. Take care of your piercing like a dying loved one.
1 person found this helpful
Sep 21, 2008, 08:09PM PDT
| 1 comment
| 5 cheers
