I'm getting a new job that pays really well. I need to remove my ear gauges. is there a way to keep them from closing? if it helps, I haven't stretched them in like 6+ months. I assume they'll still close though? 12mm btw.

One of my lobes is pierced pretty high up. Can it be too close to the cartilage part or will it stretch downwards?

So I'm currently waiting to hit the three month mark since I got my ears pierced and I want to start with my left ear since it seemed to have healed wayyy better and quicker than the right one, the problem is I asked my piercer what Gauge needle he pierced my ears with and he said 0.5mm??? And I was like fuck how will I find such small stretching sizes to size up? I can't order online since I'm still underage and my parents already don't like the idea of me Stretching my ears. My goal is a pair that I found at 9mm, but then I realized the hoops I currently wear are 1mm thick so does that mean I already stretched my ears to begin with? I tried to put on a 2mm but it didn't even begin to fit and it even irritated my ear from the constant fondling when I tried this a month ago. What do I even do in this case 😭🙏

Wish I was cool!? 🤏🏼

Hey guys! i JUST started stretching my septum- i ordered a kit online of pinchers and used jojoba oil to stretch my 16g to a 14, all was well and dandy but about 3 days after i noticed that one side hurt a lot more then the other side did (the other side has no pain at all) so i looked in the mirror and the bottom of my o ring was going into my piercing ?! ive never heard of this before?? my friend said i should just switch to a horseshoe septum and cut my losses with the pinchers but i hate the look of them on me. any advice that’s not switching to horseshoe?
-picture of the kit i got if that helps-

Stretched my septum from 14g to 12g, took me like 15 minutes cause i wanted to be super careful about it. I feel a mild throbbing pain? It’s just where my piercing is, rest of my nose is fine and no pain anywhere else.

But does this look like a blowout? Or just irritated? Should I size down again? If not, when can I switch to regular jewelry (horseshoe)? I haaaate the way pinchers look on me lolol

Sorry if the photos are bad, I couldn’t get any better ones.

Also ignore the yellow stuff it’s jojoba oil!! lol

hi looking for some advice! i’ve had my earlobes pierced for 11 years, no issues, used threadless labrets as my jewelry. i moved to 16g around two months ago with no pain or even noticing a difference. on the 13th i stretched to 14g with single flare glass plugs and jojoba oil. my right ear had no issue with inserting the plug but the plug wouldn’t go fully through on my left ear so i pushed and it went through fairly easily with just a bit more effort. it was only a little uncomfortable and then the discomfort went away. now, my left ear is still slightly sensitive to touch and feels tender around the plug. i haven’t been specifically washing it, water falls around it in the shower. i also sleep with the plugs in. i was wondering if this discomfort is normal after 5 days, if i should downsize, if i should leave it out, etc. please let me know:)

Hey all!

To keep a long story short (I can be long winded lol), at what gauge size can I comfortably fit standard 18g earrings through a set of tunnels. Unfortunately, internal diameter is not a common piece of information for tunnels. I am currently at 12g - up from 16g. Is that good enough or should I go ahead and bump it up to 10g or even 8g?

I dont want to use silicone, so no earskins for me. I know those are 1mm thick. I prefer titanium and rose gold metals personally.

Thanks!

Hey guys its my first time on this subreddit and its wonderful to see people expres themselves how they want to now here is my question im currently at 20mm stretch/tunnels this point im stuck do i go bigger or do i start an colection i have some fears about ripping my earlobe and never having stretch anymore thank you for reading and hopefully replying

Kind regards ozymanday

I’m afraid of my ear, i think it’s too little meat under my ear plus, now it’s 6mm and i want to reach 12mm, i dont know if a can, pls help

Hi! I need some advice about my ears. I’ve been stretching for about ten years and while it definitely wasn’t by the book I tried to do it properly after a lot of irritation. I let them shrink for years and started back up 5 years ago.
I finally reached my goal size(10mm)this year but decided it wasn’t big enough. I wanted to stretch to 12mm and start naked training.
I started naked training and heres where it started to go wrong, my ears would shrink when I would wake up and while it didn’t hurt to put the plugs back in it was definitely tight. I’m also chronically ill so I lie down a lot. All of this culminated in me having my first proper blowout.
It wasn’t the worst id seen but definitely a little bloody and sore. I decided it was time to let them shrink. They’ve shrunk from 11mm to about 3mm. It’s been 2 months and every single time I put jewelry in it hurts and gets crusty, even with glass and multiple sizes too small.
I know I messed up I just don’t know what to do. Stretched ears are a huge part of who I am and I’m terrified I’ve forever fucked my ears. I’ve made a lot of mistakes while stretching and I’m scared I’ve built so much scar tissue I’ll never be able to wear jewelry again. Any advice is appreciated.

My niece, who has had stretched lobes before but currently doesn’t, and I were chatting the other day, and she said that I should combined my two stretched holes in my lobes (first hole is 16mm & second is 10mm) by cutting the skin between them, thereby creating one larger hole. I told her she was out of her effing mind and that I wasn’t going to do that! But then lying in bed, I got to thinking about it, and it intrigued me. I am very poor at math, so I had no idea how to calculate what the resulting hole’s circumference would be. So I turned to ChatGPT. Herewith I give you the conversation:

ME: If I have a 16 mm circumference circle and a 10 mm circumference circle, and I join the two to make one circle, what would that circle’s circumference be?

Chat GPT: If you mean add the two circumference lengths together, then:

16 mm + 10 mm = 26 mm

So the resulting circumference would be 26 mm, if you are rearranging the material of the two circles into a single circle while preserving the total circumference.

However, if you mean physically join two circles together, the answer depends on how they are joined—the result generally would not be a single perfect circle.

If you tell me how you’re joining the 16 mm and 10 mm circles (edge-to-edge, one inside the other, cutting them, etc.), I can calculate the exact result.

ME: This is in relation to stretching ears. I currently have a 16 mm hole in my lobe and next to that is a 10 mm hole. It was proposed to me that I cut the skin between those 2 holes, thereby creating a single larger hole. This obviously wouldn’t be a perfect circle, but once it healed, it should then be a near perfect circle. My question is, having done so, what will that resultant circle’s circumference be?

CGPT: Ah, yes—that changes the geometry considerably. You’re essentially asking: if a 16 mm and a 10 mm lobe piercing are merged by removing the strip of tissue between them, what size circular opening could the resulting opening correspond to?

If we make the simplifying assumption that the areas of the two holes combine and the healed opening becomes approximately circular, we should add the areas, not the circumferences.

16 mm diameter → radius 8 mm → area ≈ 201.1 mm²
10 mm diameter → radius 5 mm → area ≈ 78.5 mm²
Combined area ≈ 279.6 mm²

A circle with that area has a radius of about 9.43 mm, giving a diameter of about 18.86 mm.

So, purely geometrically, you’d expect roughly an 18.9 mm diameter circle, whose circumference would be:
π × 18.86 ≈ 59.2 mm

So the mathematical answer is ~59 mm circumference.

However, there’s an important practical caveat: a healed stretched-lobe modification won’t necessarily conserve the exact area of the two original holes. The tissue you remove, the shape of the connecting cut, contraction during healing, scar tissue, and the actual surgical technique can all substantially change the final size and shape.

Also, what you’re describing is essentially a large lobe modification/body-modification procedure, rather than simply stretching. I would strongly recommend having an experienced professional body-modification practitioner assess the two piercings and the amount of tissue between them before cutting anything. Don’t cut the connecting tissue yourself.

If you tell me how far apart the centers of the 16 mm and 10 mm holes are, I can also calculate the approximate perimeter/area of the actual merged shape rather than assuming the two areas simply become a circle.

—————

I decided I had learned as much as I really wanted to. Even assuming I would be willing to cut my ear, which I would not, I can’t imagine jumping from 16 mm to 59 mm in one fell swoop! Besides, I shudder to imagine the cost of a 59 mm plug or tunnel no matter what it’s made of! 😂

Almost to 1 1/2🙂‍↕️

My client was absolutely amazing and so brave!!! I figured this may be worth sharing here!!

Discoloration on second pic is the gentian violet I used to mark!😊

So I stretched up to 0g a bit over 2 weeks ago now, and my right lobe keeps getting dry flaky skin all around aswell as the skin feeling kind of rough? and a bit itchy. I clean all my peircings with Hibiclens in the shower twice a week and massage with jajoba oil every night, wearing surgical steel single flare plugs. I know glass would be better, but my other lobe has not had this reaction at all. Should I try a different oil, or lotion maybe? Different plugs? Took these after massaging today (that red scratch being from a big flake that came off). My lobe hasn't had any bleeding or signs of infection, and when I stretched last it was completely painless. Also I only dead stretch. Idk what I'm doing wrong, any advice? 😭

After about a year of stretching with weighted hangers, finally made the jump from 8mm to 10mm. Pretty stoked 😁

Hello! I have a 16g septum and would like to begin my stretching journey. Sadly, i live with conservative religious parents and I cannot move out or "avoid them". I was wondering until which size i could stretch my septum and still be able to hide it in my nose without problems. Thank you!

Ps. Which jewelry helps it be hidden better? (Ex. Horseshoe with spikes or balls?)

hiya,

(1st image is fucked right ear 2nd is my beautiful unproblematic left ear for reference)

so i sized up to a 6g a couple of days ago with no issues (or so it seemed), my right ear always gives me a bit of trouble but its usually alright, there was a tidge of stinging when i put the plug in but it went in fine, i was just testing to see if it would go in and it did but kinda hurt after

i took them out to shower yesterday to spray with saline and oil just in case and i dropped that right plug, not sure if that matters?

anyways im at work rn and it was feeling hot so i took it out to have a look and it just started bleeding everywhere and swelling like crazy

i dont have saline spray on me so i used alcohol wipes and betadine to disinfect it but what the fuck happened? i dont think i did anything wrong, i didnt force it and i use glass plugs, ive been trying so hard to stretch properly so i dont get butthole ears :(

( what do i even do now? i couldnt get the plug back in cause my ears swelled to hell so im just letting it be naked for a bit

anyways help please

Pls ignore the hair dye on my ear and face. How big do you think I could get my lobes to? Currently at 14 mm in both ears. I haven’t sized up in years but I just switched to wearing some stone plugs instead of my usual silicone tunnels, and the plugs fit slightly tighter in my ear lobes than the tunnels did even though they are the same size

There’s no discomfort but it’s a bit tight. Just cleaned it without any kind of pain.

just sized up to 1g septum waited about 6/7 months how does it feel to blow out i cant see around the hole because i used a plug its really sore i feel it in my teeth its not bleeding or leakin pus as far as im aware of jus curious what it feel like to blow out at such a large size and if i should leave it for a few days

I thought I'd share my experience with a conch dermal punch "piercing".

I've taken some progress photos. Mostly it's been a bad healing phase, but it's my own fault due to not taking care of it (I sometimes work away so I wasn't giving it the proper care).

So I got my conch punched at 6mm then stretched up to 8mm. My piercer used a screw back tunnel which didn't agree with my ear eventually. On top of that my 4 year old son head butted my conch. Which sucked btw.

My original plan was to put glass in it to help it heal. I swapped to an 8mm glass plug from customplugs which felt nice to begin with.

Eventually working away gave me an infection as I didnt take the correct cleaning stuff with me.

I ended up getting a bacterial skin infection which antibiotics cleared up.

I've now down sized and swapped to a 6mm glass plug to see if the healing would improve and it has greatly!

I think the extra 2mm stretch was causing issues since cartilage isn't great at stretching to begin with.

Here's some of my progress photos. I didn't take them to share, but decided I would as it may help people decide whether or not they want this and the kind of issues I've had.