My Ear Scalpelling Experience

Warning I must warn you now, if you're at all squeamish or not a fan of body modifications, then you may not want to continue reading. Today I wish to share with you my experience of having my ear lobes scalpelled.  I don't claim to be an expert on the subject because, although I did get my ears scalpelled, I was simply the paying customer for a procedure performed by a trained and experienced body modifications expert. Who & Where I chose to see Masa from Japan when he worked at the Piercing Urge in Prahran, Victoria. This is a studio which I wholeheartedly trust and has a reputation for being the best in Victoria for body piercings and all heavy body modifications. Why Many people don't see the appeal of body modifications. That's okay because we're all meant to be different. I had been tossing up the idea of stretching my ears for quite some time. The natural progression from the idea to fruition is usually purchasing tapers (for stretching NOT to wear as jewellery) and small gauge plugs. I went the ear scalpelling route as my ears had been pierced by guns my whole life. Back, decades ago, we didn't know the dangers of them. My ears were always a piercing of mine which would react badly to particular jewellery and close up quite quickly. I knew stretching would present me with issues, so I went with the more extreme and instantaneous route; really, it's not all that much different that getting initial large gauge piercings. Scalpelling is a rather permanent form of body modification, it means no matter how long I leave my plugs out, they'll never return to their original size pre-scalpelling. I wanted to be sure that my piercings were centred and that my lobes would stretch evenly. It was actually part of my birthday present to myself, believe it or not, along with getting tattooed that same day. I love the pain.  Scalpelling Process The scalpelling process meant I was able to achieve a larger lobe stretch in only a matter of minutes. I went from a 16/18g lobe piercing to a 00g that afternoon. My lobe was cut with a scalpel and a 00 gauge surgical steel eyelet was placed in each incision to keep the wound open. A 00 gauge lobe stretch equates to approximately 9.2mm, which is roughly 10 times wider than a standard lobe piercing. For some strange reason, and I don't know if this is just me or if other people experience this too, but every piercing or tattoo I get always seems to hurt more on my right hand side. When I got my ears scalpelled I felt more discomfort on my right ear, compared to my left ear which I barely felt.  I am right-handed and I assume this may play some part in this. Healing The healing process was fairly standard for me. The first few days my ears were dealing with the trauma, still a little swollen, but they bleed very little. I washed them with a warm salt water solution twice a day and was careful not to sleep on them for a few weeks. Around the 12 week mark I decided to remove the surgical steel eyelets and replace them with some of the pretty plugs that I had purchased. Hygiene Looking after my stretched ears doesn't take all that much time or effort. Some people complain of having smell ears but that's because they aren't following good hygiene practices; it's not rocket science. I wash my jewellery and my lobes daily, in addition to massaging my lobes with jojoba oil twice a day; sometimes more in Winter to combat dry skin from the cold weather. Massaging stimulates blood flow to your lobes which is essential for healthy tissue. Six Months On Initially I was adamant with going no bigger than 00g. However, as time went on I decided 00g just wasn't big enough. I found with my double flared plugs that my ears had naturally stretched and I had no issues with going up to 7/16″. I was cautious with the stretching process, taking my time between sizes. Surprisingly I found that my lobes were quite stretchy, basically stretching by their own accord. Today Now, 18 months later I have 3/4" (roughly 19mm) healthy, stretched lobes. I could say that I'll never go bigger than this, but that's what I said at 00g. Stretched ears are just never big enough. Advice Stretching your ears isn't something to take lightly. There are so many resources online on how to stretch safely and which materials to use. The last thing you want is to rush it and end up with a cat butt for an ear lobe; blowouts are not pretty, neither are severed lobes which require re-constructive surgery. Awful Modifications and BME have stretching guides to follow, written by professionals. If in doubt consult your local, reputable body piercer. For those of you interested, I will be doing a post about my plug collection sometime soon.  via Stacie Michelle http://stacie-michelle.blogspot.com/2013/09/my-ear-scalpelling-experience.html

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