Help with Ear Stretchers please

busiscoming2

Might be wrong place to post this, sorry.

My ds who is 14 took it upon himself to let his friend pierce his ear for him a few months ago. He was told if he had asked I would have taken him and that I was disappointed etc...

FF to a couple of weeks ago and I discovered he had changed his earring (his hair covers his ears so not easy to notice) to what I thought was a pink stud. Turned out to be a stretcher earring - told him not happy about it and to take it out, we discussed it and he said he was fascinated by the holes in ears!! but said he wouldn't go any bigger. The pink stud
didn't look much bigger than an earring so said that was acceptable.

Few days later and he has a green one in, upon closer inspection it is bigger, told him to remove it, which he did - temporarily as it was weeping.

He has told me that the holes close up if you take the earring out or reduce back to small enough for normal earrings. He has also said that he needs to wear the big one until it has healed and then he can put in smaller one to allow it to reduce again.

I have tried to google and find out more but thought I'd ask you nice people if what he is saying is true.

Do they shrink if left out?

Do they have to heal before they can be reduced? Instinct and common sense make me believe otherwise!

He doesn't seem to comprehend that this could in fact scar him for life, the earlobe with the earring already sticks our further than the other one. Nor the affect of his appearance on prospective employers when he is ready for work etc.

tiny_tear

I don't think jobs are necessarily a problem, depending what career he wants (i know someone fairly high up in a technology company with streched ears - not that I find it appealing)
I am just worried that he is 14 and that is a bit young to do things like that... shouldn't it be like tatoos and stuff where you have to be 16 or 18 to do it? not sure which...

newcook

I think these things look bleeding awful too! It seems to be a trend with Emo’s and grunge (which are also usually all under 25) and I don’t think they realize that when they get to 30 or 40 that they will look a bit sad with these ‘earrings’ still in – and look plain odd when they take them out and the hole doesn’t shrink!

gunsandbanjos

newcook wrote: »

I think these things look bleeding awful too! It seems to be a trend with Emo’s and grunge (which are also usually all under 25) and I don’t think they realize that when they get to 30 or 40 that they will look a bit sad with these ‘earrings’ still in – and look plain odd when they take them out and the hole doesn’t shrink!

Agree, they really freak me out!! I saw a guy with them the other day, holes had to be at least an inch:eek: I dont get it at all and its not like i'm ancient (29).

peachyprice

They have got to be the most hideous 'adornment' going, makes the wearer look like a complete troglodyte.

OP, I really hope your son sees sense, have you tried google images for what they look like on older people who have taken them out? That might put him off.


Edit:

here
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=removed+ear+stretchers&hl=en&biw=1257&bih=696&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=crPI1ycQhVAZJM:&imgrefurl=http://www.trials-forum.co.uk/topic/160964-ear-stretching/&docid=3DfnYQmN6Dnb4M&w=486&h=720&ei=UbmOTtL1CIyp8QPP--Ev&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=399&page=2&tbnh=147&tbnw=96&start=17&ndsp=17&ved=1t:429,r:5,s:17&tx=42&ty=73
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=removed+ear+stretchers&hl=en&biw=1257&bih=696&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=cH4UPFFIA9831M:&imgrefurl=http://thelondonlipgloss.blogspot.com/2011/02/how-to-maintain-and-stretch-flesh.html&docid=QrBKHsHuO63z7M&w=500&h=375&ei=UbmOTtL1CIyp8QPP--Ev&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=277&page=4&tbnh=137&tbnw=183&start=52&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:52&tx=125&ty=75
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=removed+ear+stretchers&hl=en&biw=1257&bih=696&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=meLeuGhjKNUG7M:&imgrefurl=http://exploreplasticsurgery.com/category/earlobe-reconstruction/&docid=3-Tbg7UC-5dL8M&w=2420&h=1870&ei=UbmOTtL1CIyp8QPP--Ev&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=393&vpy=166&dur=3367&hovh=197&hovw=255&tx=86&ty=111&page=13&tbnh=152&tbnw=179&start=214&ndsp=17&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:214

busiscoming2

peachyprice wrote: »

They have got to be the most hideous 'adornment' going, makes the wearer look like a complete troglodyte.

OP, I really hope your son sees sense, have you tried google images for what they look like on older people who have taken them out? That might put him off.


Edit:

here
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=removed+ear+stretchers&hl=en&biw=1257&bih=696&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=crPI1ycQhVAZJM:&imgrefurl=http://www.trials-forum.co.uk/topic/160964-ear-stretching/&docid=3DfnYQmN6Dnb4M&w=486&h=720&ei=UbmOTtL1CIyp8QPP--Ev&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=399&page=2&tbnh=147&tbnw=96&start=17&ndsp=17&ved=1t:429,r:5,s:17&tx=42&ty=73
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=removed+ear+stretchers&hl=en&biw=1257&bih=696&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=cH4UPFFIA9831M:&imgrefurl=http://thelondonlipgloss.blogspot.com/2011/02/how-to-maintain-and-stretch-flesh.html&docid=QrBKHsHuO63z7M&w=500&h=375&ei=UbmOTtL1CIyp8QPP--Ev&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=277&page=4&tbnh=137&tbnw=183&start=52&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:52&tx=125&ty=75
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=removed+ear+stretchers&hl=en&biw=1257&bih=696&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=meLeuGhjKNUG7M:&imgrefurl=http://exploreplasticsurgery.com/category/earlobe-reconstruction/&docid=3-Tbg7UC-5dL8M&w=2420&h=1870&ei=UbmOTtL1CIyp8QPP--Ev&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=393&vpy=166&dur=3367&hovh=197&hovw=255&tx=86&ty=111&page=13&tbnh=152&tbnw=179&start=214&ndsp=17&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:214

Oh god they look terrible, will show him but somehow I don't think it will make any difference!

Ravenlady_2

Mine were stretched to 10mm for a few months, they have returned to normal size with in a couple of weeks.
I think less than 12mm doesn't look too bad but when its stretched beyond that it looks pretty disgusting.

shelley_crow

My other half had both ears stretched when he was a teenager. One wasn't as big and closed up fine, the other one is not as good! I'll ask him when he gets home how big he stretched it but now it's tried to close up it looks puckered like a cat's bum (sorry tmi!)

I saw a tattooist at a tattoo convention and his ears were stretched so far you could get coke cans through them.

busiscoming2

Ravenlady wrote: »

Mine were stretched to 10mm for a few months, they have returned to normal size with in a couple of weeks.
I think less than 12mm doesn't look too bad but when its stretched beyond that it looks pretty disgusting.

Did you just leave your earrings out altogether or wear a smaller one while it reduced?

Ravenlady_2

busiscoming2 wrote: »

Did you just leave your earrings out altogether or wear a smaller one while it reduced?

I wore smaller plugs to disguise the hole, you can get fake plugs which have the inner bar the same width as a 1.6 stud with a bigger disc to look like a stretcher.

http://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ie=UTF-8&ion=1&nord=1#q=Fake+ear+stretchers&hl=en&nord=1&site=webhp&prmd=imvns&source=univ&tbm=shop&tbo=u&sa=X&ei=mb2OTtuOLdK48gPop50s&sqi=2&ved=0CFMQrQQ&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=d0242b745a79f026&ion=1&biw=1366&bih=667

These are what I use now

Lotus-eater

tiny_tear wrote: »

I don't think jobs are necessarily a problem, depending what career he wants (i know someone fairly high up in a technology company with streched ears - not that I find it appealing)
I am just worried that he is 14 and that is a bit young to do things like that... shouldn't it be like tatoos and stuff where you have to be 16 or 18 to do it? not sure which...

Lets be honest, the majority of blokes with stretched ears, we see pushing trollies down at the supermarket.

Not to mean that pushing trollies isn't a reasonable thing to be doing, as long as you are happy doing it and don't feel the need to do anything better.

It does sound like I'm dissing anyone who pushes trollies here, which I'm not doing.