…I only pushed them far enough to barely feel the pain.

Back to the facts… ok…

I’ve been happily wearing 12g captives in my ears for… mmm, let’s guess 5 years. Thoughts had not ever dissapeared about wanting to finish stretching further. But sometimes things just become less important for awhile. Ohh, I even had a relationship within that time period… wow, I can’t believe that wasn’t right in the forefront of my memory… OMG, this is June… I forgot her birthday… (sigh)… I’ve come a looong way… because these, are good things. (ohh-great, but now I’m feeling sad, and angry. damnit… push it out, push it out.)
Speaking of pushing things out… I need to get rid of a whole lot of “stuff” I have stacked up inside my apt. that’s just cluttering up the place. Perhaps this weekendI will be able to just take it downstairs for trash pickup, or the thrift/resale shop a few doors down.

I did not get back to the facts did I?

A few weeks ago I was taken with the whole I want to enlarge my piercings and wear a pretty pair of richly veined turquoise plugs in them. (this being unusual only because I never choose blue for much of anything, not first anyway.) So I began the research online, reading about how people do it, do they ever shrink back, and at many of the types of adornments people wear and how.
I did not find many people who liked the small gauges, they spoke of them only as a step to a larger gauge stretch. Myself? I was thinking a 6g. but started looking closely at the jewelry I liked best and if I really did want to wear a pretty, richly veined tourquoise plugs it would need to be more like a 4(minimum, maybe) but more like a 2g to really see how pretty the stone is. (this being merely my beginner’s opinion)
But I honestly do not want large holes in my ears. Yes, I imagine what it will look like with just the holes, empty… and this is my reaction… uhmm (studying it, looking, examining) no. this is not attractive…, and I know they probably won’t ever shrink back to where I’ve started… when I’m 60, 80, 100… I will very likely still be wearing a sweet set of semi-precious beautiful stones in my ears and I kind of like the image. But small ones. Little… like me.
My plan is to go to a 4g. That is it… just large enough to be able to see details in any stones and many of the pretty carved bone or horn hanging pieces are thick simply because they are hand carved and need to be of a certain thickness or they’d break far too easily.

I scoured the internet for jewelry… I purchased 8g claws, 6g plugs, 4g plugs (several, because they were pretty) and 4g horn spirals.
The PLAN: Start with the claws of course… slip in the small ends of the spirals, wear backwards/upside down, until I’m stretched to a 6g, then put in the 6g plugs. wear those until the skin is very much healed. Then place the spirals back in and slowly stretch up to the desired 4g.
I want to do this very slowly and I’m glad because I read recently that if you ever want them to shrink back, one of the factors in being able to is if they are slowly stretched as opposed to “how quickly can I get to my desired gauge?”
This being yet another life example of patience being more than just a virtue. hehe.
So I say, make it a process, enjoy the changes as you go through them… experiment with the guages… there could be lots of pretty things to wear along the way… there will be plenty enough time to enjoy your ultimate goal. 80 years old is a long way away

8g. claw

After a long hot delicious shower (I also massaged my lobes and gave them a loving pep talk)… I slid the 8g claws into my 12g ears. Nooo problem, I was surprised how they essentially went right up to the full 8 size almost right away. Without any kind of stretching pain… perhaps, I thought, because of the pep talk, massaging, and hot shower Never underestimate a proper seduction.

I wore those for… a week, perhaps a little more, until I realized they didn’t hurt and felt fine. (?!?) So I allowed some of my impatience reign in… I placed the spirals in with some 6g o-rings so they’d stay in place. I could feel the stretch but I only pushed them far enough to barely feel the pain.

I also placed the spirals in forward, and from the back of the lobe… I prefer the way they looked with the spike coming out of the front of the earlobe… so uh, yes… that was experimented with, and on purpose.
They just seemed a little less BAM! there are some large black spirals hanging from your ears… and a little more subdued, wicked