Straight 5mm tunnel piercing

[Archtua]

Anyone ever had a 5mm tunnel piercing? My left lobe is at 6mm at the moment and I haven't even got my right lobe pierced yet so I'm looking to even up the sizes as quick as possible so my piercer suggested getting a 5mm tunnel piercing as oppose to just stretching a normal piercing. What's this like? Pain wise? And also any idea how long it takes to heal before I could start stretching to a larger size.

[CoyotesGirl]

I'm no expert, but that sounds like a dermal punch and the experts (from what I've read here) agree that those are a Bad Thing. My ears are lop-sided due to some tears in my left ear that picked up a small infection. I promise it'll be OK, just go slow and steady and you and your lobes will be happy and healthy.

[corazon_de_oro]

Yes, you can get a 5mm piercing. Just make sure it's a piercing needle and not a dermal punch.
Healing is really the same for piercings of all sizes. For any lobe piercing you should wait around 6 months after being pierced to do your first stretch.

[Archtua]

Thanks guys. Will def be asking of its a piercing needle or a dermal punch. If its the needle I think I will go ahead with it. Not exactly sure of the process, is it just like a 2.4mm pierce then stretched straight away or how does that work?

[corazon_de_oro]

Some piercers will pierce and stretch, others will just use that size of a needle. I know my piercer used to have 4G (5mm) needles but she stopped using them because she just didn't like piercing at that large of a size. They might use a 4mm needle and stretch but they really shouldn't be stretching it up more than one size.

[Archtua]

Yeah I'm pretty sure I've heard of that done with a 3mm needle then get stretched to 5mm but I'm qute skeptical cuse the last thing I want to happen is for it to rip no matter how small of big it be. I'll get speaking to my piercer tomorrow and see what he uses and see what he would suggest. Thanks!!

[davidjpeacock]

I went to a lot of piercing places before getting my 4mm piercings, and most of them were very uneasy about piercing at 5mm. In fact, 4mm was even considered too big by some.

To be honest, the win factor of being pierced at larger sizes doesn't seem worth it; the holes in my personal experience take longer to heal than regular 1mm piercings (I used to have regular sized piercings as well), despite what people claim, and then you have to spend an inordinate amount of waiting for the collagen regrowth to happen.

If your goal size is to get to 5mm then of course, jumping right there is a good idea. But if you want to go bigger then you might as well get pierced small because whilst your jump to 5mm will be fast, you will be held up getting from 5mm to beyond.

[corazon_de_oro]

^ A 5mm piercing really won't take much longer to heal than a "normal" one. They'll definitely be a lot better for stretching than gunned piercings. I had my ears pierced at 10G (2.4mm) and they healed wonderfully and I was able to stretch after 6 months with no problems at all. I think getting pierced at a large gauge is a great head start. You have to wait 6 months to stretch a piercing of any size so it does save quite a bit of time.

[Archtua]

im going in tomorrow to see him so I will be asking about everything before I go ahead with it, but if it seems right I am gonna go for the 5mm. I will be stretching bigger hopefully it wont take any longer to heal before I stretch.

[Archtua]

Okay, so it was a dermal punch, fuck that did'nt get it done, went for a scaffold instead!