I didn’t want to hijack Sarahfeena’s thread, so I opened this one. I’ve got my ears pierced and I was thinking about going with some plugs. I don’t really want to stretch my lobes out too much more than they are (not really stretched, just bigger than they used to be because of weight of some rings and such). How can I tell what gauge my ears are and if there is something out there that I can use? my brother said he thinks my ears are at around a 14g if that means anything.
Any help?
Standard piercings that are done with a gun are usually 16g (16 gauge in American Wire Gauge). The lower the number, the bigger the hole. If you go to a reputable piercing shop, they should have plugs in different sizes. The place I go has plugs in 12g which isn’t very huge but isn’t tiny either.
Also, my personal preference is to stay far far away from getting a piercing with the ‘piercing gun’ because of the difficulty in sterilizing the gun.
Seriously, go to a shop and talk to the piercer. Talk to different ones at different shops. Find one who will take the time to explain everything to you and also look around at how clean they keep the shop. A good piercer will talk to you about what you want, what is required for it, jewelry, and their sterile practices without pressuring you to buy anything.
My first was with a gun at the mall, but back then that was the way piercings were done. The rest were done professionally, since that kind of thing had cropped up by the time I wanted them.
I guess my real hope was I could just swap jewelry instead of having to have anything redone. I’ll pay for some new tubes, but I don’t want to pay for having any work done. I’ll have to stop in a shop and see what they say.
This is all just personal experience, your ears might not be as stretchy as mine, and it is always adviseable to get professional advice. Find a repudable piercer in your city, they probably know more than most people here could tell you. Here is some advice from me if you are interested though:
When I first started stretching my ears, they were a small 16g from the piercing gun. Honestly, with how small the difference is between a 16g and a 14g, you could easily slide in a 14g and not notice until the next morning, when your ears are slightly tender. Heck, even going down to a 12g doesnt hurt except for tenderness the next morning.
If you are looking to stay around the same size you are now, then you can find plugs as small as 18g on various websites and in piercing shops. My personal favorite is Body Art Forms. Fast service, huge selection, and amazing prices. You can go anywhere from budget steel to buffalo horn to custom implant grade titanium jewelry, and they have a large selection of stuff in the 16g-14g range that you are probably in.
I hope I grasped your question correctly and good luck!
Your local piercing studio is your best bet. They will probably look at and measure the jewelry you’re currently wearing, maybe insert a taper to the point where it induces discomfort and measure the taper at that point. It can be difficult to tell with lobes because they stretch fairly easily.
Thanks for the replies everyone. I went to the shop tonight and they were having a super sale (Buy one get two free…sweet) so I’m now the proud owner of 2 14ga. metal spacers and two 12ga. captive link rings (that counted as one purchase as they were in the same package).
They did explain that I could get some of those pointy horn looking deals and keep sliding them up and holding them in place with rubber grommets to go bigger, but I’m not ready for that yet. Maybe one day, but this is good for now. Next time it’s tattoo money.