Be warned: This is a pretty grisly story, and the photos after the jump are not pretty. We’ll let the gentleman pictured above take it away:
“It’s a chilly Saturday morning and snowboarding sounded like precisely what the day needed. Unfortunatly, the closest New Hampshire mountain was a bone chilling -14 degrees with a 30 mph wind chill. But did this stop me? Nahhh. I packed up and a friend and I headed up to good ole NH for some morning/afternoon shredding.
“After approximately five or six hours of being blasted in the face with negative-degree weather, I thought not feeling my ears was a side effect of just being a bit under-dressed for the occasion — no big deal …
“VERY BIG DEAL. Getting home, I noticed my lobes — or whatever skin I had from my 1 1/4″ stretched lobes — was frozen solid. Literally, to the touch, frozen, and to make it better? The bottom skin was black. So I, being the smart person I am, decided to just go sleep and let them defrost. Wrong again. I woke up a few hours later and noticed some bleeding, some liquid discharge, and some ripping. Forcing the plug out was no easy task, by any means; they were basically frozen to my skin. Finally, after getting them both off, I popped a seemingly gross mid-sized bubble of liquidy stuff and the skin just peeled off like a grape … revealing fresh, bare, bleeding skin.
“Noticing a pattern here, I decided to go to the ER and try to get Medicare, because in this situation, of course, I don’t have any insurance. That’d be ridiculous, right? All the nurses were shocked my earlobes were still attached, as if they would’ve just fallen right off my face for some reason. Basically, the worst day ever. I am not allowed to wear any earrings for about three months to see if anything heals itself or if they have to re-construct or just cut the lobe off.
“Don’t go outside and risk life and — literally — limb. Be cautious. That’s my moral for this story.”
Comments
116 responses to “Stretched Lobes and Frostbite: A Cautionary Tale”
It’s times like these I’m glad I live in the tropics!
the only thing i can think to say is:
‘EWWWWWWWW’
LOL at ^41
yummy they look like candysnakes
Love the idea with the babysocks, though the first thing that came to my mind was to invent some freaky, battery-powered heated plugs for the winter. How cool would that be (pun not intended…)
hes natrally ugly i just think freckles are ugly
and ooo bad ears
Lobes frozen solid? Black skin? I think the first hint to go to a doctor or ER was etheir of those things. Thats like fracturing a bone and sleeping it off to see if it’ll set itself.
for winter sports i wear solid kaos then a beanie, earmuffs, then goggles and a bandana over my face and tucked into my goggles in the back..
fuck getting frost bite
Having just made the transition from Fl to NY, the frozen plug has been a fun battle. Bandanas worn through eyelets to keep them up and your plugs close to the sides of your head. My wife knit me a wee teeny pair of plugs to put inside my eyelets to block the wind and keep in body heat. We’ve been messing around with putting little slips of those instant pocket warmers in the middle to give it a kick. Maybe not such a bad idea…
I live in northern Finland where -14 degrees in wintertime is not even chilly 😀 I was on a shortfilm project that was filmed outside and it was about -25 to -28 degrees, but I managed by wearing smaller jewelry, a warm hat and my hood pulled over my head. And you can forget about wearing titanium or stainless steel because they are a suicide on cold weather.
lol @ #52 troll.
I think freckles are cute.
I feel really bad about those lobes. Living in Michigan, mine get really cold too. So far I just wear Kaos earskins and hats, and I’m fine. His lobes look like they were so healthy before they got the frostbite =[ It makes me sad when things like this happen to people with nice lobes.
Well if it’s frozen outside just take your jewelry out,it will help a lot cause there will be more blood pressure going trough your lobes!…
Personnaly i wear 35mm plugs and i take them off when the weather is cold and i never had any trouble!
You can also rub a little oil on them,can help too!
It sucks to loose lobes,that’s my nightmare!
😉
That’s no joke, man. I have a friend whose lobe is in two pieces thanks to frostbite. Turned black like his, and then broke in two. Be careful friends, and make sure to cover your ears!!!
#31 totally agreed, If you have large lobes like that I’d like to believe you would know better than going into exetreme cold like that without having them atleast covered if not wearing no jewelry. Sorry for your lobes dude but
yea 31 and 64. i totally agree. i feel bad for you man, but that was stupid. im sure its a mistake he wont make again.
I agree, I was prepared for more shocking pictures.
I’m so happy it never gets that cold in North East England 🙂
And lmao at number 42 ^_^
OWWWYYY
I don’t wear metal plugs in the winter. It gets cold here (in Buffalo…) and just experiencing not even 10 minutes of cold combined with the feeling of frozen metal and my skin made me think uhmmm… this probably isn’t good. So I switched to Acrylic for the time being…
sorry but when i clicked thru i was expecting worse…
when did pink and swollen w/ a little blood become ‘grisly’?
Jackass
That’s all I can say when I see stuff like this
You live where it gets this cold and you have obviously had stretched lobes for a while, you didn’t think twice?
If he’s in the US then I assume it’s -14 Farenheit? For Canadians, that’s -25 or so Celcius. We’ve been blasted with that general temperature pretty much across the country lately. Up in Northern Ontario, we’ve been below -30 *before* the wind chill within the last week… It’s ‘orrible.
Me, I usually take my jewelry out and tuck the lobes under my toque. This will do until the missus knits me custom shaped ear warmers 😉
so rry you had to learn the hard way bud. hoped you will learn something from it
Ive Had Similar Problems,Silicone And My Ears Reacting In The Glorious Scottish Weather,The Just Became Really Soft And Started To Scab,No Sign Of Infection Tho 🙁 Had To Remove Em…Bye Bye Inchies 🙁
Dayum, I know when I go out snow boarding I flip my lobes (2 3/4″) up over my ears and wear a hat. I think I would cry if that shit would have happend to me.
OUCH!
I worry about that when snowboarding.
Another harsh lesson :\
My 30mms have fallen foul of this, nowhere near as serious as this poor guy, but after a few days of being stiff to put plugs in, I decided to downsize the left to 28mm, its been fine so far. The right one was ok, but started behaving in the same way, except more painful. I noticed some swelling, took the plug out and noticed a little tear towards the back of the hole, so that one was swiftly taken down to 26mm.
2 days of sheer panic and vitamin e lotion massages and both are doing well. Hoping to get back up to 30mm in the summer (or the british excuse for a summer…)
Ive also found that switching to acrylic/natural materials instead of metal in the winter helps (lighter and less easy to conduct heat away from your lobe)
i always wear a hat outside and no jewllery when its cold. i also think #56 should get over themselves.
OUCH!!!!
Still…. after reading the description i feared it would look MUCH WORSE. That looks gory, ouch and really unhappy, but also kind of healing properly. Now, there will be quite a loss of diameter, and due to scarring extra hard work to restretch, but that is on the right way. I tohougt about dark purple with a load of black speckles due to completely destroyed vasculature (and that would be the death of the tissue).
Hearing “frozen literally stiff (good that you didn’t got any hard shock, thay would have broken like ice – they were ice), and seeing stuff on the healing side is not that common.
Now… -14F, or roughly -26 degrees Centigrade AND Windchill due to movement can cost you non-pierced ears (and not only the lobes) when they are not really well protected. I wonder what the guy thought before riding the board.?! Likely it was not a lot.
This temperature and sport…. Without proper protection you will lose ears, probably nose, even fingers are in acute danger…. think before…
Personally, I want to see the guy with baby socks on his lobes.
But yeah…I always keep a scarf wrapped around my head when it’s cold here. Even if all I’m doing is walking across campus. Yeah Michigan winter!
I wear a cap over my ears
I feel for you dude, but I’d expect more intelligence regarding your mods. It was -35 here with the windchill last week– I dont even have STRETCHED lobes and my ears still get wonky from the cold. Were talking standard size 16 or 14 gauge earrings, 15 of them. I still get near frostbite even just stepping outside with them.
Leaving your large gauge lobes exposed to the elements for 5 hours? You kind of had it coming :[
ouchies 🙁 I can feel that…
In that sort of weather, I’d have flipped my lobes over my ears and/or worn ear muffs for def.
I’m always terrified about getting frost bitten lobes.
#25 TRIP
BMEshop better get on that ASAP!
I live in alaska and i had this happen one day while out sking, dumb me id woren steel tunnels with out even thinking of the cold, 6 hours later when i got hopemy skin had frozen to my tunnels, and they hurt for 3 weeks easy
i take my tunnels out if i’m walking outside for more than 5 minuets. over pre-cautious?
probably. but in my opinion, it’s not worth risking it.
I recently climbed kilimanjaro for a second time (last time with no piercings) and I just decided to take my 16mm out for the whole time, there is no way Id risk anything happening to them….mind you it was -35 when we did the final ascent.
Even with no earrings in, and being partially covered I still experienced a bit of numbness, especially on the inside of my lobes.
OWWWW!
I’m definitely experiencing sympathy pains.
I make sure that before I set foot outside that I’m wearing my touque with ear flaps. I’m sooo paranoid about fucking up my ears it’s not even funny. I feel bad for this guy.
I hope they get better! 🙂
I have never understood why anyone would wear their lobe jewelry while boarding. One it gets stupid cold out there with or without a hat sometimes. Two what about taking a bail and losing plugs in the snow? Meh sorry to hear hes having a hard time but i hardly even wear jewelry in winter let alone when going to the mountain.
I think the battery powered heated plugs are a great idea…although a battery that holds enough charge to keep your ears warm for several hours would either have to be a) pretty big or b) kind of expensive, if I’m not mistaken. Electronics people?
I rarely wear jewelry in the winter…glass, steel, titanium, gold, niobium, any metals or glass will damage your ears…organics are alright, silicone is acceptable…not wearing anything is even better.
Although I think perhaps BMEShop should start investing in developing new head gear for winter purposes…I believe someone was making them before, knitting I believe…toques/hats that had like “ear pouches” for you to slip your ears into to keep warm
=O ouch. pretty green eyes though =D very nice
God that sucks so badly.
I am wearing glass plugs right now in the cold and it’s like 20 to 30 below and it is awful.
My condolences. I was worried about the same thing during a recent trip to Korea. I am now a firm believer in Ear Muffs.
#72; I’m from Scotland, woohoo!
I just wear silicone in winter. My ears don’t bode too well in winter, my skin never does, so by the time October rolls around it’s time to bring out the earmuffs!
I have a have that has earflaps…I wear my silicone tunnels, my earmuffs and then the hat over that.
Eep. x]
awww, poor boy and poor lobes. 🙁 hope they heal soon! that’ll teach him though, haha.
that’s a much more severe version of what happened to my ears in a snowstorm in Norway. Metal tunnels + snow + being up a freakin mountain + woolly hat that doesnt cover your ears fully = ear pain
it will heal soon ,in two weeks probably
so i think there’s nothing to worry about
it was -30c earlier today and I WILL NOT go out without a hood AND scarf combo!
i only wear silicone when it’s cold, and because i have no earmuffs, i always make sure my hood is over my head.
That’s a bad day.
I wouldn’t wear silicone in the winter either, especially if you don’t have a hat.
I have seen it stick to earlobes in about -2 C weather and it honestly TORE A STRIP off of the inside of the earlobe. It wasn’t on me, thank god, but watching it heal was painful enough!!
Just wear an earflap toque, people. And find a friend who knits.