New Stretching.

[littlestar*]

Hey, I had my right ear stretched up to 6mm for the first time last thursday. Right now i'm slightly worried about it, its itchy and swollen, however isn't sore to touch or to sleep on. any help?

[corazon_de_oro]

How long were you at 5mm? You may have stretched too fast and it might be a good idea to downsize for 6 weeks or so. However, I stretch extremely slowly and I've had itchy lobes before. It's usually because of cold weather drying out my skin, or sometimes if I do an oil massage after a shower I'll get conditioner or something in them and it'll irritate them. But if they're swollen I'd recommend downsizing to take the pressure off.

[littlestar*]

Hey, I've never had it stretched before, this is the first time, a tattoist did it for me.

[StrickyCub]

Your tattooist is a moron. You do not stretch from a regular piercing straight to 6mm. Ever.
Take it out and put your regular jewellery in. If you want to stretch your ears you're going to have to start from scratch.
This chart illustrates from top to bottom the order you go in when stretching
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=102

No offence, but you'll be lucky if you ears aren't ruined after that. You need to do research before just going into a store and letting someone stretch your ears for you, who most probably doesn't know what they're doing in the first place.

~Zack

[corazon_de_oro]

Please tell me you didn't start from a standard size. If you did... wow.... that's skipping like 7 sizes. To be honest, a lot of piercers don't know anything about stretching. And a lot of tattooists who try to pierce don't even know much about piercings. You really, really need to downsize drastically before you run into some real problems. Sea salt soaks will help your ears heal.

[StrickyCub]

And a lot of tattooists who try to pierce don't even know much about piercings. .

QFT
tattooist =/= piercer
and even then, a lot of piercers know jack shit about stretching as well.

~Zack

[corazon_de_oro]

Yep. A lot of tattoo artists decide to pierce just to make extra money. They don't give a crap about it and see piercing as inferior. They want piercings to be done in their shop because it will attract more customers (who might end up asking for a tattoo as well) but they won't hire full-time piercers because they want to SAVE the extra money they're making. Some studios just see piercing as a side job, and that's where a lot of badly-done piercings come from.

Sorry for the rant, haha. I apologize if your tattoo artist isn't like this.

[magalo le matelot]

The damage is done anyway even if he/she downsize...

[StrickyCub]

Exactly. Which is why I told them to put regular jewelery in (18g). Not downsize.
They're probably going to have to get re-pierced in another spot. Either that or I guess they'll have to always deal with all the scar tissue they're going to develop if they leave the 6mm in, which is going to make it incredibly hard for them if they ever want to up-size.

[corazon_de_oro]

Going back to 18G would still be downsizing...

Anyway, the damage is not "done" at all; it's probably only just beginning. When you stretch your ears, you're not automatically in the clear because your lobe didn't rip in half when you skipped a ton of sizes. Skipping that many sizes means the lobe is under a tremendous amount of pressure, which is how blowouts happen. This doesn't have to happen right when you stretch, it can happen a few days later or even a few weeks later depending on how fast you stretched and what jewelry you're wearing.
Also, damage can be corrected. People who have a history of stretching horribly can correct problems and go on to have healthy-looking lobes. That's where downsizing, sea salt soaks, and oil massages come in. If you just say "Oh, the damage is done, I'll just leave it at this size" you may face a huge amount of scar tissue which will make stretching very, very difficult or you may end up with a blowout. On the other hand, if you go ahead and downsize drastically, give your ears time to heal, and massage them, you may end up stopping the scar tissue from happening and you eliminate the possibility of a blowout.