Is this a blow out?

[yahNickel]

Hey there! I have been stretching my ears since february and I recently taped from a two guage to a zero guage. My right ear was fine, but my left ear looked like it might have blown out but I am not sure. It looks like in the front of the hole there is a blister like thing? So I immediately put my two guage in and did an epsom salt soak. Did I do the right thing?

Help please!

[yahNickel]

And I forgot to mention! I put these plugs in on saturday and what i think was a blow out happened today. Everywhere I read said that they only happen within the first 48 hours...

[StrickyCub]

So you're saying it looks like a blister on the front of your ear? Doesn't sound like a blowout to me, although if you could get a pic up that would help.
Normally a blowout looks like a bump/flap or ring of raised skin around the stretched hole, and if it's taken this long for it to develop I'm thinking it could be the jewellery you're using is having a reaction to your skin. What kind of material is your jewellery? Metal/silicone/organic/acrylic etc?

Like I said though it's hard to be positive without some piccies

~Zack

[yahNickel]

I will get a pic up soon! I am using acrylic jewellery... But I have never had a reaction before... The only time I had a bad reaction was when I was using wooden jewellery to stretch. I learned quickly that was a bad idea!

[Hardware]

There could be assorted reasons why your ear acted that way. It's not bad that you took the jewelry down if you felt like it was the safe thing to do (best to be safe).
You defiantly did the right thing with the sea salt soaks. I would keep up with it until the blister type thing you described goes away. After that I would recommend Vitamin E oil massages for your earlobes.

[yahNickel]

THank you for your help! I will do all of this religiously!

[Hardware]

Just remember not to overdo the sea salt soaks, twice a day for 5 minutes should be fine

[corazon_de_oro]

I'm not sure if epsom salt is okay to use for piercings but you might want to try soaking with pure sea salt instead. 1/8-1/4 teaspoon of it per 1 cup of water. Not saying what you're doing is wrong, just that I've never heard of epsom salt being used for a piercing and sea salt is what I've always used and trusted.

Anyway, have you ever heard of 1G? 2G to 0G is a 2mm jump (stretches should only be 1mm, especially at that small of a size) and it's usually too much for most people. 1G is 7mm and makes it a LOT easier. I'm at that size right now and it was my easiest stretch yet. I got my 7mm jewelry at bodyjewelleryshop.com for only about $7; it's acrylic which usually isn't recommended to stretch with but I haven't had any problems yet and I have some glass plugs coming in the mail.

[yahNickel]

I have heard about 1G But I cant afford to get jewellery for every size... What I ended up doing was using teflon tape and taping up to the next guage!

I have an update... So it is a blow out. I went to my local piercing place and asked the guy and he gave me the crappy news. He told me to take out all jewelry and start all over which I am going to do. He also told me to use Hydrocortisone cream on it to heal the blow out otherwise the blowout could become permanent without surgery! So that's what I am doing!

Does anyone have any other good tips for me? I am pretty bummed... I worked really slowly to guage up and I was almost at the guage I wanted to stay at! Such a bummer.

[StrickyCub]

You shouldn't have to take out the jewellery completely to heal the blow out, Just downsize 1 or 2 sizes to take the pressure off it.

Also I haven't ever heard of using Hydrocortisone cream to heal blowouts, that's the stuff I use on my eczema to stop the itching o_o

~Zack