Taping Method Do's and Do Not's

Hello Lovelies!

Welcome back to my blog! Today we are going to be talking more about ear stretching.

But FIRST: I am not a licensed piercer and cannot give you the same professional advice that a licensed piercer can. Everything that I share about my piercings and advice relating to piercings that I share are things I have either learned from my own experiences, researched, or been told by a piercer.

Today, we are talking about using the taping method. This method is honestly one of the absolute best for stretching past the 0g point. At about the point of 0g, the taper method can potentially damaging (more so than before - especially if you’re being irresponsible) so it’s best to move to the taping method. It allows you to move as fast or slow as your ears want/need to as you stretch up rather than making a 2mm stretch in one go… like tapers start doing at about 0g.

What you will need:

1. PTFT Tape or Bondage Tape
   
   
2. SINGLE flared plug or eyelet
3. Lubricant

As usual you’re going to need to wash your jewelry and ear before you put anything in your ear. Just common sense, but I still have to say it. ALSO: DO NOT USE DUCT TAPE, OR ANY TAPE LIKE IT OR JUST SIMPLY ANY TAPE OTHER THAN WHAT I JUST TOLD YOU ABOUT ABOVE. This will keep your ears from getting irritated and dry and infected.

Start by cutting a piece of tape that fits your jewelry and is long enough to wrap around it twice. As time goes on and your ears start stretching and being ready to move up in size, just keep adding one to two wraps worth of tape. Each person waits different amounts of time between adding layers (when adding layers, you take off the old layers and add all new layers) but I would recommend a week or so between. Once you’re at the size you want to be, put in the new (CLEAN) jewelry!

If you have any further questions, let me know!

XOXO - Sarah

Ear Stretching 101: The Taper Method

Hello Lovelies!

It’s that time again! Welcome back to Ear Stretching 101!!!

But FIRST: I am not a licensed piercer and cannot give you the same professional advice that a licensed piercer can. Everything that I share about my piercings and advice relating to piercings that I share are things I have either learned from my own experiences, researched, or been told by a piercer.

Now that’s over we can get to it! This week is about the Taper Method.

First off, you can go to a professional piercer to help you stretch your ears. If you want to be sure you’re doing it correctly and safely and are nervous about doing it yourself, go to a professional. I however, never did that and opted to stretch my ears at home. The following in this post (and pretty much every post from here on this topic) is all information that I have gathered from my own experiences or from someone telling me how to do it. There has been a lot of trial and error and just simply dumb things done on my part while stretching my ears… so hopefully I can lend my experiences to you so you don’t make the same mistakes.

Ok. Things you will need to stretch your ears:

• Taper Kit - I got mine on Amazon (Link) ONLY GET STAINLESS STEEL TAPERS, PLUGS, EYELETS/TUNNELS ETC. Especially on a freshly stretched ear -yes that includes the first stretch- cheap materials like acrylic can cause infection, irritation, and other problems. It is too porous for a newly stretched ear and can trap bacteria in there as well as omit toxins into your ear as it heats up with your body. Just do not use acrylic. EVER.
• Lobe Lubricant - The best $2 I ever spent was on Lobe Lube (Link) At the beginning I had a pretty painful couple times stretching my ears. There was a lot of friction and some blood and it was all because I didn’t research enough to know that you need to lubricate your taper and jewelry before you put it through your ear. It helps it go in without creating friction and tears, which result in scars. DO NOT USE PETROLEUM JELLY/CHAPSTICK/JOJOBA OIL/ETC AS A LUBRICANT.
• Unscented antibacterial soap - You can find it at Wal-Mart or places like that.
• Non-Iodized sea salt - H2Ocean is good for this. You can find it at Hot Topic, Spencers, and even your local piercing shop.
• I have to make special mention to never, EVER use alcohol based products to clean your ears. EVER. Period. This dries them out and causes a lot of problems. Just look it up on Google.

You really don’t need anything else. If you want fancy plugs/eyelets by all means use them. Just remember, NO ACRYLIC.

Also, NEVER EVER EVER wear your tapers as jewelry! EVER. They are not pieces of jewelry. They are a stretching device. If you wear them as jewelry, your ears can become torn or deformed. DO NOT DO IT.

Now… What you’ve been waiting for: How to stretch your ears with the taper method step-by-step!!!!

1. Wash your hands then wash your taper(s) and jewelry with hot water and antibacterial soap.
2. Take out whatever jewelry you have and clean the piercing in your earlobe with the antibacterial soap and sea salt spray.
3. Lubricate the taper and your ear and gently put it through your lobe. If you have to push hard or feel pain that’s more than a slight pinch, stop. If it’s your first stretch and it’s really painful then you may need to start at a smaller gauge than what you have from the stretching kit. If it’s not your first stretch, wait another week or 2 and try again.
4. Flush the end of the jewelry with the end of the taper and push through gently.
5. Put the o-ring on the front and back of your jewelry as needed.
6. Spray some H2Ocean on a clean q-tip and gently clean around the jewelry to get rid of excess lubricant.
7. DO NOT TOUCH YOUR EARS FOR AT LEAST 24 HOURS. That includes to clean them. They will be red and swollen most likely and will need to be left alone. The most you should go without cleaning them is 2 days. Then clean them 2x a day with a H2Ocean q-tip and no more than that. I would clean with the soap 1x a week for the first week. After that you can do it daily if you really think you need to. When you clean them, only clean around the piercing/jewelry. DO NOT TAKE OUT THE JEWELRY TO CLEAN until at least 3 weeks later or your ears will shrink.
8. Wait at LEAST 3 weeks (this is if you’re impatient and being irresponsible but still don’t want to completely ruin your ears) before your next stretch. Ideally you should wait 1 to 2 months between stretches.
9. DO NOT SKIP SIZES. This is the most irresponsible thing you could do. It can make your ears tear and bleed and just simply hurt you and your ears. Don’t do it. Ever.
10. If you have any concerns or difficulty and need some help, go to your local piercer.

I hope that this helps! Tune in next week for the next part in the series: General Questions and Concerns such as: Why are my ears red, swollen, and sore? I waited 3 weeks between stretches, why isn’t the taper going through? Are my ears infected? How to go from 8g to 6g? Why is my jewelry falling out at night/in general? Why are my ears bleeding/what to do if your ears start bleeding? And potentially more!

XOXO!!! Sarah

PHOTOS ARE NOT MINE. THEY ARE FROM eartapers.com

Ear Stretching 101: So You Want to Stretch Your Ears?

Hello Lovelies!

Welcome to the first post in my Ear Stretching 101 series that I’m doing for the next few weeks on my blog!

But FIRST: I am not a licensed piercer and cannot give you the same professional advice that a licensed piercer can. Everything that I share about my piercings and advice relating to piercings that I share are things I have either learned from my own experiences, researched, or been told by a piercer.

SECOND: Some terminology.

• Stretched Ears are not called gauges.
• Plugs are jewelry that are solid.
• Eyelets are not called tunnels. Eyelets are jewelry that have a hollow center.

• O-rings are the small and sometimes black or clear little rings that go on the ends of your jewelry to keep it from falling out of your ear.

Now that we have that over with, let’s get to the good stuff, ok? Ok!

So, you want to stretch your ears? There are many reasons to stretch your ears and the most popular is because it looks awesome! If that’s the only reason you want to get it, then cool! Just like tattoos, you don’t need a reason to stretch your ears aside from you wanting them. There are just a couple things you need to know before you decide to take the plunge. At least these are some of the things I wish I knew before I stretched mine.

1. Your ears are going to smell HORRIBLE. Yes. They will smell. The better you keep your ears clean the less they will stink, but they will still stink at some point and for some they’ll stink more than others.

2. People will judge you/question you for your stretched ears. For some reason, even though body modifications are becoming more widely accepted, people still think that they have a right to make rude comments about what they think of your stretched ears. This can be family, friends, and even complete and total strangers. Just be prepared to hear “ewww, gauges are so gross!”

3. THEY’RE NOT CALLED GAUGES. I don’t really mind when older people or people without stretched ears call them “gauges” because… well… they just don’t know. However, if you are stretching your ears/have stretched ears, and call them “gauges” you will sound like a total moron. That and it will show you have done ZERO research about what you are doing to your body and says that maybe you shouldn’t be stretching your ears until you do.

4. It may affect your getting a job. Touching again on the second point: there will be people that don’t like stretched ears. There are some employers/companies that simply won’t hire you if you have stretched ears. Period. There are also some that just don’t care. It’s really just a crap-shoot. Do your research.

5. If you stretch them too big, they will not shrink back. If you go past 00 gauge there is a HUGE chance that your ears won’t shrink back to normal and if you decide you don’t want them anymore you’ll have to get surgery to get them to "look normal again”. The way you stretch your ears also has an impact on if they’ll shrink back or not. The more scar tissue you have, the harder it will be to shrink them back.

As of this moment, these are 5 things that I wish someone told me before I stretched my ears. Next week I will tell you what you need to start stretching your ears at home using the method that I used to stretch my own ears (Taper Method). You can go to your local LICENSED piercer to help you stretch your ears if you want to, but I haven’t done that so I can only tell you the proper way to do it at home.

I hope that this was helpful to you in getting a better idea about if you want stretched ears or not. Let me know if there is anything else you would add to this list in the comments below or on my Instagram or Twitter! (Links to my Insta and Twitter are in the Follow Me page)

XOXO!!! Sarah