"You Should Know Better"...Yes, Yes I Should Have. (5/8" Lobes!)
(First Published on BMEzine.com, Spring, 2003)

A Quick Recap: I was pierced at 8g by Dustin at Stainless Studios. I then stretched to a 4g and stayed there for a few months, then to a 2g and stayed there, both using acrylic tapers. I got to a 00g from a combination of an acrylic taper as well as electrical tape. From 00g I went to 1/2" and finally 9/16" using cheap 49 cent teflon tape.

Anyways, at the beginning of 2003, I received a mailing from BMEshop.com, which thanked me for my continued shopping and congratulated me with a coupon to OneStopFreakShop for a pair of custom made BME Hockey Logo plugs in any size and wood type (and style of plug) I chose. Only catch was, the smallest size that was available was 5/8" and at the time I was only at 00g.

Not to worry, I kept the coupon safe for the next few months while I continued to stretch, I almost forgot about having that coupon. Well the day finally came, I found myself looking at the tape on my 9/16" plugs and thought it was time to order my BME plugs. I was hoping to get them in time for BMEfest but no such luck, especally since it took me an extra week to actually drop off the coupon in the mail. (If I'd done it as soon as possible I'm sure I would have had them in my possession at BMEfest, wearing them, I don't know, but I would have OWNED them!)

As luck would have it, I see them sitting on my kitchen counter when I get back from BMEfest. Hmm. My left ear had been stretching at quite a rapid rate, never really complaining at the amount of tape I would put on every few days, so I grabbed some olive oil, and rubbed oil all over one of the hockey logo plugs and somewhat roughly massaged my earlobe inside and out. It took a bit of pushing but I got it in with little difficulty. One thing I will note. While Wil is GREAT with making these plugs, they look utterly amazing, either he's run out of o-rings or they're not his forte. In my package, I received my pair of 5/8" plugs, and o-rings that would probably fit a 0g plug or a 00g at best. No worries, I grabbed the o-rings off my 9'16" plugs, makes it snug so I know I won't lose it. I didn't attempt my right earlobe, it was too much. But with my ears being "freshly stretched" they did stick to my earlobes making it uncomfortable to turn so if I wanted to remove the on e plug I would have to oil the front and back where I could and gently work it out of my ear.

My mom dislikes BME, and the "big ugly holes in my ears" so therefore she disliked the new plugs I received in the mail. However, she DOES like the fact she can't see THROUGH the holes in my ears when I wear these new plugs, and convinces herself "it's just like one of those big button earrings that normal people have, where it's just a little thin piece in the middle!" and who am I to deny her fantasy? Either way, I only was able to put the one into my left ear, and my mom thought it was funny looking that I didn't match. The day after I received them, I was actually able to quickly and slightly painfully jam the matching plug into my right earlobe. But it was tight, very very tight. I decided that now was not the time to be exactly at 5/8" with my right ear and grabbed my 9/16" tunnel with the teflon tape and put that back in and work my way slower.

WARNING! When stretching two ears at two different paces, CHECK YOUR JEWELRY! I inadvertently picked up the tunnel from my left ear, the ear that stretched more, the ear that had a tunnel with MORE TAPE on it and just hap-hazardly jammed it into my ear. I didn't think as to why this hurt more then the new ebony plugs I just got, I just left it at that. A few hours later when showering was when I noticed that I had the wrong plug in, but thought that the best method was to leave it... uhm.... NO.

I slept quite soundly that night, but when I woke up the next morning my right ear was VERY swollen, red, hot and stiff. Even my mom commented on the fact that my ear was red, and I had to come up with the excuse that "I just slept on it and it's irritated when I do that" so she wouldn't go into a rant about how piercings will be the death of me. Anyways after breakfast I decided to ignore it, figuring that the swelling would go away on it's own. By dinner time it had not dissipated at all and I figured I should check the damage and perhaps switch the tunnels (to the one with less tape) and see if that will solve the angry ear.

I went back up to my bathroom in all of it's unsanitary goodness (there's horrids amount of stuff, books, pens, razors, key chains... don't ask me why half of it's in there!) and washed my hands in hot water with lots of soap, dried them off, then rinsed my hands in freezing cold water to put my cold fingers up to my earlobe to hopefully calm the angry tissue down. I did succeed in cooling down the heated flesh, and then removed the plug carefully. At first it looked normal, except there was this white spot of skin on the bottom of the inside of the lobe. It looked like a bit of dead skin so I probably tore something and it lost blood supply and would be fine. While I'm thinking this and looking for the proper tunnel to put in, I feel something wet on my chin. I look back at the mirror because there shouldn't be any water, and I see this thin trail of blood kind of trailing my jawline from my earlobe and dripping into the sink. Stupid me, instead of cleaning it up and stemming the blood, I poke and prod at the lump which seems to be causing the bleeding, and it starts flowing more rapidly. Oh perfect. My ear's been torn and is now bleeding. I should know better for pete's sake!

Anyways, after a few minutes of trying to pour cold water through my earlobe and trying to absorb the blood with countless cotton swabs, the bleeding subsides a little, it's still a bit drippy but I figure putting some jewelry in there would stop the most of it. I decide against having any teflon tape in my ears, and just remove the whole of it off one tunnel and put it into my ear. Thankfully even with the swelling in the lobe it went in easily. I do have to note though that the reaction to having smaller jewelry in my earlobe was quite immediate, the swelling went almost immediately and was comfortable except for the bleeding and probably slight infection. I was also very happy that the jewelry went in without any problems, if I needed to down size any more than 1/16", I would have been in loads of trouble, since I went from 00g straight to 9/16"!

For the next two days I kept up with the washing off any blood and gunk (the stuff that makes crusties but hasn't actually crusted over yet) off the back of the plug, and the o-ring. Whenever I took the plug out to rinse with water and hydrogen peroxide (I don't know if it's good or not, but it works well with the "drying up infectious materials" so I use it) I also grab a corner of paper to clean this groove that's between the tunnel and the flare (I don't know WHY it exists except to harbour bacteria! It's gross!). After those two days it was just washing with soap and water in the shower. A week later my earlobe seems in relatively good health so I began again to tape up the plug, only this time promising myself to go slowly so that I won't gain any scar tissue from this blunder.

I'm still lopsided about my earlobes (left ear being at 5/8" while my right ear is a little past 9/16") but I figure at this rate, by the time I'm done summer school (middle of August... basically a month from now) I should be matching my plugs for all the partying that will be my two weeks of vacation before school starts again!

So what have we learned? stretch slowly, and if you're using the tape method, check to make sure you're putting the correct plug into the correct earlobe if one ear stretches faster than another!
Please don't follow my mistakes in not being able to see your jewelry (note: wear your glasses if you have them to insert jewelry) but if you do, feel free to try what I tried to get my ears healthy again.
Personally I just want to match my ears to show off my BME plugs just to prove that I'm cooler than YOU! Then I'll be happy and I'll stop stretching. *Phht* Yea Right!

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