Horror Punk

Hey well I have now moved on from my ear stretching enteries to my own site http://www.horror-punk.net basically horror punk music bands directory, and info on the misfits songs and horror movies it's still being built but I think it will rock when it's finnished. Check it out and give some feed back.

Especially the misfits Cover Gallery and Lyrics http://www.horror-punk.net/misfits%20covers/Bullet-Page.htm

Health advice for stretching

Aparently acording to an email I recieved this site will have health advice officially about possible infections in the next month or so so here is the link.

Womens HealthWomens healthcare, ovarian & cervical cancer screening; Gynaecology specialists - menopause, bad periods, fibroids; pregnancy care & ultrasound scan; Down Syndrome screening; 4D Baby ultrasound; Specialists - sexual health screening & treatment

4D baby scan Liverpool

Ear Stretching : I'm Finally done

Well I have quit stretching now with "00" Gauge and a "2" gauge

Sometimes you just need to say stop : So I've quit plus I don't have too much space left. So here is my final image. I'm gonna do a descent guide later.

O.K this ear stretch acted a little differently to before

This went differently on this 8mm Stretch

Well this stretch went great from the first 6 hours, I used steripod saline to clean it. Apalied presure to the back "O" ring (putting it on tight tends to move the4 stretch along some how)No swelling 4hrs later I pushed it a little and it went all te way from 6mm to 8mm (gauge 2 -0) no real pain no excessive swelling.

Then an hour later got some pain the down the neck sort, took some pain killer n o problem until the next hour and it hit the swell. It went up like quite abit but no real pain. So I decided just to leave it in and go to bed. The next morning it was massive, but I decided to see how it would go and it went tdown a little by the evening some more the next morning then completely gone by the time I wen to bed. So 48hrs of swelling but no infection, it was wierd as no intial swelling. But here is a photo after 48hrs. I only have a little space left in my ear now. So I've decided to go up to 10mm 0r gauge "00" and call it a day as this is getting a bit out of hand.

This week I'll put the next size up into the back 5mm piercing taking it to 6mm or gauge 2. Then on wednesday start the stretch from 8mm to 10mm with the hope of only a little swelling. It goes to show what worked once or twice may not always work when stretching, your body will do what ever it likes.

Leaving earings out of stretched piercings

O.k well today before I began stretching my 6mm to 8mm I had cause to remove bothe of my expanded piercings for 4 hours.

People ask what happens if you take those expanders out ?, I always answer don't know ? but now I know.

Firstly I ought to say how old each of these expanded pircings are one is 6 weeks old, another is at it's present size about 10 days old.

1. I should say the 10 day old one stang for a lttle while to begin with, it may have been the fresh air?. The 6 week old one nothing at all.
2. When they were out there was no big gaping hole to be seen they just looked like large piercings. Nothing any one would comment on, you could just see through the 6mm, they apeared to be 25% or less than there actole size.
3. After the 4hrs the 6 week old piercing took it's tunnel no probs felt slightly tighter than before. That may have been due to the air drying the piercing rather than the scar tissue contracting.
4. The 10 day old piercing I had to use the expander as it felt wise, it took a wee push and felt very slightly sore. After 20mins I slide my old flesh tunnel in with out any pain.

Unfourtunately no pictures of how small the holes looked, but they were really not to noticeable. I taught a class of 8 year olds who notice everything and they said nothing.

6mm (gauge 2) to 8mm (gauge 0) my final stretch ?

Back is a 5mm steel tunnel, front 8mm acrylic stretcher,
just1 hour into starting to stretch a 6mm hole to 8mm.

Will this really be the final stretch ?

As I may have hinted before I have an obsessive personality so what began as the original aim to get the smallest possible flesh tunnel to look cool, has become something else. I remember being 11 years old saying dad I only want my hair to reach my collar when I first began growing it. A few years later and it's at my shoulder blades, go figger.

This one is pretty sore today as I have just begun, one this I have done on this stretch that seems to have made all the difference so far is only used a steripod (saline) to pre-clean the stretcher and hole I have had no noticeable swelling or redness ( see photo to see if you agree). Before I always began with surgical spirits and had quite abit of swelling. I used saline
(salt water) for the last part of the 6mm stretch a week or so ago and had very little swelling.

The piercing I am stretching has been at 6mm for about a week and a half and felt o.k to try and stretch further.

The 5mm tunnel I pushed a 6mm into yesterday with no pain just felt tight. That piercing is 6 weeks old. So a fully healed one can be stretch on size up well 1mm up with no pain at all.

What to use and what to avoid for a good stretch?

If you read below you'll see I've used ear stretching horns to stretch and up size and also gone up one size with no stretcher. Well since my last post I've tried some more jewellery in my piercings. So here's my advice.

Stainless steel tunnels( pictured above) - These are great with on flared end and "O" ring at the back to keep them in place. The back end of them is smooth curved, they will send any gauged piercing up by one mm in size everytime with just alittle pain and slide back out easily too. You can go up a size with one of these after a week or less after the initial stretch.

Flared end Pluggs & tunnels - these are no good for going up a size or even putting in to a newely gauged(stretched) piercing. The problem being they are generally flared at bothe ends to half a mm or so above the gauge they are rated at. So your stretch piercing will need to stretch some more any how. they go in a treat after your are 5-6 weeks healed but even then can't really be used to go up a size easily. They are also no good to clean as the don't move much as they are a tight fit, hard to pull out some times.

Normal pluggs - These are great the flat ended ones with the "o" rings at either end are o.k as they tend to have a slight bezel edge. The best ones are the glass ones with the "o" rings as the tend to be very round ended, they are the best.

Screw backs - Screw backs are o.k for going up a size but a little sore, I say sore as the the thread from the screw back tends to ripp the inside of the hole if you are going up a size. once in they are easy to clean.

Suggestions - when stretching up one size with out a stretcher, anti septic cream helps it slide in nicely as if there not wet in some way it can be a little rough. I used to use spirits but it some time caused the hole to contract. I guess you could use ky jelly if you have some knocking around or vasaline. Lubrication of any type really helps.

Working Your Way up in Size

Blue 6mm acrylic expander all the way through, 5mm steel tunnel at the back

Stretching your piercings a little bigger

Stretching your luggs From 4mm - 6mm

What I have done and used to go up a size or two ?

The Beginning 0-4mm

The first sretch I ever did was from an old hairdressers piercing to 4mm. I used an acrylic expander and it took a few days about a 4 days I guess all in. The firt quarter of the lenght of the expander is the worste. Your ear goes red swells a little and you've got loads of used expander sticking out of your ear looking stupid. Go in from the back not the front of your existing piercing, as a small spike looks cooler than 8 cm of expander. At night in the first two nights use a plaster (band aid) to stick the back long length of the expander to behind your ear, this will stop it falling or getting knocked out while you sleep ( it has happened to me as much as 3 times in one night).

Started on a friday night, by the saturday night I was a third of the way through with the ear expander. The sunday morning I took it out for a meeting it filled with goo and I noticed some puss it must have been a little infected. Surgical spirited it left it 12 hours used a needle to knock off the scab soaked the expander in spirits and put the expander back through. It went back through a t the same stretch as before it scabbed over. By Tuesday it was completely through all 4mm. Always clean the entire length of the expander before and after a push with salt water or spirits.

Up Sizing your already expanded piercings 1 size without a stretcher

Then I wanted a 5mm tunnel in I found a nice Black nut and bolt type flesh tunnel in 5mm. Any less than 5mm and you can't see through the hole very well. (There is a picture of it on this blogg somewhere). It had a screw back, you can usually squeeze on in one size bigger as long as it dosent have screw back without needing a new stretcher ( always wet the jewellry with salt water if you are up sizing it slips in easier I have found). On the Saturday I tried hard to fit it in no joy the thread messed th hole up a little to as well. So I bought a 6mm expander stretched the hole a little to what I guessed was about 5mm left it for 10 mins pulled it out and with a push got the 5mm tunnel in.

The top two mistakes I made

1. Up sizing with a screw back - the thread gets caught
2. Up sizing at under 2 weeks with out the used of an expander - 3 weeks for a body piercing

Up sizing your already expanded piercings with stretchers

I stretched from 0-4mm with the 4mm stretcher then switched to the 6mm stretcher. I began on the Thursday morning and with the 4mm was done by friday morning. Put the 6mm in the afternoon and was a 6mm by 11pm. The pain from the time I put the 6mm in till 11pm was bad loads of swelling and pains down my neck my ear was as fat as my thumb. So I took it out and put ice on took an ibro tablet a pain killer which has an anti inflam in it. The next day the hole was full of scab and still very swollen. The day after it had settled down the swelling. So stupid me I knock the scab off and with some saline soaked the 4mm stretcher and pushed it through ooch. Left it for 5mins and pushed a 5mm steel flesh tunnel through ( with no screw back). It swelled a little and was sore but settled with some ice. (The photo on this blogg with a blick tunnel and a steel one in is 2mins after I did it). I then left it 3 days and soaked the 6mm stretcher in saline and put it in fully no swelling no bother. Picture above is an hour after I did it.

I think I was over cleaning my stetcher with surgical spirits which added to the the swelling on my first attempt as I was moving it on all the time. 3 cleans a day should be enough.

I have never had much pain, swelling or any infection when I have baught and used steripods (sterile salt water / saline) you can buy them at any chemists they are used for cleaning of extenernal / internal pin sites and rods that fix broken legs etc.

The top 2 Mistakes I made :

1. I rushed it on too fast
2. Used to much surgical spirits - over cleaning

When is the best time to stretch ?

First thing in the morning after you clean it, get the scabs off and push you'll find the piercing gives really easily thats always the best stretch of the day. 3 pushes a day is more than enough it's good to give your ear time between each stretch for the swelling to ease up. The piercing will stretch just as fast that way as pushing a little all day. Pushing often increases the chance of infection, means you have to clean it alot which will cause anguish and more swelling also. Often also can = tearing as oposed to stretching, which can = not shrinking back well in the future when you get bored of them. I know it's tempting and fun to push often but leave it alone !!!

What I did - What I used to stretch my Luggs?

Black and white 4mm Acrylic stretcher at about a third of the way through & a 5mm surgical streel flesh tunnelat the back.

My Experience With Ear Stretchers

Stretchers :

I used Acrylic Stretchers - 3 Reasons Why ?

1. Acrylic stretchers are cheap
2. They usually have a swirl design - which makes it easy to gage your progression ie. I have reach the bottom of the first swirl. I get very impatient so need to see results.
3. Acrylic stretchers are the lightest in wieght. The wieght of the stretcher can pull it's self out in the early stages.

Stretcher Sizes :

Stretchers come in gage sizes and mm sizes dependant on what make you buy, and how the shop decides to list them.

Good Starter sizes - the smaller the expander the smaller the start size (start size is the narrow end). The largesr size to start on with is a 4mm as the narrow end is can be squeezed in at a push into and type of piercing. 3mm is a good starter if you think you want to take it steady. A 6mm stretcher just wouldn't fit, if you could squeeze it in you probaby swell up and bleed lots.