Ok, so being the incredible badass I am (or just really impatient), I decided it would be a good idea to force 10-gauge earrings into my normally-sized pierced earlobes. They’re a little…icky right now, but no worse than, let’s say, any self-piercings I’ve done before, so it’s not infection I’m worried about. I’m keeping them clean and they seem to be healing alright. What I’m wondering is if, because I stretched them so rapidly and tore them a little bit in the process, the holes will be this much bigger permanently. About a year back, I did the same thing with a friend’s (sterilized) 10-gauges, but I had already been regularly wearing 14-gauges so it didn’t really cause any tearing or bleeding, and they shrunk back to their normal size when I took them out. So what I want to know is if I let these heal, will they basically just heal into a hole that won’t shrink back when I decide to go back to wearing normal-sized earrings? I’m thinking that might be a problem because they were torn instead of gradually stretched, and I don’t really want them to be this size forever. Should I just take them out and wait for them to heal, then slowly stretch them if I want to wear 10-gauges, or will it really make that much of a difference either way?
Any size piercing will heal eventually, so don’t worry about that side of it. However, letting a piercing close up then re-stretching it is going to produce more scarring and pain than stretching it in one go. I would advise you to let them heal with the 10-gauge jewellery, then let them shrink naturally if you want to go back to a finer gauge.
I’m not sure how US sizes correspond to metric, but I’ve gone from 2mm to 10mm in one go, with no long-term problems. 
Pfft. And here I am wondering if I can go from 16 to 14 without going back to the piercing place to have them do it for me.
Thanks! I’m pretty sure a 10-gauge is about 2mm, just estimating by looking at it. 2mm to 10mm? Ouch! And I thought I stretched my ears pretty rapidly! If you don’t mind, I have another question. Do you have any idea how much you have to stretch your piercings until they won’t shrink back to a smallish size (one would can’t see through too much)? I knew one guy who had some pretty big ear plugs, and when he let them close up they never got much smaller than the diameter of a pencil. I’d like to stretch mine some more, but I don’t want to stretch them to the point where, when they’ve healed, I can’t let them shrink up a bit and wear those cute sparkly dangly earrings I love so much. Because that would make me sad. 
<–See? sad.
Chaoticbear, IANAProfessional Piercer, but I’d say you could probably do that without too much trouble. At least, back when I did, I didn’t have to really force the 14-gauge in or anything. It was just a slightly snugger fit, but there wasn’t any discomfort or redness.
Wow, you should really educate yourself before you do anymore self modification. I suggest you go to bmezine.com (especially the encyclopedia and QOD sections) and read A LOT about stretching and large gauge piercings before you do anything else. Doing things the right way is not hard and will serve you well in the long run.
Stretching (not gauging, because gauge isn’t a verb. You wear a whatever-size gauge earring in your stretched piercing.) too quickly will cause tearing and scar tissue, which makes it much less likely that your piercing will be able to shrink back down to “standard” size (anywhere from 20g to 16g). If it throbs, if you bleed at all, if you have to really shove the new earring through, you are going to fast. You should also wait for at least a month after you reach each new size before beginning to stretch again.
It took me maybe 3 months to go from a standard size piercing to 10g. I went 16g to 14g to 12g with no problems at all just putting new earrings, and the 10g plugs went in easily but then swelled up a bit. Wrapping your plug in thin layers of Teflon tape is the best way to stretch, IMHO, because Teflon is inert and sticks to itself, so you won’t have any allergic reations to the tape or any adhesives, and you can slowly build up the Teflon to the next size up, or downsize if you’ve overstretched. Using Teflon tape, I went from 10g to 4g in a little less than six months. It was comfortable and hurt way less than getting the original piercing.
Please, please, please educate yourself before you modify yourself. It makes me so sad to see people with badly done modifications. Luckily, 10g is not very big at all, and even if you end up with a little scar tissue, you have ample time to learn more before you (slowly!) stretch up to 8g and onward. My lobes are currently 2g, and if I took them out, they would probably shrink back down in a few weeks. But why would I want to do that?
If they don’t shrink, there is a simple surgical procedure that can close up enlarged holes. Stretched ones, anyway. My SIL just had it done and she looks faaabulous and can wear earrings again. WooHOO!
Thanks for the tips, Mirror. Needless to say, when I woke up the next morning with puffy bloody ears I realized forcing that earring in probably wasn’t the brightest move I’d ever made. Hence the “stupid” comment in the OP. Patience is not my strong suit. Anyway, my reason for wanting to be able to shrink them back down is that I have several pairs of smaller earrings that I love and want to be able to wear sometimes too. So I guess that means not really going much bigger than my current 10-gauge, since it probably wouldn’t be the best idea to constantly make drastic changes to the size of my piercings anyway. Also, no need to worry about me stretching my ears more any time soon; if I decide to stretch them any more, I’m definitely doing the safe thing and waiting until they’ve healed completely.