Intro/Advice?

[Ramenzombie]

Hey everyone. I know this bit would belong in the intro section, but I'd been looking for a community for stretching and figured I'd sign up. I'll try and help out advice seekers and contribute the best I can.

To move on, my stretching history:
All tapers used so far were from a 14g-0g acrylic double set. Stretched my left safely from a 16g to 6g over a period of about half a year with no problems. It had been about 2 months with my 6g in and I attempted to move up to a 4g. The taper didn't have much of problem going in and a minimal amount of pain, but seemed to be my hardest stretch. Two days after inserting the 4g, I removed it to clean it as it wasn't sore or terribly bothering me to see a red, inflamed, bleeding, and leaking ear. I took about 3 weeks to downsize to a stainless steel 10g and work my way up to the 4. The whole process added to the scarring from the gun piercing, giving me a pretty bad case of catbutt and a scarred looking fistula. While my left was healing, my right was pierced for later stretching.

After two months of being at a 4g, a few days ago, I attempted to size up to a 2g. I lubed up the taper, gave my ear a hot compress, and tested the waters to see if I could fit it in reasonably. It was a bit tight, and definitely made a stretch, but appeared to have went just fine. I find it odd that I don't have any afterstretch pain or swelling (I can tug and twist it without any discomfort or redness) even directly after the stretch, but when I remove the taper, the edge of my fistula feels a bit swolen and thick and the flesh of it a bit red.

Did the scarring from my last incident change the stretching process of my lobe? And what would you recommend to reduce the scar tissue from my 4g stretch?

Thanks everyone, glad to be here.

[caadam]

Hello there!

After reading your stretching experience, I'm not sure if scarring would cause sensitivity like that to the fistula... scarring causes difficulty in stretching, but it sounds like your skin is just reacting to something. *shrugs*

It sounds similar to an allergy, even, but maybe you just have sensitive skin? Like, my ears are super sensitive to nickel, and I experience the same things: my ears will look fine, but my fistulas will be red, swollen, and tender from certain materials.

Maybe you can tell me what kind of plugs you're using! That could certainly help me to understand more clearly what's going on.

And as far as reducing scar tissue, which you might also have from a past stretch, you can invest in some oil. Usually vitamin E or emu oil is awesome for breaking down scar tissue. It's just a matter of making sure you put in a few minutes of massaging. The massaging is what works in the oil so it can make everything soft and elastic again.

[Ramenzombie]

I've been wearing the acrylic tapers, but I haven't had any problem with them as far as the material goes. Even now, my ears aren't bothering me much, aren't irritated and such, but the process of inserting a fairly large taper with just a bit of pain then none at all with an odd feeling fistula just leads me to believe I may have messed something up with my lobe earlier down the line.

And what brand of oil would you recommend?

[WeAreWormwood]

I'll say what everyone else will also be thinking.
DON'T WEAR TAPERS AS JEWELLERY
DON'T WEAR ACRYLIC IN FRESH STRETCHES

It's that simple. That'd account for the irritation. Get some stainless steel plugs and put them in.