Ear Gauging: Personal Experience with This "Holey" Hobby

The decision to gauge your earlobe to larger sizes is a choice that is often made without enough thought or patience. Sometimes the decision to do so can turn out to be a bad thing especially when the proper care isn't administered afterwards. Other points to consider are a method of safe stretching, how long you want to wait before moving up again, and the some of the down sides to ear gauging.

When I was about eight years old, a friend of the family introduced me to her friend who had a hole in his ear the size of a pencil. The fact that the had taken it upon himself to make a hole big enough to see straight through it truly fascinated me. As soon as I turned thirteen and was in middle school, I talked my parents into letting me get my left ear pierced. As my years in middle school progressed, I went on to pierce my other ear and left one a second time.

By the time I was ready to go into high school, I had stretched each earlobe to around a six gauge. I went on and on until I reached my limit size of one and a quarter inch in my jr. year of high school. Though I have passed the limit of many peoples likes, the hobby itself did a lot for me personally to be more confident about myself. Through the past six years I learned a lot of things that made the process an easier less painful experience. The following are a few of those things for anyone making the decision to move up to a larger size gauge provided that all the consequences have been well thought out.

To begin with, never rush the process. Gauging your ear at a slow steady pace is the only way to insure the best care for you ears. Also, trying to force the next piece of jewelry in can result in the ripping of the hole. When this happens the ear hole is torn through instead of slowly brought to an extent to where to next gauge can pass through. This is a key-point to remember for anyone going past a zero gauge because serious damage can be done to the earlobes that can't easily be fixed.

Many people when first starting to move up a size use small objects to stretch their ears with. It is very important to consider the type of material that is being used to do this. Toothpicks, as an example of many are often used primarily because the shape is a very slender, gradual increase. On a personal note, toothpicks as a method of stretching your ear is not the easiest or safest way to start out. Because the material is wooden you must consider the risk of being cut by a small splinter in the process and having your ear try to heal itself around the toothpick afterwards.

The best method for stretching your earlobes in general, is to buy a tool called a taper that can be found in many body jewelry stores. The object itself looks like a small spike that starts at the size you are at and very slowly goes to the next size in diameter. The end of some tapers are flat and sold with a small rubber "o" ring that is used to help it from slipping out when wearing it as an earring. It is also suggested that some sort of lubricant is applied to the taper and ear to help ease friction when stretching.

From my experience, the best material taper to get is that of any metal. Though acrylic and other plastics do make for a cheaper ear gauging process, it is my opinion that the metal taper is the smoothest and often times more gradual of a step up than the plastic tapers. This was my choice to go with because of the decreased damage to my ear. The less damage that can be done in the process of stretching, the better because you never know how long you will commit to having them. Once the next size has been achieved, a good three to four weeks of healing is advised before jumping to another size. You want to give your ear time to heal in between sizes so that the hole itself isn't as large as the gauge you are wearing. In my experience with ear gauging, I went from having a hole in each ear the larger than the size of a bottle cap to not being able to fit my first finger through the hole. Because of the patience and care that I put into the process, my ears were able to heal that amount in only about a four month period.

Many people believe that the choice to gauge is one you can't take back and is really painful. The negative aspects of ear gauging are all around, but the amount of pain involved can be related to the method that is being applied to do so. Also, many hobs these days look down upon or prohibit the likes or larger sized gauges. It is well advised to know a good limit that can be recovered from easily if this is a concern. Over all, my choice to stretch my ears as large as I have (back to one and a quarter inch), has really been a decision that I don't regret. I like having the unique size that I have and am proud of the good care that I have taken while doing it. I hope that the information and tips from my personal experience can be an aid to help better inform anyone wanting to know more about this hobby, or to anyone looking for a an easier and safer process of ear gauging.