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#1
10-12-2010, 06:25 PM
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Do you know anyone who wears giant ear lobe disks?
I live in a small city with a large and largely liberal college population, and amongst the usual facial piercings and tattoos, there is the occasional person who has slowly stretched out their ear lobes with disks of ever increasing sizes going up to two or three inches across. Personally, I'm not enamored of the look, but then there's lots of looks that don't do anything for me.
What I'm curious about is what can a person with such accouterments expect to face if and when they come to a day where they no longer wish to have these. From what little I've read, the stretched out tissue is not easily corrected through surgery, and the resulting holes are of a size that will not be able to close on its own over time. Also, I would assume that just leaving the large loops of tissue hanging without plugs would be both dangerous and unsatisfying to someone wishing to leave the look behind. So do you know anyone who wears these? Do you know anyone who has quit wearing them or wishes to? If so, how did they/are they going about it? 
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#2
10-12-2010, 06:28 PM
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No, but I know a guy whose earlobes look like dog assholes.
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#3
10-12-2010, 06:35 PM
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#4
10-12-2010, 06:35 PM
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I've seen that look on a guy who clerks at a video/CD store I sometimes frequent, who has ear plugs and multiple piercings. I dunno what he'll do when the place is, I think inevitably, rendered obsolete. Video/CD stores have the sort of sensibility where extreme fashions are not discouraged, but I can't think of too many other retail outlets that are similar.
For real hardcore fashion, I'm waiting to see if lip plugs catch on.
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#5
10-12-2010, 06:40 PM
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One of the vet techs at the vet I go to has a bunch of tattoos, piercings, and very stretched earlobes.
My WAG is that correcting the situation would require minor reconstructive surgery, probably something like removing a lot of the loop of skin and patching the rest together. You'd probably end up with earlobes that had scarring on them, but much more "average" looking than before.
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#6
10-12-2010, 06:47 PM
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I have it on both of my ears. I regret having done it (I did it when I was eighteen and kind of thinking I'd be living like an eighteen-year-old forever), and now that I'm actually looking into my future it doesn't fit where I want to go with my life. But the alternative at the moment is walking around with ear vaginas so I'm just waiting.
Since it produces extra skin, it's pretty much an ideal body modification for later surgical correction. This involves pictures of a mutilated ear lobe, but it explains how it would be done. It'll shrink up a bit on its own once there's no longer any stretching going on, but it won't go away completely without surgical intervention.
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#7
10-12-2010, 06:49 PM
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There's a young guy in my office who has hoops about the size of a dime in his ears; they don't look too weird at that size, but I think they spoil his looks (he's adorable otherwise).
I once saw a guy who had stretched his lobes way out like the OP describes, when he wasn't wearing anything in them. The way that what was left of the lobes flapped around in the breeze was kind of nauseating. As a rule I don't like body art or piercings, except for regular earrings, but this was especially gross to me. Roddy
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#8
10-12-2010, 06:50 PM
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#9
10-12-2010, 08:02 PM
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And anyone who needs a real job or has some sense knocked into them quits wearing them. For my brother, the sense was knocked into him by pretty girls saying they looked like shit. Now, as a college student going into the Navy SEALS, he has a buzz cut and resembles very little of his former self.
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#10
10-12-2010, 08:15 PM
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I do not like them, there was a guy with half inch plugs at my previous job.
I have to admit I have 12 gauge earrings, but that is as large as I am interested in going. I wanted to be able to wear stuff like this.
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#11
10-12-2010, 08:24 PM
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I've always wanted a pair of loose buttholes in my earlobes. With gauges, my dreams can finally be realized.
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#13
10-12-2010, 09:29 PM
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#14
10-12-2010, 09:37 PM
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I make jewelry here in San Francisco and get requests for large-gauge jewelry all the time. Needless to say, this is an area of the world where such things are more than prevalent; I see lobe disks and plugs on guys and girls in the financial district who are also wearing business suits.
It does nothing for me, but I'm happy for the business.
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#15
10-12-2010, 09:55 PM
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A friend in college had ones the size of quarters. He took them out for good his junior year, as he was planning to go straight into a doctoral program. Well before he graduated college, the holes closed up entirely. What was left was less than a dimple. He was surprised at his luck, and he did go onto get his doctorate.
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#16
10-13-2010, 05:37 AM
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"Know" is a little too strong a word in my case. There is a guy at a sub shop I go to who has them. I guess if I ran into him somewhere beyond the shop I'd yell hello to him, but I don't really know him very well.
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#17
10-13-2010, 08:07 AM
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I had half-inch lobes for five years or so. I took them out in mid 2005. I didn't do anything special, just stopped wearing the plugs. My ears look fine; they've just got small creases in them where the holes have shrunk to about 2mm. You really couldn't tell I ever had anything weird there, I wear normal earrings and everything.
Very YMMV, though. Some ears close completely, some have small slits, some get a bit of a "cat's ass", which I agree is gross, some gape and some people choose to have the excess lobe removed by a doctor. You can get some very neat results that way, though. And that's nice of you to say, lindsaybluth. Wrong, though. I have a real job with own desk and chair and carpeting and use of the company pen and everything. I'm planning to stretch mine again, but perhaps I just need some sense knocked into me. That must be it.
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#18
10-13-2010, 08:47 AM
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Huh, I was going to say I know a fellow who has his ears gauged, but upon looking at a recent photo it appears that he's now wearing regular sized earrings. So I guess they probably can close up a little over time.
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#20
10-13-2010, 09:48 AM
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#21
10-13-2010, 10:03 AM
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Call me old-fashioned if you like, but the recent trends with tattoos all over your arms and face, piercings and other sorts of body mutilations make me think that you don't own your body, you just borrow it from your older self and what happens if s/he is not as happy with it?
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#22
10-13-2010, 10:16 AM
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 Thanks for sharing. I used to live in Austin - big hippie college town, so you'd see these. Kinda no big whoop in a place like that. (Go 300 miles out into one of the small towns of Texas, though, and it's a whole nuther story!)
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#23
10-13-2010, 11:16 AM
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#24
10-13-2010, 11:33 AM
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I have a friend who has started stretching his ears. I can't say I am terribly fond of it, but it's his ears, not mine. I have my ears pierced and my nose pierced, so I guess I don't have much ground to stand on...except I can always take my earrings out and cover my ears with my hair, and as for my nose, I make a point of only ever putting in piercings with very thin wire so the hole doesn't enlarge. If I ever decide I don't want it anymore it is easy to pop out and will at the most leave me with a small scar, and quite possibly close up.
I also want to get a tattoo - a small one, on my wrist. These are all things that can be hidden if need be. I don't understand the gauges at all, I admit. At least piercings can be removed. Tattoos can be covered up, even if you have to wear long sleeves. (As long as you don't tattoo your face). But the gauges never go away and can't be hidden.
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#25
10-13-2010, 12:43 PM
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#26
10-13-2010, 01:16 PM
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#27
10-13-2010, 02:10 PM
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#29
10-13-2010, 02:21 PM
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#31
10-13-2010, 02:32 PM
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#33
10-13-2010, 03:48 PM
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A bunch of my friends have their lobes stretched to various sizes. Their current ages run from 19 to 45 and they work everywhere from restaurants (where such things are no barrier to employment) to upper end grocery store management or office work. A few are tattooists and piercers, but most are just average folks who happen to belong to various subcultures.
As to whether they look good or bad, it depends on the person. I dated a girl who would sometimes wear those fat crayons little kids use in hers - I thought it was cute.
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#34
10-13-2010, 04:21 PM
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One of Mr. Neville's cousins does. I saw him on our trip to Chicago this summer. I kept trying not to stare at it. Either I was successful, or he and everybody else pretended not to notice that I was staring. This cousin is around 17, so I doubt he's given any thought to what might happen if he no longer wants this look at some point.
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#35
10-14-2010, 01:18 AM
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#36
10-14-2010, 02:11 AM
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One of the tellers in my local bank has the lobe plugs, well controlled feral hair and arm tattoos, he is always immaculately attired in long sleeve shirt and seriously what is the problem? he comes across as someone any employer would be happy top have.
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#37
10-14-2010, 02:32 AM
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#38
10-14-2010, 10:04 AM
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#39
10-14-2010, 02:31 PM
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Those things gross me out for some reason. Here in Seattle, they're really common.
And I'm a girl who doesn't have a problem with most body mods. I'm perfectly fine with other people having large tattoos, tongue piercings, etc., and I really think that it's wrong to deny someone a job based on them. But those giant ear holes bother me. Last edited by Terra1041; 10-14-2010 at 02:31 PM. Reason: Clarifying
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#40
10-14-2010, 03:27 PM
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 Considering what teenage/twenty-something me did to my knees I really should have charged a deposit or something.
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#41
10-14-2010, 05:02 PM
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I don't have a problem with body modifications (unless you want to tell me in detail about getting your tattoo- I'm needle-phobic). But the only body modifications I'm at all interested in now are ones that will save me time and effort. I'd love to get my armpit or leg hair removed, so I wouldn't have to worry about shaving it. Insurance really should cover permanent leg hair removal for people as nearsighted and clumsy as me. I've cut myself shaving my legs too many times to count.
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#42
10-14-2010, 06:43 PM
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A couple of people in my office with the ear thingies.
Of course, my term for this Age is "The Carny Decade". I'm old enough to remember when only carny folk, sailors and undesirables had such piercings, tatoos and shaved heads. I'm so looking forward to 10-20 years from now when we can look back at this period in the same manner we now look at people from the 60's, 70's and 80's, thinking "what the fuck were they thinking wearing that???"
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#43
10-14-2010, 06:51 PM
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Am I the only one who thinks it is kind of funny that the "fix" for people with large gauge holes looking to become more professional is surgery that in at least some cases is not attractive or desirable for anyone? If I come in to a job with mutilated earlobes that I enjoy, I'm unprofessional. But if I have mutilated earlobes that nobody likes, it's fine.
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#44
10-15-2010, 10:41 AM
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#45
10-15-2010, 11:25 AM
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What is "well controlled feral hair"? Do I dare ask? 
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#46
10-15-2010, 11:34 AM
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While it is now possible to have visible body mods aside from the traditional ear-piercings, and be middle-class, it still isn't easy or very common to be middle-class and have visible body mods and/or tats. Mind you, it isn't though of as being for scary biker types alone anymore. Though there are serious differences in styles - piercings combined with arty, visible tats is one thing, pointing more to a slacker stereotype; discreet/coverable tats is another; and what I saw at my wife's cousin's wedding is yet a third - grim-faced recent eastern european immigrants with short hair and home-made prison tats (no piercings).
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#47
10-15-2010, 04:34 PM
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#48
10-16-2010, 08:54 PM
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A few -- one of my supervisors over at the Science Center had his ears stretched. Not QUITE as big as quarters, maybe? (He's the guy to the far left, with the long hair and the Abe Lincoln beard -- Budd. From what one of my full time coworkers told me, he was able to quit and play with his band full time. Nice guy)
I'm pretty meh on the whole thing. They're your ears, go for it. The guy who pierced my nose had ones the size of my fist. On the other hand, there was the dude I saw downtown with his ear lobes down past his chin -- that was over doing it! As for looking like catbutt: from what I gather, you have to stretch them out gradually. They start looking like that if you go too big too soon. You just go to a slightly larger gauge. Cite Last edited by Guinastasia; 10-16-2010 at 08:55 PM.
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