Ear Stretching Disaster
By Shannon • May 4th, 2007 • Category: ModBlog
Since I’m posting a bunch of BME/Risks subjects today, let me tell you about how Kati stretched her ears about a year and a half ago, how things went wrong, and were then dealt with.
Kati started small, and slowly stretched up to 00ga using lubed tapers and slow progression. After that she started stretching by wrapping more and more electrical tape around her jewelry (that’s how I stretched as well), and at six months in she had reached 5/8″. Then she sped things up, adding a bit more tape every day or two.
“It soon became an addiction. After I got to an inch, I would be gauging my ears everyday. This was especially bad because my boyfriend had ripped my gauge several times, and it would fall out during the night or during the day, and even at shows, which was the worst. Even through all the stress I was putting on my ears, I was so excited and desperate to have the biggest ears around that I kept going.”
“My ears started to thin out big time, but my ears were so healed they wouldn’t gauge down and — of course, stupid me — I kept gauging them up because they were so healed that they would fall out if I didn’t, and because it was tape, there wasn’t any flaring to keep them in place. I tried to put vitamin E oil on them, and it worked for a while, but then scabbed up and fell off and they got even smaller. Eventually they were so thin, that I was in class and I just had to go to the bathroom and take it out.”
When she went back to class after taking out the jewelry, she was (predictably) sent home by the school nurse who thought her ear was so revolting she didn’t want the other students to see it. A few days later, Kati’s earlobe tore and separated from her head.
Kati decided that her only option was surgery. She was hoping they’d be able to just stitch the broken section back together, so it would end up being something like the photo on the right below — at least something of all the stretching efforts might be saved.
The procedure ended up costing $2,000 (she went to a cosmetic surgeon, not to a piercer or modification practitioner), and as you can see below, the doctor decided to stitch everything back together into as natural a lobe as possible. These pictures were taken the day after the surgery.
The surgery and healing were completely painless, and Kati’s feeling great. It’s now three weeks after the surgery, and her ears, while a little scarred, are very nicely reconstructed.
And of her lost lobes? It’s not so bad — Kati writes,
“I was actually excited that my gauges were gone the next day after that incident. My ears were so fucked and gross that it was disgusting and nearly unpresentable, and certainly not socially acceptable. Shit happens I guess, and I really wish I would have gone slower. I’m glad they’re gone to be honest. You can’t get a decent job with them and it’s so much less stress. It’s funny because I still have all my gauge stuff in a drawer and I’ll see it and think ‘God, this is so gross I can’t believe I did this shit to myself.’”
Moral of the story? Take it slow, and listen to your body! And of course, as Kati saw at the end of the process, life can be easier without stretched lobes because the general Western public still isn’t ready for them in many job sectors, so be sure you’re willing to accept not just the risks but the sacrifices.
Oh, and Katie — if you change your mind about not having stretched lobes, once the reconstructed lobe is healed, you can start the process over again.
[Note: this is excerpted from today's BME experience update]
Shannon is the founder and former Editor of BME.
Copyright © Shannon Larratt. Reproduced under license by BMEzine.com LLC
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“I really wish I would have gone slower” - Wise words indeed.
They look quite nice after the surgery though. Just out of interest how much does this kind of reconstructive surgery cost in the UK? Does anyone know anybody who does it privately?
can one even use “gauge” as a verb?
that hurts me, just looking at them it hurts…
God…nothing is more irritating than the misuse of the word gauge in relation to piercings. It doesn’t surprise me at that she ruined her ears, she doesn’t even know what was in them.
yuli ~ yes. but not in the capacity of “to stretch” but in the sense of “to estimate size”
did she ever say how old she was?
just curious.
I don’t think I could stand it if this happend to my lobes! I’ve always taken it extreamly slow with stretching and I’m bloody glad!!!
oh man! it’s like train wreck day on modblog! i don’t want to click through but i have to! yuuuuuck.
man that’s hot.
she’s tuff.
she said the “school nurse” sent her home, assuming she’s still in high school, I wonder where her parents were when her ear was getting that wretched, my mother doesn’t aprove of how large my ears are, but she definately notices if my lobes look irritated even a little bit.
The word ‘gauge’ has always meant either a precise measurement or to measure precisely. It can be used as a verb and was for many years before it became hijacked by the piercing community.
You can ‘gauge’ a piercing and you can wear jewellery of a certain ‘gauge’.
Both are correct, there is no misuse of the word here.
I dislike the word gauge as a verb, but that’s a personal opinion.
Her ears were FUCKED and look way better. I’d be scared to stretch again after that experience..
1 - guage isnt a verb
2 - retard
Moral of the story?….LITTLE KIDS SHOULD NOT BE DOING, OR GETTING, BODY MODIFICATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!
GROW UP……IT’S MORE ADULT LIKE TO MAKE WISE DECISIONS THAN TO BE COOLER THAN EVERYONE ELSE!
My mom walked by when I was looking at this and she abt gagged and she’s worked in the medical field for years… Gah that looks very painful..
pete, nice spelling.
before you insult someone, it’d be nice if you made sure you weren’t making any mistakes yourself, idiot. :)
Pete - Please obtain a basic level of education before writing on the internet. Then study some more and once you have achieved the level of an adult then you may be permitted to engage in mature conversation.
Until then desist existing.
Gauge - vb
1 - To measure precisely.
2 - To determine the capacity, volume, or contents of.
3 - To evaluate or judge: gauge a person’s ability.
4 - To adapt to a specified measurement.
“guage” isn’t a verb because it’s not a word.
“gauge” is a noun and a verb. perhaps you should look it up before you go calling people retards.
she’s 15 :|
yes, because it’s cool to call someone retarded
you’d think people would know when to stop when their ears reach a certain point of being fucked :\ nice reconstruction, but I don’t think I’d want to restretch after that whole ordeal
and to Max Brand,
“LITTLE KIDS SHOULD NOT BE DOING, OR GETTING, BODY MODIFICATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!
GROW UP……IT’S MORE ADULT LIKE TO MAKE WISE DECISIONS THAN TO BE COOLER THAN EVERYONE ELSE!”
i think a teenager is old enough to decide if they want to stretch their earlobes. it’s not like she wanted to get a face full of tattoos. (not that i have a problem with that)
get off your pedestal and stop judging someone you don’t even know. you don’t know her reasons for doing it, so you shouldn’t assume it was to “be cooler than everyone else” ….
“”i think a teenager is old enough to decide if they want to stretch their earlobes. it’s not like she wanted to get a face full of tattoos. (not that i have a problem with that)
get off your pedestal and stop judging someone you don’t even know. you don’t know her reasons for doing it, so you shouldn’t assume it was to “be cooler than everyone else” …. “”"
Obviously this one was not old enough to make the right decision, even she basically admitted that she made the wrong decision.
Obviously her reasons were not the proper ones, or else it might have worked out.
Thats what you get. Now your lobes look fucked for life. small price to pay for a very valuable lesson.
Id also like to add, that the cosmetic surgeon could have done a much better job.
I guarantee most of the body modification artists capable of such a thing are saying the same thing.
I used electric tape to stretch my ears too and was able to go up an extra layer every three days or so.
I also tried using it to stretch my navel, but for some reason the glue irritated it which didn’t happen with my ears. It prefered plumbing tape.
“Obviously her reasons were not the proper ones, or else it might have worked out.”
it didn’t work out because her methods, not reasoning.
either way, i agree that she probably learned a lesson!
“I also tried using it to stretch my navel” —- that’s something i’d like to see. sounds interesting.
Whining about gauge/gauging/etc is ridiculous. It’s the way the word is being used now. Get over it!
haha @ #28, go shannon! people who argue about this kind of usage of the word always strike me as elitist sillyfuddies.
either way, i kind of agree with those who expressed the opinion that she wasn’t old or mature enough to make a permanent body decision, which is only that much more demonstrable by the fact that her earlobe fell off.
i know at 15 i would have probably thought myself capable of reasoning through a big decision, but now in my 20s i am aware that i would’ve probably fucked up big time. i’m glad that in my case i had people around to tell me when i was being silly about things.
good to see it all worked out in the end. i only hope her parents now make her repay the $2000. that’s what i would do.
I’d be more concerned about her apparent regret at her stretching afer the reconstruction. Didn’t she ever consider it would be permanent? Doesn’t sound like she made any good decisions if she could so quickly look at her stretching gear and think the whole process ‘gross’.
hmmm…seems she should have done some research before deciding to stretch her lobes. That sucks that the outcome had to be reconstructive surgery, but I guess you reap what you sow.
Her livejournal says that she’s fifteen.
Since I’m fifteen, I pretty much understand what she went through, with the whole “addiction” to stretching. I’m currently at 00g and I have made a few mistakes on my way there, and I have learned from them.
My parents are fully aware of my stretching, and I’ve explained to them the whole process and the risks, and they accept it… and they’ve made it clear that if I make some huge-ass mistake, that I have to pay them back every cent… which pretty much means that I’ll be taking it slow no matter what, seeing as how broke I am.
Overall, I’m glad she learned from it, and hopefully a few misinformed modblog readers will too.
i think these are good posts, shannon.
personally im of the camp that laughs at the people who don’t listen to their piercers
yo bijou, look up max brand and then reevaluate your comment. …the way i see it, he’s a guy whose opinion on the matter actually, well, matters..
so because i’m not a piercer, my opinion doesn’t matter?
good to know.
Man…and I thought my stretching malfunction was a disaster. I feel for you, Katie! I’m glad it worked out in the end.
I was like this with my ears. Waited 3 weeks after getting a 6g dermal punch on July 31st and started stretching. By October 30th I was at an inch, and stopped there because they were getting too thin. I downsize and up size now to thicken and strengthen them.
#24/Wol. I totally agree
Adding on, it seems young kids aren’t looked well upon by most people.
“Moral of the story?….LITTLE KIDS SHOULD NOT BE DOING, OR GETTING, BODY MODIFICATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!
GROW UP……IT’S MORE ADULT LIKE TO MAKE WISE DECISIONS THAN TO BE COOLER THAN EVERYONE ELSE! ”
thats ridiculous
i was and am still very responsible with my modifications.
i know to take it slow. i know what i can handle. i do great diy work. etc
dont judge please.
im greatly offended by this comment.
and what exactly is an adult?
WERE ALL IN THE SAME BOAT HERE.
oh and may i also add.
not every “kid’s” motives are to be cooler than everyone else.
can anyone say ignorance?
Honestly, a number of people are being really ignorant and holier than thou. This is really not that different from what I and many of us did at that age.
Kati went to the effort to document it and share it, so others could learn from it and see what happened to her and how in her case it was dealt with. I can think of hundreds of adults who’ve done something wrong in body modification but then go to lengths to cover it up and hide their errors. Sharing ones mistakes is responsible behavior, not an easy thing to do, and should be encouraged.
Eww… it just looks like that would have been painful…
I agree with Max Brand… hes a piercer in the Atlanta area, so it wouldnt suprise me if he has to deal with kids like that all the time… I have friends when I was much younger who did stupid stuff like this all the time, but never screwed up as bad… Im only 20, and I know at 15 I didnt have as much of an understanding as I do now about things…
the surgeon wasn’t very good at sewing them back up he should have removed the excess lobe a bit
whenever getting a surgical procedure you should research your surgeon and find pictures of the work he/shes done
::Sigh:: sucks. Good to show what can happen and what the risks are of doing something. I know i;’ve had my moments of “….shit, I wasn’t supposed to do that…” when it comes to stretching. Luckily, my ears are doing great, have some thin bits, but not bad at all for someone with ~0 beforehand knowledge.
P.S. - ew, electrical tape >_
This makes me ashamed to be newly 15, what immature and thoughtless behaviour. It sounds like she regrets her own mistakes so much that she’s just gonna blame it on/be bitter towards modification in general. At least she’s paid the price for her mistakes. This may sound overly harsh but I have zero respect for people who modify themselves without proper research, those who don’t take into account the permanence of holes-in-your-body-forever-unless-you-want-surgery. There are far too many people like that REGARDLESS of age, but the most common and frustrating are those that embody the stereotypical dumbass teenager.
Obviously one is going to be more mature as an adult than at 15, full of more knowledge and life experience. Able to think things through better. But age isn’t an excuse for this kind of ridiculousness! Nor should all teenagers be condemned as stupid royal screwups, even by people who were like that as young’uns.
holy ouch…
um.
yeah.
I don’t even have words.
Zena - She’s not bitter about modification, she’s bitter at what happened to her and is trying to see the bright side. I don’t think that’s unreasonable.
Those pictures made me uneasy but what’s more disturbing is when she looks at the old jewelry and wonders how she “did that” to herself.
As for her reconstruction, I’m glad she’s happy, but that is truly a terrible job. I’ve done one major reconstruction (one pair of lobes, that is) and a few more minor reconstructions, and they all looked MUCH better than hers. I’ve not charged a dollar for any of them, but that’s beside the point. Maybe they’ll heal up okay, but on the one lobe that now looks like two lobes on one ear, I certainly wouldn’t be happy with that, whether I performed that procedure, or it was done on my own stretched ears. Plastic surgeons aren’t miracle workers, but that’s a crap job if I’ve seen one, and I’d certainly expect better, even from a piercer who only dabbles in this kind of stuff.
“gauges” puke.
well i think she took a lot of fucking guts to come forward and let everyone see what happened and let others learn from it. pisses me off so much when people will jump down someone’s throat for making mistakes. you’re not perfect either assholes so grow the fuck up!
i feel your pain. my mans lobes have thinned dramatically. thankfully they havent snapped because he took the jewlery out as soon as we noticed but hes gunna need reconstructive surgery too. thankfully there are artists available to fixor this for him at a not too expensive price.
These kind of horror stories make me scared to stretch further. That’s probably a good thing. Thanks for posting this, Shannon.
It’s annoying how many people blame this on her age…I started stretching at 12, and while I did make lots of painful mistakes (just read my own stretching experience), I would have immediately stopped stretching if my ears started looking anything like these pictures. The girl just didn’t realize how bad what she was doing was for her body, and that can happen to people from any age group, really.
I just hope Kati figures out the good that goes along with stretching, since she seems to have only had bad experiences with it, and seems to think more negatively than positively about it all. Even though my lobes are only 3/4″, I’ve got a job at a bank (which I think is pretty good for a 17 year old) and they haven’t been a problem.
Also, I agree with the people who are saying the reconstruction looks bad…I’d be pretty upset if I paid someone 2,000$ to make my right ear look as lumpy as that.
damn.this just goes to show.whats going on.people doing it for ascene or whats going on.this has happen to my friends.but just doesnt stop people.isee stupid kids all the time.stretching thier ears at school.having other people force them in for eachother.this shits ridiculous.people need to take responsibility for what they are doing to themselves.and the consequences
Well, obviously, this is what you get for being “so excited and desperate to have the biggest ears around”, imo she’s been through enough and she got what she deserved for not doing it properly, and she really doesn’t need anyone else to tell her that she messed up, she’s the one with the sewn-together earlobes, not we, after all.
I wonder if she’ll be stretching her new earlobes too.
I know of afew people(including me) that have allergic reactions when they stretch using electrical tape. My ears got really infected, but after I quit using tape…the infection stopped almost instantly.
Meh, her fault if she’s ‘gauging’ them with ‘gauges’
As a point of interest google “lil chris” and take a peek at the image search.
Lil’ Chris had just turned 16 when he entered the top 10 of the UK singles chart… And he has a stretched lobe. At a guess I’d say his left ear’s stretched to somewhere between 6g/4.12mm and 0g/8.25mm. It certainly looks closer to 0g in his more recent photographs.
I’ve never heard his ear lobe mentioned in an interview with him - is this censorship good (i.e. if children (his target audience) aren’t told how to stretch a piercing, they won’t and therefore can’t have a bad experience) or bad (i.e. if Lil’ Chris is going to be a style icon to some, shouldn’t his image be accompanied by educational information regarding stretching piercings?)???
Discuss :)
Dustin - I don’t think it’s fair to say the surgeon did a “crap job” because that looks just fine for three weeks. However, I do agree that piercers often do better ear reconstruction of this type because they’re much more familiar with the territory.
Seriously… complaining that she’s saying “gauge” and “gauging” and so on is idiotic. Hey, let’s complain that British people call trucks Lorries. Let’s complain that Americans spell colour as “color”.
It’s a perfectly normal usage these days. People who are uptight about it really need to get over themselves. Feeling superior to someone because you speak using slightly different vocabulary is completely ridiculous.
Exactly Shannon! Just because Firefox corrects color as colour doesn’t mean it’s wrong.
Okay then Shannon, I’m going to mile now, see you later!
hahahaha later tonight I’m going to ounce.
i wish i never got my right lobe scapelled. biggest regret. ive now taken out my stretched lobes, and i think they have shrunk as much as they will.
Man, I’m disappointed it broke… I could’ve stuck my penis through there when she reached legal age :(
my ex girlfriend used to say things like… “hey, the dishes need washed.” i would always come back with, “you mean the dishes need TO BE washed.” it was a minor difference but it drove me nuts. it had nothing to do with superiority it just rubbed me the wrong way. when a client walks in to my shop and asks me where my gaugers are i find it frustrating. i know what they mean and i try not to say anything in effort to be polite. i suppose i just enjoy a language that is more specific. when people ask for gauges or stretcher/stretches i’ve mentioned that our tapers aren’t for sale. i only moderatly feel bad for that quip. it isn’t that there is anything inherantly wrong with referencing plugs with those words. just as they have the right to say it i have the right to be annoyed by it. i also am frustrateted when people say “like” a lot. none of this would mean that i am idiotic. i don’t often use capitalization when i type. im sure this has frustrated some people and i am okay with them voicing that.
now as for the ears.
it looks like a difficult experience to have endured and i feel bad when anybody has any sort of goal oriented modification fail. it took a lot of work and it’s sad to see it go. i’m glad that she is content with her reconstructed lobes. i agree with shannon entirely when he says go slow and listen to your body. it truely is the best approach. good luck with future mods kati.
coffiend - The difference is that gauge/gauging/gauges is at this point a real term that’s being accurately and appropriately used here, whereas your example is just incorrect grammar…
The term irked me when it first started getting popular, but the fact is that it’s a real term, there’s nothing wrong with it, and we’re just beating our heads against a wall to try and force it to change.
Shannon is right. We still have meaningful topics as skin colour, a great part of the world that STILL doesn’t understand the metric system and people driving in the “wrong” side of the road to bitch about. So please, get the sticks out of your asses about the stretching/gauging thing! I’m getting tired of that shit..
Oh, insert [sarcasm] [/sarcasm] where needed haha.
Shannon: My respect for you has gone up even more and I wasn’t sure that was even possible. I am glad you’re defending the girl. It seems as though some people have totally missed or ignored the point of the article.
Actually yeah I’m pretty impressed that she’d come forward and be so open and honest about her experience, even given the outcome. Hopefully someone will learn something right?
I’ve just down graded my ears (were at about 7/8ths of an inch and I’d been stretching for 6 years). Mine went back to about a 4 gauge in about 2 months. Maybe my body is just more resilient and elastic? Not sure.
i just re-read the article again, to see if i saw anything i hadn’t noticed before, and it seems as if in the beginning she DID know the ways to stretch properly, etc. the fact that she got excited and caught up in the stretching process sucks, but obviously she suffered the consequences.
the only thing i don’t like is her ending statement, about how gross it is, etc. it wasn’t gross until she messed up her ears, was it?
What happened to her ears WAS GROSS!!! :) I think I’d be kind of down on the whole thing if I’d just gone through that too…
Bijou……did you read the article….she says it, not me…..
She doesn’t say she wanted to have big ears for personal enlightenment, she said she wanted bigger ears than everyone else…..
“Even through all the stress I was putting on my ears, I was so excited and desperate to have the biggest ears around that I kept going.”
on another note……gauge as a verb used to really bug me, but that has been overshadowed by another horrible slang word. Since when did the word “Ink” replace the word “Tattoo”?!?!…………That’s the worst!….Shoot me in the fuckin head!!
careful what you ask for Max, you never know who may be listening. *winks*
I’m definitely more prone to say “getting inked” than getting “gauged”.. even though I still say “colour” and “humour”, I blame the brits.
“We say Hhhh-erbs, ’cause there’s a fucking h in it !”
-Eddie “my future husband” Izzard
That’s insane.
I thought I was the only one annoyed by that use of the word “gauge” haha
I started stretching my lobes at 16… I knew what I was doing, I’m 22 now and still have 5/8″ lobes… but I researched it before I started stretching… it was definitely a long process, but that’s the way it’s gotta be!
Or else you end up like this kid… *puke*
That sucks, man.
Huh, you know, after thinking about what veronica [74] said, I remembered this one girl who I went to HS with who’s a recovering anorexic. She spoke to my heath class about it, and she explained that at first she was just trying to loose a little weight; she’d always been a bit curvy as I remember.
Anyways, she said pretty much the same thing as this girl, that she got so caught up in being thinner it turned into this competition in her mind about how much more she could exercise and how much less she could eat.
Of course, I’m not really suggesting that the ear-stretching thing is a full blown body image disorder…I just find it interesting how we can start with good intentions; wanting stretched ears or to be ideal-weighted; and get so caught up in the process that one can really hurt themselves when one’s not regulated.
you cannot say that everyone under a certain age isn’t mature enough to get body modifications. there are very mature 15 year olds and very immature 20-some year olds. you can’t judge someone’s knowledge by the number of years they have lived. she made a mistake, big deal.
As far as the usage of “gauge” my only irritation with its usage today is when somone refers to the jewelry itself as “gauges”. I know not everyone is familiar with calling them plugs/eyelets or what have you. Even “earrings” would be more appropriate.
That’s just my 2 cents.
76) Calling tattoos “ink” doesn’t bother me too much. Unless me and friends from the tattoo shop are at the bar and random frat boy comes up and asks us about “slingin’ some ink” or “getting some ink done”. However, “tats” makes my skin crawl.
I just wanna know who paid for her procedure? Do the parents pay for her booboo?
I think shes just a stupid little girl who wanted to be cooler than her friends…..suck in. I wouldn’t think a school girl would have that kind of money lying round, I wonder what her parents said when they had to give the doctor 2 grand…
THIS is what happens when 12 year olds stretch their ears to be HxC, to fit in to the crowd.
Sucks for her.
Man you guys are having a field day on my ass!
yeah i was stupid. we make mistakes and i learned from it.
im not bragging about my decisions, im making sure people are aware and dont make the same mistakes.
yeah the surgeon did a shit job.. i noticed.
Ah, elite… one of the many reasons I’m not in any scene or associate with any particular clique. If I want to hear from people who think they’re better than me, I’ll just talk to my parents.
I think she has learned from this. Hopefully others will too. Hopefully some kid won’t repeat her mistake after seeing this. Heck, maybe an ADULT will learn from it. Imagine that ;)
that’s to bad.
again, why let it get to that point?
obsession is funny thing.
Just because she made a mistake with her body modifcation doesn’t mean the entire reason for it is her age. Sure, someone who is younger is more likely to make mistakes like this because they have less life experience. What’s with all the ageism going on here? Seriously, just because someone’s young doesn’t mean that all the mistakes they make are because of that, or that someone who is young is, by default, an idiot. You were teenagers once too.
And for the record, I’m 16, 17 in a month, started stretching at 14, and it took me 2 1/2 years to get to 1/2 inch. Just because you’re young doesn’t mean you can’t do it right. I did make a few mistakes along the way, but I realized it and didn’t do it again.
This seems like a win-win situation for everyone; I don’t see what all the bitching is about.
She’s a kid, she fucked up - that’s basically what teenagers do, by the way - and she had to deal with the consquences, and she’s a little wiser and more mature for the whole deal. People new to stretching get a nice visual example of what not to do, and we get to feel morally superior to this girl because we didn’t fuck up our own ears.
The poor, however foolish, girl amazes me. I cannot fathom what it must be like to be that young and become disfigured. She deserves to be applauded for taking her tragedy and turning it into a benefit for the community. It takes guts to admit you made an awful mistake and then to make it public property. I’m glad there are people out there that are willing to share their experiences, good or bad. After all, we learn more from our mistakes.
Fucking fuck, man.
Poor kid. The part that I actually find the most sad is her new view of stretching as “gross”. I wonder if she feels that way about all stretching or just her stretching?
What’s all this shit against wanting to be the best, or have the biggest lobes? When did wanting to be cooler than everyone else become so wrong? Oh right, we have to reject even our basest human impulses in order to achieve ‘enlightenment’. What a load of crap. Does the term ‘alpha dog’ mean anything to you elitist snobs?
Besides, it’s not like anyone of you are trying to show off your superiority in this written pissing contest. No. Looking down and ‘pitying’ this girl for being an idiot probably doesn’t make YOU feel smugly superior. No, sir. She wanted to be cool, but she wasn’t dissing on anyone to get there. That’s what makes her a teenager and the rest of you assholes.
Wow. I know that rant made ME feel smugly superior. I better go do penance for feeling good about myself. Well, and being an asshole for dissing on ya’ll.
lol malice alice is angry!
“You can’t get a decent job with them ”
Wow, I didn’t know. I may as well give up now.
I’m going to sound just like my mother…I can’t believe it, but…Where were this girls parents during all this?!
some people need to learn to slow down and enjoy it.
Her age isn’t the reason this happened. Anybody of any age can make this mistake. It was her lack of either knowledge/care that led to this happening. I have plenty of friends that started slowly and carefully stretching their ears at 14 and have beautifully stretched ears to this day.
I hate when people pull that age crap.
This just goes along with my idea of more education body mods with younger people. It was very much brought up in my mind with the story with the fellow with the chain link fence in his face. Who’s up for holding assemblies in our local schools about the safety needed for proper/healthy mods? I wonder how many schools would allow it. I’m sure they’d say we’re encouraging them to take part in obscenities and wont allow it.
i have 99 problems but a bitch aint one.
Seeing healthy big ear lobes and wanting some for yourself is one thing. Because they do look great.
But how can anyone think that keeping on keeping on when the lobes began to look sick is attractive? Was it just a race to outsize her friends with no regard to health and asthetics? Doesn’t matter how big they are if they look like crap.
As far as wanting to be coolest. Some look to others to give them a sense of self-worth. The need to be cool disappears when you are alone. It’s a group thing.
Self-worth isn’t dependant on who’s in the room.
And Alpha dogs don’t get to be Alpha dogs by making their bodies sick. (You don’t knaw your leg until it drops off.)
2 grand is a hell of a lot.. i had my lobes closed up.. 700 . my friend recently paid 500.. both plastic surgeons
I think the people who feel the need to judge, scream and point fingers have skeletons in their closets.
That’s usually how it works.
Right, Ted Haggard?
Well I’m not going to argue with you on that first point, KittyKitty. Although I don’t know if I agree with people looking for a sense of self-worth only around others. How it comes out is just different, I think. When you’re alone it’s almost always constructive instead of destructive.
Humans, however, (as my dad likes to say) are the only creatures dumb enough to fall in the same hole twice. They’re also the only creature dumb enough to know they’re sick and to keep pushing the limit. Probably why we’re the dominate species on the planet: sheer crazy. :P
It just bugs me that everyone is blasting this girl because she wanted to look good, have the biggest lobes and then things went wrong. Like wanting something is bad. Stupid, maybe, but not worth all this flaming.
That being said, her last quote, “I’m glad they’re gone to be honest . . . I can’t believe I did this shit to myself” doesn’t exactly arouse feelings of pity in me.
I doubt she shared this story with us for education, and nothing in her comments suggest she did. I think its just a matter of “look at me”. I only bring that up because some people here are overreacting in her defense because they are young so are offended by the age comments or they are stupid so offended by the stupid comments. Maybe she paid for the surgery by stealing alcohol from her parents and selling it to her her friends like it says she does on the front page or her live journal?
LOL, agreed with #97.
This girl is 15, of course you can’t get a decent job at that age. Stuck with McDonald’s for the time being.
Damn….I did some stupid things as a teen but this was never one of them. Yeah, I did stretch and stretched fast (a few weeks between the small sizes…once I hit 6g it was a month between each size)…. but I never did something where my parents had to shell out that much money.
Anyways, we all do stupid stuff as teens. This was hers. Yes, she should’ve listened to her body and start slowing down once her lobes turned purple.
uh shit. *too*…
I’m glad she documented the process- no one likes admitting that they’ve fucked up, let alone sharing that with the world. I was 14 when I started stretching my lobes and they’re still only 24mm. I too hate it when people pull the age thing. People can make stupid choices at any age. I didn’t like reading her comments about stretching being “gross” but as others have said, her personal experience was gross!
I also think she got ripped off. Her reconstruction looks terrible and If she wanted a hole to be left, she should have been able to have it done that way. You don’t pay someone to ignore your requests, especially when it comes to your body.
Here’s to hoping that people finally get the message: It’s not a race! It’s not a competition! So what if someone’s lobes are bigger than yours!
The shit you like at 15 is rarely the shit you like at 25.
I’m 18, and luckily my stretched lobes are one of the only “body mods” I still 100% love.
But hell, at 16, butterflies and stars were awesome. Now? Not so much, kind of stuck with it on my foot though.
I know who Max Brand is, but I agree with #22. His comment was absolute rubbish. 15yr old teenagers can make well informed, thoughtful and wise decisions, just not all of them. I can quite confidently say that I am more “grown up” than most of the 21yr old “adults” that I know. Max, get over yourself.
lol kids
oh gross.
but I can’t say I havn’t seen this thing before, in people of all ages. Example: I just got a call at the shop yesterday from a 40 year old man who had his PA pierced in our shop last week, he was wondering why when he took his 12ga ring out and put a 6ga in why it hurt so bad, even after a strict lecture on how to take care of it…. so, there you go, I got to scold a man twice my age yesterday.
AND, people do stupid things to ears, there are plenty of examples of this in the “over a 1/2inch” ear piercing section of this website; people proudly sending in pictures of streched earlobes with huge blowouts or thin, purple tissue. I can only assume the logic is “bigger is better, no matter what”, we might as well verbally attack all those people too.
and if your going to call it anything, call it shitty, this girl’s ear rotted off her fuckin’ head.
oh my goodness.. poor girlie :(
i was in a similar state last couple of weeks.. however, i decide to take out the right lobe jewellry and let it shrink.. because it was swollen and had pus..
now, i have mismatched size lobes but it’s fine since i am still young.. there’s a long way to go.
a great eye-opener entry.
comment #95 from Malice Alice really made my night - and thanks for posting the article, Shannon.
i have no sympathy for her. this is what happens when you stretch madrad-style
I would much rather hear someone say “I gauged my ears from 8 to 2 this year” than hear someone say “I stretched my lobes from 14 gauge to 1/2″ this month.”
Anymore I listen to what they are saying rather than how they say it.
Arguing over it is ridiculous.
Oh man! That really sucks! At least she got to keep her ears(and earlobes)! Imagine what would have happened if she had some kind of freaky infection… You live and learn. Hopefully if she is in highschool (as speculated by other’s comments) she is able to stand as an example for the other kids into gauges there. Maybe she can offer advice.
That cosmetci surgeon could have done way better with the left lobe. But considering what he had to work with, I am sure he was a little bugged out. lol
her right lobe looks really weird where it meets the face, imo
That’s just … wow.
And people ask me why it took me so long (over 2 years) to stretch my lobes to where they are now.
I don’t like how she claims that you “can’t get a decent job with them.” Although I work at a grocery store, it’s decent and my bosses don’t care that my lobes are stretched (or gauged, whichever you prefer). In fact, they find my ears rather amusing.
Maybe she just couldn’t find a “decent” job because of her rotting ears.
And yes, the cosmetic surgeon could’ve done a better job on the left lobe. But, I’d just be happy to have “normal” lobes again after that whole ordeal.
poor girl, well at least she learned her lesson and if she decides to restretch she knows how not to do it,
I almost had this same problem but not as severe, I thinned out one of my lobes being dumb and stretching way too fast, luckily someone pretty much told me if I did’nt downsize that my lobe would probably turn necrotic and die, I was 22 when I started stretching so age does’nt really matter it’s all about how much of a dumb fuck you are.
As for the reconstruction: I’ve seen piercers on here do 100 times better of a job than that, her parents got ripped off paying 2000 to have that shit work done. Plus 2000 to have her shit sewn up sounds outrageous to me, as someone already said it only cost him like 700 and his friend 500, the plastic surgeon I went to qouted me at around 400 if I remember right.
using “gauge” as a verb, and also referring to it as plugs (someone asked me yesterday how big my “gauges” were, and I wanted to cry) grinds my bones almost as much as using “your” instead of “you’re.”
:(
SwEeTiE - I’m glad you like your job, and no offense intended, but grocery store work is probably the sort of job that people who choose jobs over public modifications would avoid, so I don’t think that’s a valid example… You can definitely get a great job and have public mods — there are many examples — but it’s much harder.
my brain hurts.
I like this documentary, I would show it to n00bs that wont listen to me.
Mountain out of a molehill.
Seriously, people - take it for what it is - the documentation, with narration, of a shitty situation that happened to somebody who pushed their body a little too far, too fast.
When she uses language like “gross” and “did this shit to myself,” it seems to me that she’s rationalizing what happened, and trying to make the best of the situation - and sometimes, that means doing our best to put the past behind us. It’s easier to do if you convince yourself that you were wrong in the first place, and that you’re happier now. For example, couples who divorce after decades of marriage claim to hate eachother, even though that’s probably not the case, and never was. It’s a coping mechanism.
A little pet peeve. Stop saying “gauge” as an alternate verb for “stretch”. A “gauge” is a unit of measurement. You wouldn’t say, “I just millimetered my ears” or, “I just inched my ears
….. because that wouldn’t make any sense.
I know i’m probably going to get chastised for this as the term “gauged” is becoming a widely used colloquialism (and to be honest, I didn’t even check to see if anyone else had brought this up in this thread). But, at the very least, please educate yourself enough to use the right terms for what you are doing to your body.
That said, don’t criticize this poor girl for going too far. I have deep sympathy for this situation as my left ear is about to split. But i’m excited to have two wiggly worms where my earlobes should be.
Micah- this has already been gone over. See Shannon’s posts in response to people bitching about the usage of ‘gauge’.
yup, i should have read the first few posts……. ass kicks are welcome.
I resent that people are saying that those who are younger don’t know how to stretch their ears or take care of piercings.
this just makes me more grateful that i listen to my ears when using electrical tape to stretch with. i won’t put another layer on until i’m absolutely certain my ears can handle it, cause stuff like her lobes scares the shit out of me
i’m going to somewhat be playing devil’s advocate here (since i also don’t believe age and maturity necessarily coincide) but i do not think it’s incorrect or silly to mention the girl’s age in this story.
sure, older people screw up (sometimes goddamn royally too) but i believe that teenagers are significantly more impulsive when it comes to many things, and that while there may be exceptions, the general trend i’ve noticed by both being and working with teens is that they seem to rush into many decisions –more often– than people in their 20s or 30s or 40s.
i think it’s very worthwhile to consider Kati’s age in this whole situation. it raises a number of important questions re: age limitations on certain body modifications and education regarding these mods. we all shouldn’t just dismiss the entire topic for fear of being called offensive to teens or “old hypocrites” or whatever.
That’s horrifying.
i think people need to be more informed about stretching. I mean its become more and more mainstream and kids are starting to try to beat their friends in there lobe size or get there fast. slow and steady wins the race as this example shows.
i know a few boys in my town who just got their lobes pierced a little over a year ago and are already at a 7/8th trying to get to an inch..
..peole need to take their time. mine are 5 years in the making. plus if some of these “kids” start stretching too fast not only are they only causing damage, but they aren’t thinking really about their decision about stretching. I mean in a one year period your opinion on something can change drastically…i dont know this makes sense in my head but i dont know if i’m making it clear
I would like to make a small point.
She didn’t ruin her ears because she’s young, many an adult has ruined their ears in a similar manner. This kind of thing doesn’t relate to age, moreso to one person’s common sense.
While it’s true that younger people tend not to research their modifications as much, there are still many many people under the age of 18 (which magically makes you a better person, somehow?) who modify their bodies and never have a problem.
Just please, no ageism.
Darn! I left something out.
I have a number of facial piercings, a few non-standard ear piercings, including a 6 and 00 gauge.
I work at a law firm.
I’m 17.
Go ahead, keep stereotyping! I’m sure it’ll get you somewhere in the long run. :*
Are you interested in becoming a lawyer, bluepen? (You’ll have to excuse my prying, I was raised by a pack of wild litigators) What field are you thinking of?
i would say that was stupid of her, but hell, i had to downsize just recently because i was so excited about going up a gauge that i didn’t listen to me body.
i don’t think it’s a point of more information on some occasions, it’s just the point that a lot of people are impatient, and want whayever it is they want when they want it…the price only matters when it gets there.
Since the whole argument over the whole “to gauge” vs “not to gauge” is irritates me, my 2 cents:
languages evolve, words take on different meanings, verbs become nouns, nouns become verbs, etc etc. Basic linguistics. If this didn’t happen we would all be speaking a language that has little resemblance to current english (think Beowulf.)
and just to rub in the point: how many of you use the word “email”? hmmmm, that word wasn’t around just a short while ago! back in my day, we used the good old telegraph!
She got addicted to stretching, I so understand that feeling. She started out really nice though, taking it slowly, etc. But you know what an addiction can cause… you become obsessive over things, you want more and you want it faster.
I think everyone who’s stretched his or her lobes experienced that feeling; the impatience, wanting to go bigger but having to wait, etc. I had it too. Luckily for me and most people, it didn’t cause me to stretch faster or in an irresponisble way.
So I totally don’t agree with the people who say she’s too young to make descisions, that she’s a retard, etc. If something turns addictive, it doesn’t matter what age you are.
I’m actually going to be starting college, then law school soon enough. Thus far though, I just know I don’t want to be a trail lawyer. Give me paperwork and I’m happy. Well, that and I’d never work in a defense firm. I’ve become biased that way, and law is appealing to me in that I can help people rather than huge companies. xP
In response to the first comment - Quentin at Kalima in Worthing does it privately and very well - http://www.kalima.co.uk
a sad story any way you read it. her statement of regret is even more sad and indicates, to me, that ramifications of actions are not always understood. is there a way for all of us to be a community and provide more information out there for the “do-it myself” crowd? what about pictures of healed piercings without jewelery from those who just stopped? this could be a great opportunity to learn from all of our mistakes. OK, the soap box is now empty.
For the argument of “gauging” vs “emailing” I think email was neccesary because there wasn’t a word to describe this newly aquired ability. On the other hand, long before people had stretched piercings, well, “stretch” was an available term. Now, while I abuse the language all the time (nearly graduating English Major) “gauging my ears” is something I’m not getting used to. So while I’ll stop criticizing people on public forums, I’ll still yell at my friends for doing it.
:P My dad laughed hugely when he saw your comment. He’s all, ‘that was me 40 years ago!’ He still doesn’t do trials if he can help it. He’s a divorce mediator/lawyer, but has also given up on the ‘helping the people’ angle. Hope you don’t end like that! Then again, if you go into something like patent law you don’t have to deal with nasty divorces. Hopefully. :)
I can’t stand when people use the term gauge instead of stretch, it just makes you sound extremely inexperienced when it comes to piercings. Also, calling people out on misspelling one letter or making a small grammatical error makes you look like an idiot and an asshole.
WOW.
And to think.. some people will see that and still think it “won’t happen to them”…
damn! i don’t think i would be able to sleep tonight
why shouldn’t a 15 year old be allowed to stretch her lobes?i think the ages for piercing are much too high as it is, thats why 12-year-olds start sticking chain link fence through their faces etc. if modification was more available to minors and there was more information accessible to them, things like this wouldn’t happen! i definitely think that a 15-year-old is old enough to make decisions like that for herself, and I’m sure this one learned from her mistakes too.
Okay, to EVERYONE that said this girl was ‘too young’ or ‘too stupid’ to have the ‘correct’ reasons to stretch her ears:
The Body-Modification community gets enough judgmental flak from the rest of the world without getting it from within our own ranks. The community itself was born from the fact that we were judged ridiculously so we joined together on web-sites like these to support each other. People aren’t here to be better than each other, people aren’t here to judge, we’re here to check out awesome mods and LEARN from the badly done ones. This post and all the other ‘oh-my-god-look-at-this-mistake’ posts are entirely worth it if even one person can not repeat the mistake.
This girl had her own reason to stretch, and none of you are allowed to judge her for having done so, you’re not God. To say that she is too young is ageist, intolerant, and purely disrespectful.
I think a majority of people have had modifications that went wrong, and that probably includes all the people being remarkably rude to this girl.
Oh, and on another note? I’m 15 with 15 piercings.
Wow. Definitely an argument for taking it conservatively!
I agree with several others, though, that ear-stretching and non-ear piercings have become quite mainstream, at least in pop culture, and so there are far more young people wanting to try it out than there were even 10 years ago. Certainly among the college-age population it’s quite noticeable.
Given that kids are going to SEE it, and some percentage WANT it (for whatever reason), efforts at education would probably be good, be they in health class or whatever. Information is out there, sure, but not everyone who wants the look apparently has the thought to look for it. So you get people jamming bits of chain-link through their lips (I still cringe thinking of that post!)
As for this girl, it sounds like when stuff was getting thin and the plugs falling out, she did think of downsizing but they weren’t shrinking, so she kept the jewelry in, which turned out to be a Bad Thing.
I suppose that would have been a good time to just take it ALL out for a while, soak stuff, and wear hair down if people complained about the look? Or try to get something smaller, but with huge flanges to keep it in?
I definitely sympathize with her finding it all gross for a while, though. After that I’m sure it takes a bit to recover! Seeing those jewelry probably reminds of that specific horrible experience, for a while.
Avilabilty of information is not a problem. There are plenty of sources of information regarding body modifications on the internet. If people dont do enough research or disregard the info and choose to stretch however they want, they deserve this kind of shit. Look through BME, you’ll see plenty of blowouts, lobe tears and tonnes of mod disasters on adults AND minors. Dont attack this girl on the basis of her age. Just because someone is over 18, it dosent mean that they automatically have the maturity, rationality or discipline to make the right decision. Adults can be just as impulsive, irrational and out of control as teenagers. Some adults never grow up.
And since we’re doing the age and piercing count. I’m 16 and I have 41 piercings =]
Forgot to link.
And make that 42.
I never said someone that’s young can’t do things correctly…..I said a kid should not be doing permenant things to their body until they have a better understanding of who they are, and what they want out of their life. I’m very thankful that I didn’t do many of the things that I thought were cool when I was in high school…..
Nice to see that you can totally fuck up your ears and they can be fixed. I was wondering what the surgery would run, done professionally, now I have an answer.
It’s obvious that the girl had some bad information, or no information, refering to stretching as “gauging”. I wouldn’t be suprised if the problem was a reaction to the adhesive on the electrical tape. That and picking up plugs and shoving them back in at a club during a show.
STRETCH!. it hurt to read gauging, gauges, etc. 25984 times
i love this:
“I’m glad they’re gone to be honest. You can’t get a decent job with them and it’s so much less stress.”
hilarious. my lobes are stretched to 1″, and i happen to have a pretty decent job, and i’m pretty sure i got it based on my experience and education, although if my principal had seen my bling eyelets i think she would have hired me faster.
I still want to know who paid for it. >:(
Hats off to the girl for having the fucking guts to put this up. Those pictures are gonna haunt my dreams!!
I know some people are saying she was an idiot or whatever but remember, she wanted the biggest lobes to look good to people like you guys so putting up her story with pics must for guys like you must of been really hard too.
she did :P
First time I saw this I was like “Oh shit, how could she do that to herself…”
But then I thought that she probably just got caught up in stretching… And she’s really brave to admit her mistakes to other people. :)
I’m sure she’s learnt her lesson, and she’ll be teaching a few other people a lesson, too.
As for her age, I don’t think it had anything to do with this going wrong. She could’ve been 40 and still made the same mistake. Just ‘cos she’s 15, it doesn’t mean she didn’t know what she wanted.
It seems like she knew how to stretch her lobes properly but when she got too caught up, she forgot about doing it properly… and lets face it, that can happen to anyone.
Oh and, stop arguing about the use of the word ‘gauge’. If you don’t like it being used in the way it’s used here fine, but just because you have a bitch about it, no ones going to stop using it.
:)
One more thing, the end result doesn’t look too bad, but I think it could be better tbh!
I couldn’t even read all of the comments because I got so infuriated. One of the RETARD’s that commented said the piercing industry hijacked the word “gauge”. For starters imbecile, it was first the jewelery manufacturers who were using “American Standard Wire Gage For Non-Ferrous Metals” wheels to measure the wire used to make jewelry. Look at your Old school gauge wheel, it says the quoted words verbatim. Why the mis-spelling? who fucking knows? It’s not nearly as perplexing as why all you mental fucking midgets choose to call the jewelry “gauges” or the stretching process “gauging”. For starters, you moronic bastards, we as an industry have always used the word gauge in reference to the size of the jewelry. When the word is used as a verb or in the wrong goddamned context we snicker the same way tattoo artist do when tourists say, “tat-gun” or “sick tats bro”. Listen up cretin, this is the last fucking time I am going to tell you: We use the word “gauge” for measurement of jewelry the same way firearms experts and enthusiasts use the word “caliber” for measurement of projectiles. Now apply what I just said practically: Go to your nearest Gun Shop and try to buy a box of 9mm calibers you stupid fucking nincompoop piece of shit and watch the redneck hayseed behind the counter laugh you right the fuck back to hippyland.
Consider yourselves schooled, you can shut the fuck up now.
angry much?
find something better to do with your time than scream at strangers.
holy f*ck, that went really wrong man, i hav my ears stretched and im so glad that mine didnt turn out like that, partly cuz i did mine properly lol stupid biatch
Ok, I don’t care what anyone says, I love my inch bottom and double O top holes more than anything ever! I’m going to be the crazy old lady on my block with the tats and big ear. But if my ears even started to turn a different colour I would take them out, I would never let them get this bad. Like I would cry so hard if this happened to me, I’ve had my plugs since I was in like grade 6, they are my babies. Props for this pictures thou, that’s pretty nasty, but at least they can be fixed
Mike (#15), I doubt a 15 year old paid for reconstructive surgery. :p
She obviously made a mistake, I’m just interested in whether or not her parents paid for the procedure and if they’re having her work it off or pay it back in some way.
Ooops. I mean (#165). Where the hell did I get 15 from? LOL
LOL!!! fuckin stupid kids.
*Insert extremely frustrated expression here* at #174.
to everyone who is saying “don’t say gauging, its not a verb, blah blah blah”… shut up
it doesn’t matter what you call it, as long as you’re happy with what you’re doing
my lobes are to 1 inch and im staying there….if theyre going neware there gonna be going down….all i have to say is fuck u to the people that care for reading other peoples judgements on the internet..and fuck u to the people that make judgements about other people without knowing them…do wat u want….i really dont even kno y im taking the time to type this…
I guess I get a little old school when someone comes up and says I like your guages. To me it’s like saying I like your “sizes” as guage has always meant size to me. I think the important thing here is though how badly she fucked up her ears. I never used anything but tape to get mine to 1 3/4 and never had a problem but spent years doing it and knew by how it felt whether I was going to quickly. As for not getting good jobs with them I have had mine this size since years ended in 80 and sure it used be tough but nowadays not so much. I work for a major corporation and have had to wear suits to work. Seems to me it’s all in how you wear it.
#174; please, please please go die in a hole.
I respect this girl Kati all the more for documenting her story - it gives a good example and shows people what NOT to do when stretching. I’m sorry that she had to learn the hard way, but I’m glad her ears could be fixed after all. I hope this teaches people the importance of letting your ears heal between each stretch.
And for all those people who are leaving comments like ‘KATIZ A RETAD LOL” - grow up.
hahahahah.
i bet shes well gutted.
deserves her right.
at the age of fifteen you are completely capable of noticing that there is something wrong with your body. but since stretching could be considered an addiction, your view of whats going on could be considered distorted just like when your an alcoholic and your in denial. i started stretching at 13 and i had 1/2 inch lobes by the time i was 14. at that point i started having problems stretching, like noticing rips in my skin, so i stopped. a four year old would notice something like that wrong with their body. you cant blame something like this on her age.
i have been thinkn about ear stretching for me and your xperie nce was hard anyway itll happen to me someday and i hope you become stronger from your xperience i send you a kisssss in that healed ear and take care…
once its healed can you start to stretch it again with out any problems?
I personally think that there should be no remorse for this girl. She is a complete moron. I’m not looking to be a dick or a blogging tough guy….but she did some stupid ass stuff and paid the price for it. I’m not saying she herself is stupid…I’m sure she is a very bright girl….she just didn’t know what the hell she was doing or what she was getting herself into when she was stretching up every day.
I personally am at an inch right now and it took me two years worth of stretching to get to this…including many painfull nights with tapers. I was at an inch in august and one of my plugs got knocked out at warped tour and my ear got infected, so I took the smart route, took my plugs out and let my ears heal up. They healed down to a 5/8ths and then I stretched my way back up using silicone (yes I know that silicone is bad to stretch with but when you’ve already been stretched and your stretching back up they are usefull)
You have to know when your body has had enough or needs a break from the torture your putting your ears through…even if your at 1/2 inch and you see some sweet ass 5/8th plugs you need to wait before you stretch.
Hopefully katie learned a lesson from this ordeal.
Oh and that reconstruction job is terrible.
And as far as the author goes, I’m pretty sure you can’t stretch your ears after the reconstruction process is all over and done with. I know you can’t stretch them after they are scalpeled to a certain size….so I’m also pretty sure that if most of your ear is missing….you can’t make the rest of it bigger.
Yeah I do kinda agree about being young…maybe she should have looked into it a bit more, but it is brave of her to publish the story.
I guess I can’t totally talk, i’m only 19 and that’s wee compared to most of my friends. I started getting piercings at 13 (lobes) and then at 15 my addiction really started.
I have tiny ears (being only 4ft 11″ tall) and i’m getting them scalpelled to 8 or 10mm by a reputable guy who also happens to be a good friend of mine, I wouldn’t want anyone doing the procedure who I didn’t trust. I wouldn’t stretch my lobes up myself because i’m paranoid they’d rip because of their small size. I’d rather pay and know it was getting done professionally. There’s alot of girls about 14/15 at my old college who would stretch their ears and show them off to each other, pushing it further and further. I have to say I did give a few a lecture, not like they appreciated it or listened to my advice about BME.
But that’s just me, and I don’t judge anyone at all who does modify D.I.Y style, if you do the proper research.
i’ve got one of my ear stretched and my mum doesn’t know.
i’m taking mine slowly.
but the stretchers are so expensive here £8 for my last one
i’ve never had anyone do it for me
always d.i.y for me
First off I am glad that she learned her lesson. Second off, I have made some bad mistakes in my young age. I may not be that YOUNG age anymore but I know what I have done. I have a small tongue. I was stupid for piercing it not once not twice but three times. It went through my tendon. We make mistakes. We learn from them. We move on in life. If some of us keep momentos of what we did stupid as a kid, teen or adult to remind us of what we have done then I think it is Theriputic! I have kept some of mine. I look at them every day to remind me that I made a mistake. just be smart, and if you make a mistake learn from it.
oh and also. She is very lucky that she didnt end up with gangreen, sever infection, ie: blood borne staff infection, or even loosing her ears all together. She seams to have learned from her mistake. Granted here where I live you have to be 21 to get body modifacations, piercings, tattoos and so on. I know as a kid I wanted tattoo’s like my dad. I have some I regret. and if the word “gauged” is not a verb, then I would like to know what school you to. I have GAUGED my tonuge to a 8!
jeez my ears are at 1/2 inch. i hope they don’t have disastrous consequences like this!
this is horrible. ive had 30mm in my right and its weird because the bigger i go, the fatter my eargets. so i cannae wearsome jewellry due to it being to thin. but i am glad ive done mine slowly to have them fat rather than thin and going like what i have just read.
does anyone have any experience/knowledge of the success of re-stretching a previously split earlobe AFTER reconstruction? either from scratch or simply reattaching the separated ends of the split lobe? I myself had plugs nearing two inches and now have a split lobe myself… not due to stretching too fast… but due to my solid plugs meeting the edge of a glass display case at the piercing studio i was working at. my lobe was between the two. clean slice. Surgery either by a surgeon or DIY is obviously in my future… but sadly i miss my plugs. any and all feedback would be interesting to hear. thank you.
wol - “Obviously this one was not old enough to make the right decision, even she basically admitted that she made the wrong decision.”
yeah but 45 year olds make wrong decisions and old people stretch their ear’s too so i’d say yes, she made the wrong decision but it has nothing what so ever to do with age… i know a 25 year old who stretched his too fast and ripped it.
Oh dear…that’s all I can say really…to every post on here! I daren’t write a decent post now, incase I’m completely destroyed for improper puntuation or speeeellling, using the word ‘gauge’ improperly, or defending/disagreeing with anyone. Absolute kudos to all of you though…I was surfing the net for a new tat machine, and this came up on top! Interesting!
hay im 14 i strethched my ears up to 6mm n i luv them my mum wont let me go any bigger but i probs wouldnt go any bigger anyways because atleast small you can hide them if someone doesnt like em ANYWAY i was just amaized that she could go up that fast i went sooooooo slowly n it hurt like hell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
xx
im 13 and ive just started stretching my ear
my parents don’t know and i hope they don’t find out any time soon
its only 3mm but im really paranoid that it doesnt get infected.. or split
it wont stop pussing though, is that normal?
i started gauging my ears myself when i was 13, and stopped at 1/2 inch [13 mm] when i was 15. honestly, her biggest mistake was becoming addicted to it. when i started, i wanted to gauge as fast as possible too, but anyone with common sense can tell by the pain and rate of healing how much their ears can take. i’m 16, i love my gauges and have recently considered stretching them larger.
and the whole “gauge” as a “verb/name for stretched ears” is just new slang for an increasingly popular bodymod. so these elitists need to get over themselves.
Hipster bitch got what she deserved.
“I was actually excited that my gauges were gone the next day after that incident. My ears were so fucked and gross that it was disgusting and nearly unpresentable, and certainly not socially acceptable. Shit happens I guess, and I really wish I would have gone slower. I’m glad they’re gone to be honest. You can’t get a decent job with them and it’s so much less stress. It’s funny because I still have all my gauge stuff in a drawer and I’ll see it and think ‘God, this is so gross I can’t believe I did this shit to myself.’”
That’s great. Self mutilated ears are only socially acceptable if you have a plug in them? Please. Of course you’re glad they’re gone. You just had to drop 2000 on a stupid mistake over a trend.
Wow this really shows how patients really pays off with stretching. It looks like it hurt more than here emotions in her own words show. I’m currently at a size 10′gauge earing and plan to wait 5-6 week between each size while working up to 1/2 inch.
i started gauging my ears at 17 and have gaged up and down and have now reached an inch….
im all about going slow… i refuse to let a piercer shove a taper through my ear in one sitting… take your time work it through… it usually takes me three days to a week to get a taper through… sometimes diy is best if your piercer wont go slow but only do it if you know what your doing…
i also take them out for hours at a time and massage my lobes with vita e oil…
i have BEAUTIFUL THICK lobes.
and would be completely devastated if i couldnt have plugs.
I started stretching my ears at 13. Went to a 0 gauge, took them out for over a year when I was 17- they only shrunk down to an 8. I ended up stretching them to a 0 again and am currently at that size at 21. I am planning on getting reconstructive surgery so I can wear NORMAL earrings once again. I SO anticipate normalcy…I just hope I can wear a pair of diamond stud earrings on for my wedding. I hear the surgery costs 3,000$, so I am saving up.
DO NOT STRETCH YOUR EARS- it is NOT worth it in the long run. If I knew now what I knew then, I would IGNORE the teenage angst and bear with it! A lifelong decision should NOT be made in the midst of adolescent angst!!
I too stretched my lobe beyond the point of it ever closing naturally. I just recently got mine sewn up also and I am so happy not to have a giant whole in my ear for the rest of my life. I just want other people out there to know mine cost $200 which is relatively cheap if you think about it. I guess it depends on the extent of the stretch. I agree w/kati..we do some stupid things in the name of ‘coolness’ when we are young. No disrespect to people who take it really seriously.
Im just a teenager.
16 soon, and i do stretch my ears.
i am at a 16 mm and going to 18’s soon.
both ears.
for this girls ears to have died like that was from not taking care of her ears.
she stretched too quickly or didnt use the right tools.
so dont think that if you stretch your ears this will happen to you.
in addition to that, dont think that anyone who stretchers or gets piercings is doing it to be ‘cool’
its thier style and they enjoy it.
and if its to be ‘cool’ then this is thier karma
Just to touch on the “gauge” issue, it’s not my choice of word but for me thats at least partly due to me overanalysing words and hating it’s spelling! (Yes, I am that ridiculous! (i’m working on it, heh.)) Either way, new slang words do spring up and I really don’t think it’s right to say she ‘deserved’ what happened because she uses the word…
Anyway, back on topic… That’s pretty horrid to look at. Certainly reminds me why I’m right in going slow with mine, even though an ex was insistant i should just ’shove the next plug through’ (gee, that really sounds like a terrific idea…)
Can I just ask though Kati, when you say you say it was “gross”, is that in ref to the disaster at the end (understandable and I agree) or in ref to the whole stretching process/look? Just wondering.
My lobes are pretty damn small, 5mm and 6mm, due to go to 6mm and 7mm soon, but have a bit of a wait for the 5-6 on my left, as i have a slow healing process! (in general with everything and also my ears)
On the job front, I dont know what people consider a “good” job - and it is after all somewhat subjective - but my job is fairly decent… There are many people at my work with stretched piercings, multiple piercings and tattoos and this doesnt affect their chances of getting a job with my employer. I am aware that other employers may be stricter but where I work they’re cool with most things so long as you are good at the job… No, it’s not in a supermarket - but it is what some would class as a ‘low’ job i suppose as it is in a call centre - but the wages, benefits and lifestyle are good on the whole.
I do also believe my mods wont stop any further promotion i go for as they have not hampered anything in the past work-wise. I do accept you have to be a little flexible - if im in big meetings once i get to my more noticable 8mm/10mms then i will consider flesh tone plugs if the occasion calls for it..
They’re cool with me and my mods, so i try to be as accomodating as I can for them.
THE ONLY REASON PEOPLE MODIFY THERE BODY IS TO STAND OUT AND BE COOLER THAN EVERYONE ELSE SO DONT HAVE A GO AT PPL FOR TRYING TO BE COOL
# 42 I totally agree. We all make mistakes, it’s what we do with those mistakes and what we learn that matters.
A responsible parent would have intervened at the very least and a reasonable parent would have taked her to a piercer to be educated about stretching her earlobes.
And on the note of whether or not she was trying to be cool, she did say- “Evn through all the stress I was putting on my ears, I was so excited and desperate to have the biggest ears around that I kept going”
number 22. you said “you don’t know her reasons for doing it, so you shouldn’t assume it was to “be cooler than everyone else” ….
if you actually read what she has written she has clearly stated “I was so excited and desperate to have the biggest ears around that I kept going.”
so why dont you get off your pedastal and stop chattin shit to people!
I started stretching my ears 4 years ago and started out at an 18 gauge. I am now at a healthy 1″. I listened to my piercer, always allowed him to stretch them for me and did not buy cheap jewelry.
You can still have a good job and have body mods- I hide everything very well.
Idk how someone could mutilate there ear to that point?? Like after it first started looking like that y would u just keep going?? Shes an idiot in my opinion. Ive never seen an ear look that fucked up before. Also to the people that commented this saying stretching isnt worth it in the longrun. Ignore the teen angst and such. If you are stretching your ears to be cool, or to rebel then you shouldnt be doing it in the first place. Because thats not why you should be stretching.
“and at six months in she had reached 5/8″
god thts big
li dont understand how people cant understand, it clearly sais she got adicted to doing it, iff u can understand an alcohol addiction then u shoud be able to understand this one
i feal so sorry for this girl
the plstic surgon could have done alot better aswell
gross. i’ve seen ears fixed by piercers come up so much better than the surgeons work but i suppose everyone has.
i just like how everyone doesnt seem to think much about how serious and long time stretched ears are…to me getting it stitched up and repaired is just a cop out to fix a mistake, i’d honestly prefer to have holes in my ears just as a reminder…something to make me think abit about consequences rather than thinking everything can just be fixed.
my two cents anyway.
flame flame flame we’re all elitists flame flame flame flameflamelfmlanforailhfkgxcl;kjv
and that is so gross!
YIKES!
This post is a great reminder to anyone that wants modification…to think things through & take your time!
Ears with a large gauge are obviously not going to be accepted by general society…something she should’ve considered before deciding to stretch them to such a size. Also, modifications should be done for yourself, not just because you’re “desperate to have the biggest ears around”.
My ears are at 10g (not impressive by BME standards to say the least haha) but this is the size that I wanted, and I certainly took my time; I waited a month between size changes. When the 10g earrings are out, the hole only looks slightly larger than normal so in my case I wouldn’t say that I made a life altering decision.
I just can’t imagine her ears being in pain & continuing to stretch them; when I was at 12g I tried to put in the 10g jewelry and it hurt in one of my ears (my right ear’s ear hole isn’t very stretchy & is more rigid…long story) and I immediately stopped and waited a couple weeks. If anything, she certainly has very unique looking ears now…(in my world scars are conversation pieces)