A black-and-white photo of a person mid-air in a Superman-style body suspension pose, supported by multiple hooks in their back and legs, smiling joyfully toward the camera. They are suspended horizontally in a large indoor space with high ceilings and visible rigging. A group of onlookers—some seated, some standing—watch with expressions of admiration, amusement, and support. The atmosphere is lively and communal, capturing a moment of shared experience and transformation.

That doesn’t look fun…

This was later rebuilt, but what you see here is one of the more gnarly looking earlobe deaths that I’ve been sent… I don’t think I would have left the plug in that long, but at the same time, if it’s lost, it’s lost, and I appreciate someone taking the time to document the scenario…

Comments

68 responses to “That doesn’t look fun…”

  1. moddoctor Avatar

    At least it looks like a clean necrosis. No infection that I see. Lucky for definitions of lucky that include broken lobes.

  2. choice Avatar

    that looks fucking painful.

  3. andyroo Avatar

    FUCK! that is so sad. so fucking sad

  4. Shannon Larratt Avatar

    moddoctor — I was thinking that as well, it’s very clean.

  5. wish_I_were_a_dragon... Avatar

    that so unfortunate =( tis my biggest fear for my stretched piercings… not that they that big yet 😛

    anyone know what actually caused it?

  6. TristaniA Avatar

    How the hell does that happen? :O

  7. Kaos Avatar
    Kaos

    from the looks of the jewelry, i’d have to say he had an allergic reaction to the wood. but thats just my guess

  8. metlakatla Avatar
    metlakatla

    is this caused by stretching to fast? or what?

  9. Marley Avatar
    Marley

    haha ew. that sucks.

  10. jessica Avatar

    oddly, im reminded of those pig ear dog chew-toys…

    *shudder*

  11. Elaine Avatar

    *Almost* as gross as the ganky plug the other day!

  12. PECO Avatar
    PECO

    is this caused by stretching to fast? or he had an allergic reaction to the wood. ???????

  13. goomy Avatar

    It almost looks like it was burnt

  14. Evi Avatar
    Evi

    that’s pretty disgusting

  15. ChopperMark Avatar
    ChopperMark

    My guess is frostbite.

  16. kelson Avatar
    kelson

    looks like he had his ears scalpelled, that was probably a factor.

  17. Verena Avatar

    wow… i would have never left that long ;/

  18. ChopperMark Avatar
    ChopperMark

    Actually scalpelling loosens up your ears big time. I had mine cut from 1″ to 1-1/4″ about a month ago and I could go to 1-3/8″ right now. And when I say I could go to 1-3/8″ I mean that double flare 1-3/8″ will pop right in, and 1-1/4″ are practically falling out.

  19. jOELTRON Avatar

    That looks pretty narley!

    By the looks of the scaring, and this is only speculation, but I would say it would be a combination of stretching too quick and/or perhaps wearing non-biocompatible or heavy jewellery.

    I find that wood and silicone (Khaos) leave my lobes VERY dry, even with daily emu oil/Vitamin E treatment and can lead to similar scaring visible in that photo.

    It fucking sucks, but it does happen. Always remember, stretch SLOW and steady – without weights! See your piercer for advice, especially if you are using the plastic stretchers, use lube and be nice to your lobes (or your mother will cry)

    Sometimes however, you can still just have bad luck. Breaks my heart when ppl come into my shop like that.

    I wanna see post-op pics of that lobe Shannon! GIMMIE! GIMMIE!

  20. jOELTRON Avatar

    ChopperMark – I agree. I had mine cut from 14mm to 19mm, I know its a small cut (I’m OCD with placement).

    Even just after the cut, 4 weeks later I could put in 22mm. I’m now at 28mm and its AMAZING how elastic my skin is now. Can’t wait to cut the other ear to even them up too.

    I noticed that the area where my cut was is MUCH smoother and nicer scar tissue. Perhaps this is why its so elastic too? The fistula is cleaner, allowing more stretching and perhaps more in that area too.

    Damn our bodies are amazing (and sometimes fucked up) things.

  21. s Avatar
    s

    I believe that kelson was poniting out that when you scalpel you cut through blood vessels feeding the lower portion of the lobe which can cause that area to “starve”. Where as when you stretch slowly they remain intact. I remember seeing another persons lobe that did this after being scalpelled.

  22. leslie Avatar
    leslie

    Holy mother of God
    …sorry that I’m not leaving a more intelligent comment, but *damn*
    (also, thanks for taking and posting the pictures of it)

  23. sam Avatar

    I was thinkin of beef jerky before I looked at this…

    I guess that’s what I get.

  24. trinityva Avatar
    trinityva

    Add me to the “how the fuck did that die?” chorus. AN WHA?

  25. scissorygirl Avatar
    scissorygirl

    oh, that is nasss-T!

  26. Lucas Fury Avatar

    i once pierced a dude’s split lobe back together with a 3/4″ barbell, haha; i took pics with a poloroid so if i can get to a scanner, i’ll send em in. ..i know how you like the poloroids, shannon.

  27. kellytron Avatar

    this makes me not want to stretch my lobes ever again.

  28. chadam Avatar

    i just died a little inside.

  29. celeste Avatar

    looking at that hurts my ears!

  30. J Avatar
    J

    That is fucking gross…about what has been said about scalpeling, I had my ears cut to go from 3/4 to 1 inch due to thinning it’s been around a year or so now and I’m currently trying to downsize to 5/8 I’ve had no jewelry in for about 2 weeks now and I can still fit a no flare 3/4 plug in no problem at all. It kind of sucks cause I’m actually regretting ever having the scalpeling done but shit I’m glad my ear did’nt turn out like this guys

  31. candycovered Avatar

    fuck me.
    that looks like rust ?!
    & i thought my navel looked bad, jesus tapdancing christ.

  32. paleblue Avatar

    That’s sad. I would like to see it fully reconstructed.

  33. Amy Avatar
    Amy

    Holy crap…! Ah I feel as though I don’t ever want to stretch my lobes again! Poor guy, that must be really awful!

  34. MyDecay Avatar

    Oh my me…. that is really hard to look at, it made me cringe and shiver.

  35. she Avatar
    she

    It looks fuzzy..
    hows that for intelligent? 😉

  36. Scabboy Avatar

    People are just too scared to have their lobes shrink. They see problems like purple (necrosis starting) or have pain, but won’t remove the plugs- and this happens.

    I have so many clients walking in my shop with stretched lobe problems, my advice usually always is “remove the plug, do massages- etc” and the people simply refuse to.

    “I don’t want them to shrink”.

    This is not even touching on improper stretching techniques that sometimes results in thinning.

  37. Kaira Avatar
    Kaira

    This would be a good one to print out and keep on you to remind all the lovely hottopic shopping kids to take things slow instead of just cramming jewelry in their ears….I think I’ll just do that now

  38. Toser Avatar
    Toser

    did this just happen in like a day? you think when it was half as bad as that this person would have been like “hey what the fuck?”

  39. starspring Avatar

    gross. I’m going to add another voice to the “didn’t they KNOW the tissue on their ear was dying?” brigade. Also, I can’t believ the necrosis was dry. No infections? whoa!

  40. StillHereSXE Avatar
    StillHereSXE

    thats unfortunate.

  41. Becca Avatar
    Becca

    That squicked me out even more than that nasty-ass plug from a few days ago. I cannot even begin thinking about what it would feel like to have something like that done to my skin. ow ow ow.

  42. Vienna Avatar

    That is seriously devastating… in my opinion. I hope that person can get their ear back up to health soon… 🙁

    Although, I would also like to know how that happend…

  43. Sade Avatar
    Sade

    well,now i’m glad i downsized my plugs and switched jewelry 0_0…if my ears died,i’d die because i love my ears!

  44. Avalon Avatar
    Avalon

    Ow, oh my gosh. Ow.

    that’s terrible. and make me really, really sad..
    I can’t even think of what to say..wow

  45. Emma Avatar
    Emma

    It looks like the skin will just break off at any minute.

    Ugh.

    Poor guy.

  46. Zoe Avatar
    Zoe

    I think my stomach just turned over.

  47. Isabel Avatar
    Isabel

    I kind of want to pick at it. 😡

  48. Bejron Avatar
    Bejron

    How can some people live in such a denial that they let it get to the stages that we see under https://www.bme.com/news/category/risks/ ??? Seriously ??

  49. Jaclyn Avatar

    It’s times like this when I wish I had Smell-O-Vision for my computer.

    Seriously.

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