Earstretching.net

I wanted to get into stretching, and my friend recently gave me some old tapers and jewelry of his. So three nights ago I believe, I put in the 16g tapers. I didn't really make myself knowledgable on any of this before I started, went in blink pretty much. The 16 was pretty painful, but felt fine the next day, if maybe a little swollen. The other night the something happened while I was asleep, and the back stopper on the taper ended up inside of my ear somehow :O I looked at my ears more closely and they're both very red. I started cleaning with antibacterial soap today (been doing some salt baths since I first stretched). Anyway, this is such a long post, but my main question is, what's normal for the hole to look like after gauging?And if I did this wrong somehow, is there a way to go back and fix it up?

It sounds like you had 20g holes before. I would downsize and let your lonesome heal, then move up to 18g. The wait for each size should be about 6-8 weeks. If it hurts, wait longer. : )

After the stretch I would have immediately moved to something small with a steel post. I never found sleeping with tapers in to be a good idea, the last time I did it I was at a 2g and it was on the verge of being fully healed. Went to sleep with happy lobes, woke up with a swollen, lymphy, crusty ear. Tapers can twist and pull your lobes in your sleep putting unnecessary stress on already freshly stretched holes.

Since I can't really see what your ear looks like, it seems to me like you just irritated it while asleep. From what I can remember about being at small sizes, the hole should pretty much be a circle hole, it being red is normal. It being swollen is normal. Especially since you said the o-ring when into your ear, that could have stretched it a bit more. Hopefully by now you've figured what to do. Sea salt it, clean it with some antiseptic when you get the chance, and you should be good. Play with the tapers and see if you can spin them in your ear without any pain. If you cant get those tapers in and out of your ear painlessly within days, downsize.