brendyn

the lowest urban x will pierce is a 12 gauge..... i got both ears done and it took about 3 months and i was up to a double 0 lol

head1st4haloz

urban x

calgone47

?

MAD_DOHC

Queers

LifeMage

called cutter pluggs (sp?) from what i have been told and heard.

dispute

I got ine up to 00 then i started to wrap tape around the plug about one or two layers every other day or so until I got to 5/8". I think thats prolly the best way to do it if your gunna go big, obviously it wont work on small guages cause you cant wrap tape on them.
Another method is to take somewhat thick fishing line and cut it into 1"-2" pieces and put as many ans you can fit in your ear and gradually add more, and im pretty sure you want to take them out often to wash them.
Mine have been out for 2 years now and im thinking of redoing them, this time will be easyier cause i can start at 2g.

claudipop

i'm up to 1/2" and i must say, though a lot of you have pretty good advice.. the only way to know how long you should wait is to listen to your body. personally, i waited at least 3 months in between sizes. when you stretch your hole, you shouldn't draw any blood.. nor should you feel any pinching or burning or pain of any kind. don't use sea salt to clean with (as most shops recommend), because it dries the piercing out too much. i apprenticed in a piercing shop for 6+ months, and we told our customers to use saline/antiseptic wound wash, as it's better for healing and easier to use.

also, don't ever use tapers.. they rip tissue inside the lobe where you can't see, and thus creates scar tissue. scar tissue = tougher tissue = extremely limiting on how far you can stretch. it's taken me 3 years to get to half inch. 2g is the point of no return for most people, which basically means that it won't close up completely once you take it out. because i took so long in stretching, i can leave my plugs out overnight for sleeping and they slip right back in during the day. also, i have barely any scar tissue built up, and stretching is ridiculously easy for me. stay away from acrylic jewelry, as acrylic contains toxins that slowly bleed out into your lobes over time and cause the skin to be more susceptible to infection and necrosis.

www.bodyartforms.com is great for high quality jewelry at affordable prices
www.bmeshop.com is where a lot of professional shops will buy their plugs from

do not ever use hot topic jewelry. i worked there as well, and they buy mass amounts of low quality jewelry super cheap from manufacturers who can't size their jewelry properly.

also, don't get your ears pierced in the mall or any shop that uses a piercing gun. piercing guns, in essence, are staplers. the 'piercer' (who isn't professionally licensed or certified, just a run of the mill retail employee) will insert the earring and earring backing into the gun. they then slide the brackets over your ear, pull the trigger, and voila!.. the earring is stapled into your ear. it shatters the tissue, introduces bacteria into the fresh wound and creates more scar tissue than a stab wound (relatively speaking). piercing needles, as found in shops, are so finely sharpened that they actually slide between skin cells, thus not shattering the tissue but neatly slicing a hole in the skin so that the jewelry can sit cleanly inside without the tissue immediately trying to reject it.

i recommend starting at a 10 if you can, as it's small enough you can wear a plug and still look like an earring.. and it'll definitely help in the stretching process.

i'm sorry this was so long, but i used to have to clean and restretch kid's lobes when they messed up stretching themselves and it gets really ugly if you don't do it correctly. good luck and enjoy your new mods

Real Random

eeeeewwwwwwww!

ls/vtecstitch

i can do it if you want. pm me.

calgone47

Awesome advice, thanks man! Where would you suggest I go to get it done? The one place I've called (Urban Xchange) won't start me any lower that a 16, which seems a little like a scam in my opinion.