Earstretching.net

If you stretch your conch (I think that is spelled correctly?) any way will it go back to normal size like your lobe or stay stretched even after jewlery removed? My piercer did not know so I did not pierce.

I don't have any cartilage pierced, but it seems logical that if it would close up at all, it would take a much longer time. I mean, it's basically a soft type of bone, so it sounds perfectly reasonable to think that it WON'T close. Not only that, but stretching cartilage is a much more painful and time consuming process, which is why so many people go for dermal punching the conch/helix instead of stretching.

Dermal punch is the way to go, but as he said it WILL NOT close. A friend of mine did some research on it and wanted to stretch to a 2g, but decided not to cause it won't close. Be 100% sure you want to keep a huge hole in your conch if you do get it done. If you do, then props to you. It looks really cool

http://forums.bodyartforms.com/showthre ... Stretching

There's a link to a thread from BAF about stretching. It does sound like the skin itself can grow back over if stretched, but the cartilage itself would not go anywhere.

Taking a year between stretches sounds pretty bad, too. If you're seriously serious about getting a fat hole in your conch, I'd suggest punching, because IMO, the pain and suffering doesn't sound worth it to stretch it.

Stretching cartilage takes years. You'll have to wait ages after the initial piercing and then at least several months in between each size, and it's extremely unlikely that it'll close/shrink. The best thing to do if you want a large-gauge cartilage piercing is get a dermal punch.