Newbie to stretching my experience so far

[chili]

Hello everyone.

i found this site too late, i started stretching before looking here, anyway here's my storey, it may well amuse you.

ok first off i am 52 male saw a stretched ear and thought am gonna do that, my wife was not against this move. i first pierced my ear at the age of 14/15 me and 2 pals done our own ears with an ice cube and nappy pin, it actually turned out quite painless and cheap lol. over the years i wore sleepers and studs etc, then wore nothing for the last 20 years, until 5 weeks ago, i bought a 3mm curved thing and got it in my ear quite easily 2 days later it was fully through, this is easy i thought the next weekend i bought a 5mm taper and shoved that in again 2 days later it was all the way through no pain no blood no blow outs. i did intend to stop at 5mm but i thought bugger it and the following weekend i bought an 8mm taper, sure enough in it goes this one took about 3 days and i had a couple of sensations during this one, still it turned out ok again no mess,blood,blowouts, next up 10mm this baby hurt a little however again after 3 days its all the way in and i can slide it out the back, so been an impatient kind of bloke i bought a tunnel that has external threads on 1 end and this is where i made my lug sore i could get the tunnel in the front but i was not able to get it out the back? no amount of pulling helped lol by this time i was like vincent van gogh ready to cut my ear off then i found this forum, and saw the errors i made so at the moment my ear has almost recovered from all the pulling, i think i scratched the inside of the stretch with the threaded part of the tunnel, now i have an 8mm no flare surgical steel hollow tube/tunnel in it held in place by rubber o rings on each end. http://www.urbanbodyjewelry.com/plugs-a ... nnels.html

i think i have been very lucky and got away lightly.

i have a 10mm steel tunnel on its way (same style as the 8mm i have in now) and intend to stretch to this size

my main question is related to the tunnel i have that is screwed in place, how do i actually get the thing to go all the way through my ear so i can attach the back?

when i first took the 10mm taper out i was able to get an 8mm double flared plug in place however i did not want to take a chance and have my ear shrink and get it stuck lol.

many thanks for any info you may provide, how this made you chuckle

[akPhilly]

Sometimes it can seem like that,that the back of the hole seems a bit more narrow than the front,if that's what you mean about getting the plug all the way through.And the screw on ones I've found can be a bit tricky,whether they're internally or externally threaded.Unless what you're saying is the wearable area on the plug is too short for you,& if it's too short,it's too short.But if it just more that the back of the hole seems more narrow,you may want to try using single flared glass plugs to stretch with,& save the threaded ones until you've been at a size for awhile & your ears have healed up & loosened up a bit.They tend to have a rounded back,so they can get through that back part of the hole more easily than the steel ones,that are more blunted on the back.Plus glass is really smooth,& slides in real easily.I prefer glass to stretch with,& often times after a hot shower,they'll just slide in pretty easily,no taper needed.And example of what I'm talking about is
http://www.bodyartforms.com/productdeta ... &index=557

So you may find them a bit easier while you stretch.But it's nice to see someone else that's not in their teens & 20s-not that there's anything wrong w/people in their teens & 20s,but I'm 31 myself,& had my ears stretched as a teen,then took them out because I listened to everyone else & let them shrink up back to normal.They weren't big,just maybe up to a 6g,& back in the day,body jewelry was super expensive,plus when you're a teen you don't have much money.So I never really got to a size I really liked,& I still wanted them for all those yrs,& finally when I was 30,I was watching one of my fav movies,'Apacalypto',for probably about the billionth time,& everyone had stretched ears in that movie & it looked so good,so I said fuck it,I'm going to do this again,even at the age of 30.I'm at 13mm & going to stay at that size,& I <3 them so much,& finally have what I want.So it's interesting to see someone else who decided to do this as a non-twenty something adult

[chili]

cheers fot the reply, yes i did mean the back of the hole seems narrower than the front of the hole, we have a couple of shops local to me that sell all this stuff so will look in there for a 10mm glass plug to use rather than the taper i have. for now 10mm is my goal

[mouse2cat]

Ok so I am very concerned about your story, and there are a number of things you say you have done that put the health of your ears at risk.

Skipping sizes - Going from 20g (standard piercing) to 3mm (8g) is skipping 3 sizes. At that speed you are tearing tissue instead of actually stretching it. You risk losing elasticity, thinning, cat butt, although it sounds like you don't have a blowout yet.

Stretching REALLY quickly - Just to give you some comparison it took me from March to October to stretch to 4mm (6g)

Using a taper slowly instead instead of as a tool to insert plugs. That is the only way I can imagine you doing it, and there must have been a lot of resistance. You can't force it, if you feel resistance, stop and put your old plugs back in.

Externally threaded plugs. Please don't ever wear these. I have read so many people scratching and tearing the inside of their ears this way.

Double flares in a fresh stretch.

You say you looked at the forum and realize that you got off lucky. In that case please give your ears a chance to rest. Take your plugs out and let them heal. Then try and re-stretch properly.

[chili]

thank you for your concern mouse2cat my ear is having a rest now, luckily nothing was torn or forced during this process it all seemed to go quite smoothly until the 10mm stretch, whats done is now done. i used one of these for the stretching process

http://www.arka-shop.co.uk/acatalog/ear ... steel.html

the top one in the link. at the moment my ear is all fine, still attached to my head no pain no infections and no swelling.