OK, I admit. It was totally the jewelry. I never planned on stretching my lobes until I saw an amazing picture (on BME, of course) of lobes just like mine, only stretched to ¾" and filled with bright, daring red acrylic plugs. ¾" became my personal goal.
At A Glance Author beaker Contact beaker@bme.anon IAM beaker When A month ago Artist Mike Pitts Studio Super Nova Location Portland, OR The early history of my lobes involves 2 gun piercings in the left, which came back to haunt me later on, of course. More on that later. Post-gun piercings, I had two new holes pierced at 10 ga, and eventually stretched to 2ga before I lost them to an ill-fated stint in the Army. My current holes were initially pierced at 6ga, and immediately stretched to 0ga. Using "standard" taper/ lube/ jewelry technique, I stretched both lobes to ½", which is where our story starts.
I'm getting married in June, so in February, I went to a local shop here in Portland that had come highly recommended (Super Nova, on SE 35th, just off Hawthorne) to talk to the artist. Mike Pitts, the owner and main piercer there, came out and spent some good time with me talking about body mod in general, jewelry, etc. In looking at my ears, we both noticed that I had a lot more lobe on the bottom of the piercing than on the sides. We knew we'd need to do some scalpel work to even them out, but I had one more stretch to do before that, to minimize the amount of work we'd do with a scalpel.
So we stretched to 5/8" first. The right one went very easily, with just a taper. The left side had a lot of scar tissue left over from old piercings, and so Mike nicked the piercing at 6 o'clock (direction wise, not the time of day) to relieve some of the pressure. These healed up nicely, and a month later, I was back for my final stretch.
As I said before, I had noticeably more tissue below the jewelry than on the sides or top, so we wanted most of the size change from 5/8" to ¾" to come from the bottom. Mike and I discussed the technique he would use, went through proper cleaning, marking, and preparation procedures, and got down to business.
I lay on my back, head turned to the right side to allow Mike best access to my left ear. Using a scalpel blade, he made small cuts at 4, 6, and 8 o'clock at right angles to the hole itself. The sensation was like an acute burning, much like scarification or a long, shallow piercing, but was not overwhelmingly intense. I did notice a strong sensation of "opening," due to the immediate, moderate bleeding. I stayed relaxed and focused by breathing deeply and slowly, and in rhythm with Mike's cuts.
The three cuts Mike made left two flaps of tissue on the bottom of the piercing. Mike pushed these aside with the insertion of the jewelry, then removed the excess by running the blade along the back side of the jewelry, letting the jewelry and the accompanying o-ring put pressure on the new wound. I was done, and sat up.
As soon as I sat up, I was overcome with emotion. The scalpel had removed some old scar tissue, and all the energy I had pent up in my flesh came gushing out. I cried. And cried. And cried. Right there, on the table. I cried for no reason, and for every reason I'd ever had to cry. What I though was going to be a relatively simple stretching turned out to be an enormous reminder of why I'd gotten into body modification in the first place. It was amazing, and more than enough for one day. I was released and my ear looked perfect, if somewhat bloody.
I went back a week later for the right side. My right lobe had more tissue towards the back, and a slightly different shape, so Mike cut it somewhat differently. Instead of three cuts, creating movable tissue, he simply made a shallow slice along the side of the hole with the most tissue, and removed a small crescent moon. This experience was very similar to the previous ear, with one notable exception. I made the mistake of drinking a caffeinated soda an hour or so before the procedure, which thinned my blood, and I bled a lot more this time than previously. I did not have nearly as much emotional release as last time, either.
Each lobe bled for about 12 hours, oozed blood for about three days, and had some crusties for about three more. I soaked them in sea salt water twice a day for about two weeks, and washed them once a day with Dr. Bronner's unscented soap. When sleeping, I rolled a towel into a donut shape, and put my healing ear right in the middle, so I could sleep without irritating the fresh wound. Lingering pain was negligible, although my lobes were swollen and sensitive for the first week or so.
I think, in the grand scheme of things, that to pierce an earlobe properly is relatively straightforward. However, to fix an uneven lobe piercing later on takes an artist. Mike took two very different ears with two very different piercings, and made them even, balanced, and symmetrical. In the process, he shared an intimate and personal experience, and I am forever grateful.