hmm , i think i saw a person with something like 1/2" stretched ears back when i was 13, around that age it mustve been . and i was like so fascinated that there was an actual hole in that dudes ear, at first i tought they just scalped the lobe away so i was like, absurdly fascinated, but nevermind, dont want to do that to my ear. then i kind of got with other friends as my music taste changed and well, they too had these ears with holes in, yadda yadda they explained how to, it was love at first sight when i went to a piercing store and saw all those shiny plugs, tunnels, crescent's, spirals, so i bought my first spiral, i think it was something like 18 to 10 gauge, i did everything as slow as possible, went from 10 to 4G after like 2 months, then i set my goal for a 0 gauge, to end there, had my 0 for about 5 months untill i had a really good feeling to go further, went from 0 to 1/2 quite fast, made some scar tissue, was a spiral again and i couldnt afford to get a 0 to 000 , but after it healed i just didnt do anything untill i stumbled onto this board, with buckets of information, went to a gig, saw a person with 1" gauges, fell in love, looked like an ideal size, not to big not to small , so here i am now really healthy lobes one at 9/16 the other one still at 1/2" all the materials to get to 1" next to me, and im really stoked to get to my final goal size