We’ve all seen them. The huge, gaping holes in someone’s ears. Holes big enough to put pens, fingers, and other assorted items through. I know what you’re thinking when you see these people: “Why would you ever want to do something like that?” “Wow, they’re so stupid.” “They’ll regret that one day.” I know what my mother told me when she saw mine for the first time: “Lindsay, do not go any bigger. Those are disgusting.” And mine are only size twos–a hole around the circumference of a pen. To this day, I still haven’t. People like my mother judge others like me because of our gauges. So what motivates people like me to start stretching our ears? Why do we decide to push through the pain? Why do we risk the danger of scarred and deformed earlobes?
“A bunch of my friends had gauged ears and I liked how they looked. They sold me on it,” said junior Brandon Caruso, “It was fun. It was definitely addicting. As soon as I put a new size in, I wanted to put another and another. I wanted to rush it.”
Brandon, now at a size zero (you can push a pen through it), plans on staying at this size until he decides to grow them back. Yes, you can gauge your ears and eventually (if you take care of them) the holes close up. The common threshold size for this is about a size zero, like Brandon, but everyone’s ears are different.
Someone with a different story is junior Jon Youssef.
“I thought it was really fun, a bit pricey to keep buying each size. I originally wanted to get to 00 before I knew much about them, but I’m at a 1/2 inch now and pretty sure I’m down growing (closing the hole),” said Jon.
Jon’s gauges are exactly what he says: a half an inch wide. Although it is said you cannot down grow fully after passing a size zero, Jon dealt with infection, a common problem seen with gauges. However, his holes did close for a day or two each time. “I had to start all over,” said Jon, “I recommend people being slightly educated before starting to gauge their ears because sanitation and stretching tricks are good to know beforehand.”
Shawn Robinson, junior, did just that and went to Jester Tattoo Parlor to get the safest and cleanest way to stretching his ears. “I was ambitious with it. You have to be very careful though because you can scar your tissue for life to where it will never fully go back.”
Shawn, wanting to skip a few sizes the fast way, went to the shop and asked for professional help. “They said they could professionally stretch my ears. It was 20 dollars for the plugs, the jewelry that goes into your ears, and the stretching was free. They put a plug into my ears that had a corkscrew on it and they would twist it. The further they would twist it the more the plug would expand. They took me from a size 12 to a size eight, skipping four sizes.” Shawn had always wanted to gauge his ears, but never felt comfortable enough to do it. Finally, he has begun on his adventure and has about three more stretches to get to his goal size: a two.
In the end, everyone has their own reasons behind their actions in every aspect of his or her life. The same applies to what we decide to do with our ears. Before you judge, know we’re not setting out to hurt or do anything wrong. We just expressing ourselves.