Stretching ear lobes to wear large gauge jewlery?

[Marniem]

Does anyone have any experience doing this?

[xikry5talix]

I know a few people that have done this. If you're smart, you'll stretch them slowly. And if you get sick of them...your ear may not be able to go back to normal. It all depends on the elasticity of your ear.

[ilzabet]

i think cristina has stretched lobes...you could shoot her a pm.

BME: Body Modification Ezine - The biggest and best online bod-mod site since 1994

they have lots of great how to articles and pictures. it's worth a look.

[Munchkyn]

On my bottom hole I have a 4gauge and my second hole has a 6 gauge. What I have read anything past 4 will be hard to go back b/c it gets too big.

Basically the smaller the gauge, the bigger the hole. When I first started I waited about a month or two before I stretched it to the next gauge. After 6 though, it is a breeze, the next gauge slips right through without pain.

Let me tell ya, going from 20 gauge (regular piercing) then to stretch it to the next level hurts like hell!! I think I went in this order if I remember correctly, so long ago, 18, 16, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4.

Any question give me a pm

[CastoCreations]

I don't think it's a good idea. How do you know for SURE that you'll want those big holes when you're 80 years old and they won't shrink back up? Plus think about how your skin sags naturally as you age and the lobes will get all saggy. I just think things like this are fads that won't always be fashionable and could cause some serious regret in folks.

[hell_lo_kitty]

Yeah I have some experience in this area

My ears go as follows from the bottom hole up my ear:

My left ear: 9/16 of an inch, 4ga, 8ga, 10ga, 14ga, 14ga, 14ga, 14ga, 14ga industrial

My right ear: 9/16 of an inch, 4ga, 8ga, 10ga, 14ga, 14ga, 14ga, 2ga large cartilage piercing

This is something that me and all of my friends do to modify our bodies, my one friend has 1 inch and 3/8 lobes, plus he works as a professional piercest.

So anything you want to know just ask away!!!!!!!!!!

[Oh Donna!]

Aaaaah the things you youngfolk do now never cease to amaze me. My daughters ex (Beau, one of the most gorgeous guys ever) had his stretched about 2 years ago. Maybe the size of a quarter. He got tired of them and took the things out and they never went back to normal or even close. He's now a college graduate and just got a job at a major advertising company in LA, and he's getting a lot of grief over his ears and appearance because of it. In fact every job offer he has received has made comments on how he should fix it.

He has surgery on January 5th. Costing his parents almost $18,000.00 to repair is earlobes. Yes he is regretting the choice he made a few years ago.

Something that may make you look good or cool now is gonna look pretty silly on ya when youre in your 50's!

[hell_lo_kitty]

I understand (my opinions aside) how society doesn't except people with body modifications. But they don't have to limit your life forever. I'm a teacher!!!!!!! And I have never had any school say a word about them. If you prove yourself at you job or profession, then something superficial like the size of the holes in your ears shouldn't mean anything.

I don't mean it in a bad way, but you daughter's ex's parents are GETTING RIPPED OFF if they are paying $18,000 to fix his ears. I have a friend that had his ears stretched to over 2 inches for over 5 years and decided he didn't want them any longer. He went to a plastic surgeon and only paid $1,000 to get them fix. Yeah a grand is still not a small chunk of change, but his ears are fixed and look the same as the day he was born.

Also modifying you body in any way is something that shouldn't be entered into lightly, most modifications are permant to a certain degree. The problem is that people don't think past the end of their arm to what they are going to be like when they grow older. I have given and will continue to give careful consideration to any modification I make to my body. And personally I am looking foward to being 50 and having my modifications.

Also society must learn that beauty or "looking silly" is in the eye of the beholder.

[Munchkyn]

You can stretch them a little and they go back fine. My biggest is a 4g and if I leave them out for a few days I can wear my diamond stud earings or my diamond loops. It's when you go really big it may be a concern but I think if you do it fashionably it looks unique. I have gotten nothing but compliments for mine from friends and pharmacists that I work with.

I do it as part of my fashion and to express my individuality. So if someone regrets what they did to their body later, well you should have thought about not going extreme with it. I thought mine through and have left some leverage for me to go back and forth with my earrings.

[Archipelago]

I went up to a 2 gauge a few years ago and I took them out last year. I really regret it now because it still hasn't shrunken back to a small enough size to wear normal earrings.

[hell_lo_kitty]

Archipelago you could possibly help speed up or further the healing of your ears.

I would recommend developing a massaging routine where you massage your lobes with either Vitaimn E oil or emo oil, either one along with the massaging should help your ears heal to a greater extent. The oils will help stimulate cell regrowth and the massaging will help "wake up" those elasticity cells in your lobes that have been forced to exceed their normality.

Your ears may never fully shrink down to a "normal" size, but with time they will go down considerably. One of my friends had 1/2 lobes and she took them out around 2 years ago and they are now down to around 8ga or 10ga. I understand how it can be frustrating waiting, but all good things come in time.

[aarti]

never by gauges, but i had pretty big holes as a kid from really heavy jewelry thanks to my dear ole mum. stopped with that though, especially since her lobes were to the point where they almost ripped and she needed to go and get surgery.

[chloehandbags]

If I were you, I'd think long and hard about whether the perceived short term gain will outweigh the long term effects.

I'm a pretty open-minded person, but I know that, with changes in fashion, I would be sure to tire of any drastic modification (like this) before too long and as there would be no absolute guarantee that my earlobes would return to normal...

I've told this story once before, but I'll tell it again; I love tigers (surprise, surprise!) and my mother, who was a brilliant, highly trained artist, drew a beautiful tiger's face on the knee of my plaster cast, when I was a child.

I loved it, couldn't fault it, was highly complimented on it and thought I'd never tire of it. But after just 6 weeks of staring at it, morning noon and night, I'd had more than enough of it. The guy who removed my cast, asked if he could keep it; 'for his collection' LOL :blink: and I was more than happy to let him!

As you can see from my avatar, I still love tigers, but I would never go as far as to permanently tattoo myself with one. Especially in a place that was highly inconvenient to hide.

You may think that you can hide your ears with your hair, but what if you want shorter hair when you're older, or enjoy wearing your hair up? Even if you don't mind hiding them with your hair forever - what if the wind blows and uncovers them?

You may be able to have them corrected, but do you really want to go through the risk, pain and expense of what is currently, avoidable cosmetic surgery and what if the procedure doesn't go as well as expected?

Also, be aware that as people grow older, earlobes enlarge and get thinner and saggier anyway. This modification will exacerbate the look of that and will probably have the effect of making you look older than you are.

My point is, that what seems like a great idea today may not seem so great next year, or in 5 or 10 years' time. You may very well have a greater tolerance to boredom than a 12 year old, but ask yourself, is it truly infinite?

Because it may need to be.

[hell_lo_kitty]

Chloehandbags I undestand every single point you made.

However my feelings on the matter are rooted in the person's intent. If someone is just doing it for a fad then they deserve all the possible problems that might come their way. They deserve the headaches and frustration that they may experience if they change their minds.

But those individuals (myself included) who see it as a permant, life bettering, life changing modification won't see those possible tourments as such. There are people that do it for the "fad" and don't realize the deep, meaningful, and personal experience involved with altering one's body. I personally, along with my friends, accept that it is a part of who we are and that will never change. I personally have done extensive research into the history of piercing, stretching one's piercings and tattooing.

And the things I choose to do to my body go a lot deeper than just skin deep.

Also I choose to live my life without the words "would-a, could-a, should-a" in my vocabulary. My personal philosophy on the matter is this "I don't know how long I'm going to have my skin, so I'm going to celebrate it while I have it!" Those are the exact words I say to someone that makes the claim that I won't or might not like my tattoos or piercing in ____ time.

Before one decides to get a tattoo or a piercing of any kind, you MUST ask yourself if you're a "lifer" or a "fad-er"??

[winternight]

I'll chime in here - I have a tattoo, love it, wanted it for years before I got it and still love it years later. I won't work out at my office gym though because of the tattoo (it's on my back) - it's not that people would say something to my face it's how people judge these things. I was actually in an office with someone the other day who was disapprovingly speaking of a co-worker whose tattoos show - he's the only one with such visible tattoos. Frankly I'm convinced the reason the guy never got promoted was the tattoos - I could be wrong, but I just get that impression from how people talk about him - like he's cool but he's not really an adult or he's too edgy or whatever.

The thing with earlobes is you can't concel them so just be prepared to have people maybe judge you based on how your appearance depending on what you want to do with your life it will likely have an effect. Personally I prefer to keep some things a little obscured.