They’re increasingly popular it seems and rather than clipping onto the ear they’re inserted. The bigger ones allow you to insert your finger through the person’s earlobe if you particularly wanted to.
They’re usually called plugs or ear plugs. Yes, just like the other kind.
If they’re hollow and narrow diameter they’re called eyelets. If there hollow and a larger diameter they’re called flesh tunnels.
Plugs, eyelets, earlets, flesh tunnels, spools, gauges…whatever. Plugs are solid, eyelets, earlets, and flesh tunnels have a hole through the middle. Spools and gauges can be either way.
I’ve never heard of the distinction between eyelets and flesh tunnels that 1181 mentioned.
Educate yourself about stretched earlobes.
gross?
Only if by “gross,” you mean “awesome.”
Yeah, I’m not usually so judgemental. But when I look at those, I just think of the PAIN and wonder “why.” This from a woman with hidden “intimate” piercings. Go figure.
Actually, streching earlobes is painless if you do it right. It’s not like you take a huge plug and shove it in a standard piercing hole…or at least you shouldn’t. That’s how you tear your skin and get infections. If you do it slowly and correctly, using teflon tape, it doesn’t even feel uncomfortable.
Yeah, but still…
Just giving you a hard time.
Not so much. I stretched mine from 16 gauge (normal size) to about 1/2" over the course of 18 mos. A few years later I let em shrink back. Took over a year, and they are still a bit looser than average. They aren’t that gross.
But I’ll tell you what is- EAR SMEGMA! Yes, when your piercings are stretched that much, dead skin, conditioner, sweat, etc combine to make a nasty smelling whitish paste/cheesy crust on your tunnels, which should be cleaned off every so often with alcohol. Small gauge piercings can get this too, but on a much smaller scale.
Nummy.
“Every so often?” No wonder your ears got gross. I clean mine every day when I take a shower. Of course, mine are just 4g, so they wouldn’t get as much gunk in them anyway.
Yeah, I did about every other day. If I did it daily, they would get irritated and then things got much worse.
You are at 4g? Keep going! Soon you will be able to put a q-tip through the holes with ease! Once you are at 0g or 00g, you can put all sorts of things through eye glasses, carabeeners, small fingers, baby carrots, you name it! Fun party game. 
Too true. I’m at 0 gauge and stuffed a bunch of cut-down incense sticks into the hole in my flesh tunnel.