The picture below on the left is of Chris’s ear after he spent a cold Christmas day outside with his 28mm lobe… Not so happy… He took the tunnel out and left the raw flesh exposed to air but clean and moist for twenty-four hours and then downsized slightly to give the tissue some space to recover (right photo). Thankfully it recovered without complication.
“I thought the photos illustrated quite well the importance of downsizing stretched lobes when the temperature gets very cold. The transformation from healthy lobe to angry swollen lobe was just one day! It didn’t take long to heal up though… and once it starts getting warm again, I’ll be back up to 28mm and then on to 30mm.”
Personally, I haven’t worn jewelry in my ears since I decided that snowmobiling took priority over tunnels! Another thing you should do if you’re going to be in the cold is consider switching to a non-metallic jewelry.