ugh, tapers stuck!

[whatiwant]

I started a week ago from piercings I've had for 25 years, so I moved from 14 Sunday to 12s Wednesday and the 12s were very mobile so I went to the 10s yesterday. I lube up my lobes with Vitamin E prior to pushing the tapers through, but these had a very small notch in them to hold the o-ring and now I can't get them all the way through, one way or the other. I was going to try again after a shower hoping the heat would loosen them up, but do you have any further suggestions? They didn't/aren't bleeding, just sore.

[deviantxy]

If the taper is stuck notch or not that's a sure sign your lobe was not ready for this stretch. You should never force a taper through. If it gets to where you need to push with a any measure of force its not ready. There should not be pain, stinging or a bad busied feeling and never blood. If you have not gotten the taper out yet all I can say is lube it up and pull. I recommend downsizing back to 12g maybe even 14g and waiting closer to a month then try again. I also recommend getting some better tapers without the notch. Tapers are not meant to be worn in the first place anyway. Best of luck to you though and try to go slower next time.