Help?!

[heverer]

Hi. For a little over a year now I have been in the process of stretching my ears up to 0g, my goal size. After about four months of being at 4g I finally felt myself ready to size up, so yesterday afternoon (May 29th) I took a hot shower, massaged my ears with petroleum jelly, then eased the 8mm steel taper through my ear. Getting the taper through required quite a bit more pressure than I recall ever having to use before, but I just assume it is because of the 2mm difference. Once the taper was through I lead it right out so that I could put in my jewellery (because it is my understanding that tapers are not meant to be worn, but are merely just a tool) which is just a single flare tunnel. The tunnel would not go in and attempting to made my ear feel heated and hot, so I decided to put the taper back in and leave it for lack of a better idea.

Today my ear is feeling quite sensitive, but I decided I'd try and have a go at getting the tunnel in. I soaked my ear in warm water mixed with a bit of sea salt for about 30 seconds then slowly slid the taper out, attempted to put the tunnel in once to no success, and found blood on the end of the tunnel where it had been in contact with my ear. Using a q-tip soaked in warm water I cleaned up AROUND the hole, then used a clean q-tip to put polysporin AROUND the hole, and put the taper back in. Then when examining my ear I found that at the top of it the skin is a bit elevated, but it doesn't quite look like a blow out (at least not from the pictures I've seen).

Should I just leave the taper in and continue to soak my ear in sea salt and warm water and applying polysporin around the ear, or could the bit of bleeding from the inside and the raised skin be a really bad sign?

There's also a weird kind of crease/line along the side close to my face. Could that be torn?

Sorry if this is too much wording for a simple thing, but help and input would be much appreciated.

[KAISERROLLS]

I would take it out and go back to a 4g for a bit, thats way too red to be a good stretch, so downsizing is the safest bet for your lobes. It may even be a blowout or something. Has that crease been there before the stretch? Also 4 months may not be long enough for it? some people take a very long time to rebuild enough collagen to stretch again safely. I disagree with some people on here about the resistance issue, i know someone will comment saying that too much resistance is bad, but in my case theres always been quite a bit of resistance, my ears just arnt stretchy, if it didn't hurt or bleed or feel aggravated then its fine, but it sounds like you felt some of that.

[heverer]

The crease hasn't always been there. I've read in some places that some people find inserting the taper from the back pushes any skin on the outside back in (in the case of a blow out) but I'm not entirely sure that I should bother trying. My ears have stretched really easily up until now, but I suppose going back to 4g is a good idea, no matter how badly I wish I didn't have to. Thanks for the comment!

[mouse2cat]

Downsizing will reduce the pressure so that your ears can heal properly with less scar tissue. And give you better circulation while it's healing.

You may consider taping up next time for a more gradual stretch. Or Looking into GlassWorks half-size glass plugs. You could probably play it safe and get a 3g.

[ViolentJayne]

I think the problem is you skipped to many sizes at once 4 ga is actually 5 mm and you went to 8 mm thats skipping 3 mm and totally by passing 2 ga and 1 ga all together ..

honestly to me the " crease " looks like a split or tear in the skin on back of your lobe .. think of the lobe like a sandwich the front skin is bread the back skin is bread and the meat in the middle is well meat it looks like you tore the bread on back but your inner meat seems ok ... but its still a tare and needs to be treated very gently and allowed time to not only heal but to re build and replace gaps in the Collagen to refill and become strong

My advice is to go back to 4 ga or even 6 and stay there for at least 6 months - treat it like a fresh piercing

rushing to the next size and skipping sizes seems like its the way to get big lobes quick but once you run into a problem it actually sets you back and you end up having to wait WAY longer than you would have if you would have just taken your time i the first place

good luck and please downsize if you want nice looking healthy lobes for years to come

[ViolentJayne]

also when using tapers to insert lugs or tunnels .. butt the plug or tunnel directly up against the taper and push it all thru at once - DO NOT remove the taper and then try and get the plug in .. use the taper like one would use a shoe horn to put on tight shoes .....

some tapers are concave so the plug kinda sits in a grove in the end and some tunnels kinda almost snap right on the end of the taper ...


just for future reference when you start again

[akPhilly]

4-0 is a pretty big difference for all at one time;up until now,most sizes have a difference of between aprox. a half mm to a mm,& then when you get past 2g,the difference increases a bit.So a 4-0 is a 4mm difference,which is alot;a 2mm difference is 2g to 0g,which alot of people have trouble w/that(I sure did,& ended up getting 1g plugs for that transition,& 9mm ones for bet.0-00).I think if you put your old size back & kept up w/the salt baths,it should help alot.And I don't know what kind of tunnels you used,but I know for me,certain styles seem more difficult to put in following a taper-they can be too short lengthwise,or have that ridge in it.Glass ones w/a bit more length can be a bit easier,they really slide in alot easier;I like to wear steel ones,but after stretching,my ears need a day or so to 'calm down',I guess I'd say,so the glass ones w/a bit more length are a bit more comfortable.

[amanda86]

4-0 is a pretty big difference for all at one time;up until now,most sizes have a difference of between aprox. I went up 2mm,3mm,4mm,5mm,6mm and now im at 7mm which i managed to buy off line, have orded some 8mm tapers and plugs, to put in after xmas. But 2mm is a big difference, i would defo take it out and down size.