I think I did a bad thing

[agskiles]

So, I went to a piercer the other day and asked if they could order in the small tapered gauges so that I could stretch my ears. The piercer asked how large I wanted to go and I told him 8g. He said that I could just get my ear pierced with an 8g needle and that going from an 18-8g wouldn't be a problem especially since I had stretched them to 14g before. So...I went for it. It hurt initially but the pain stopped very soon. Basically I am wondering if I should just keep the 8g in and just take good care of it or scale down right away. I am not new to piercings (just stretching obviously) and my other piercings have all healed quickly as well as closing up soon after taking them out.

[LucyFord]

You absolutely should not skip sizes.
It would probably be a good idea to downsize and take it one size at a time. I'm sure someone else on here will give you more detailed advice.
<3

[ast.riske]

Lucy is right. You should downsize. Go back to 18g and let your ears heal again for at least a month.

If you take the plugs out and find that your ears were bleeding, give your ears an extra 1-3 months, for a total of 2-4 months waiting time. This will let any torn tissue to heal.

Once you don't have any blood or lymph, which should be about 1-2 weeks after the downsize, massage your lobes with vitamin e or jojoba oil daily to encourage blood flow and loosen the tissue in your fistulas.

After you've let your ears heal, move up one size at a time. The 16g and 14g stretches should be really easy since you'd gone up to a 14g, but you should definitely still do a month at 16g and a month at 14g.

After that, you should stay at a 12g for 6 weeks and a 10g for 8. In total, if you've had no tearing, which I doubt is the case, you should be at your goal of 8g in about 6 1/2 or 7 months.

The other option still exists, as well. Once you've downsized and let your lobes heal, you could have your piercer re-pierce you at a 10g and stretch you to an 8g. This is a common technique as the stretch will keep pressure on the wound and limit bleeding. This procedure will take 6-8 weeks to heal if cared for carefully. If you decide you want to stretch to a larger size, you will need to wait at least 5 months after the repiercing before you start.

If you do decide to just be repierced at an 8g, absolutely, under no circumstances should you skip sizes! The next stretch from an 8g is .8mm or 1mm. That's a BIG stretch by itself. Don't tax your ears by trying to skip to a 4g (2mm bigger). You are guaranteed to do damage.

I hope this helps. Best of luck!

[TheGreyEyedMonster]

^everything he said

[kingdom]

in my opinion everybodys body is different. if you follow the guides here then youll have no problems. but for some people you can strech fast.

for me i pierced my ears and 3 months later i was at 0g. i would by no means advocate doing that tho. but i started streching after a week and a half just adding 2 layers PTFE tape a day. or sometimes every other day depending on how tight the my ear felt.
and personal ive done little to no noticeable damage.
the only problem i had was 1 of my ears blew out when i put 0gs in, and i knew i should of stretched it 1 or 2 more days with the tape but did it anyways. but i took it out when i realized it and the blow out healed up perfectly.
that was some pain tho lol the wind blowing on made me squince in pain so i knew something was wrong.

sorry for the novel, but yeah im not advocating doing anything other then what the guides on here say.
all i wanted to say is that everybodys bodys are different

[ast.riske]

in my opinion everybodys body is different. if you follow the guides here then youll have no problems. but for some people you can strech fast.

for me i pierced my ears and 3 months later i was at 0g. i would by no means advocate doing that tho. but i started streching after a week and a half just adding 2 layers PTFE tape a day. or sometimes every other day depending on how tight the my ear felt.
and personal ive done little to no noticeable damage.
the only problem i had was 1 of my ears blew out when i put 0gs in, and i knew i should of stretched it 1 or 2 more days with the tape but did it anyways. but i took it out when i realized it and the blow out healed up perfectly.
that was some pain tho lol the wind blowing on made me squince in pain so i knew something was wrong.

sorry for the novel, but yeah im not advocating doing anything other then what the guides on here say.
all i wanted to say is that everybodys bodys are different

Indeed, everyone is different, however, your blowout was a sign you were going too fast. It was a culmination of the damage done to your ears. Going from 18g to 0g in three months always makes me raise and eyebrow. Stretching shouldn't be painful and it shouldn't lead to things like blowouts.

I think the best thing that can be taken away from this is to take it slow and easy. Stretching isn't a race. When in doubt, wait. There are no points, but if there were, they would be awarded only to those who slow down and enjoy the modification for themselves.