4 = THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TRENDS
THURSDAY,APRIL3,2003
Stretching quickly gains popularity
By Marissa Stephenson
mstephenson@kansan.com
Javplay staff writer
Stretching is attractive to students despite some of the risks involved. Elijah Moore, Dodge City senior, says the question he gets asked the most about his spacer is whether it hurts. He got the piercing more than a year ago and said he hadn't had problems with it.
Plugs, gauges, talons, eyelids, spools barrels, spacers all of these terms are used to describe the jewelry in a stretched piercing.
The popularity of stretching is growing, and more and more often on campus and in cities across the country, you can find people stretching out their piercings to accommodate a variety of plastic, metal and alabaster jewelry.
Mary Brennan, professional piercer at Freaks on Broadway, 4037 Broadway Kansas City, Mo., said stretching originated in ancient tribes in New Zealand Australia and Africa.
"It started around the same time period and for the same reason — it was a way to show rank within the tribe," Brennan said. "The higher your rank, the larger the hole, or gauge, in your ear."
Brennan said she thought the popularity of stretching came to North America through the spirituality of Hinduism.
"It was picked up through Hinduism, which holds the idea of bringing your body to a higher level by altering it," Brennan said.
Brennan said the popularity of stretching had grown in the past five years, bringing it from the underground to the mainstream.
"It's very hard to keep certain sizes in," Brennan said. "It seems like everyone started about the same time, because we're always running out of the same gauge sizes at the same time."
Elijah Moore, Dodge City senior, said gauge sizes could range from a 10 gauge all the way to a 000. The smaller the number size, the bigger the gauge, or hole, in your ear.
"Once you get past a 000, it goes into diameter sizes, 1/2-inch or a 1-inch gauge for example," Moore said.
Moore's ears are at a 1/2-inch gauge right now, a size he said took him five to six months to get to.
"You have to start out small, usually with a 10 gauge, then gradually taper your ears to the size you want," Moore said.
He said a general rule was to wait three weeks to a month before one tried to increase the size so the skin had plenty of time to harden and heal.
Brennan said stretching involved taking a taper (in the shape of a cone), which slides through the hole of the piercing to stretch it open, then the jewelry slides in after. The jewelry comes in a vast variety.
Brennan said the current popular item was eyelids hollow metal rings.
"With the eyelids, you can see right through the person's ear," Brennan said. "People like to wear them because it's easier to tell what size they're up to."
Brennan and Moore both caution against stretching a piercing too fast. Trying to jump over sizes to get to a higher gauge can be painful and dangerous.
"If you try to jump sizes you can blow out your ear, roll the skin out, create scar tissue and cause bleeding," Moore said. "As long as you taper correctly, it really doesn't hurt at all."
"I thought I was going to a professional piercing parlor — they tried to take me from a 0 to a 1/2 inch, which is jumping about six sizes. It completely tore my ears," Lawson said.
Joy Lawson, Olathe sophomore, knows the pain of jumping sizes.
Lawson wears 3/8-inch plugs, solid pieces in the ear and says she has a different reason for wearing them.
"Lots of people wear them because they think they look cool. I wear them because I saw them used in religious rituals, and I'm a religion major," she said. "It seems to be a
predominately guy thing to do, probably because it isn't deemed attractive on girls, but I also think it's a way to show you're part of an alternative counter-culture."
Lawson said she frequently received comments on her ears, along with her 16 other piercings.
"I have a lot of piercings, so I think that draws more attention to my plugs," she said. "People always ask if it hurts or to see the hole, or they'll ask if I punched out the hole myself."
With all her piercings, Lawson said it took her around 21/2 hours a week of cleaning maintenance.
"I don't have to worry about my earplugs as much as other parts I have pierced," Lawson said. "I know I need to clean them if they start smelling like dirty belly buttons."
Moore said he thought the smell was probably the worst side effect of having plugs.
"Anytime you have a foreign object in your body, you're going to get a reaction," he said. "With this it happens to be a creamy, gross, pimple-like juice that smells like ass. You just have to make sure to keep them clean and you'll avoid."
Moore suggested cleaning with soap and warm water.
Brennan said that ears weren't the only body part that could be stretched to fit gauge sizes. Tongues, nostrils, nipples and cartilage also can be stretched for body jewelry.
"Basically anything that you can pierce, you can stretch and increase the gauge," Brennan said.
Darren Welch, Tonganoxie sophomore, said he would avoid going past a six gauge.
"IIf go to law school, I'll have to take out all of my piercings," Welch said. "And I don't want to worry about a hole that could be permanent."
Brennan said if one didn't want the holes anymore, it was best to size back down in the same steps one took to size up.
"The safest way is to gradually go backwards in size," Brennan said.
Lawson said she planed on staying at her current gauge.
"I got up to a 1/2 inch, and they were huge. My ears sagged," Lawson said. "I wanted to go back down in respect for my parents and my future job."
them clean, and you'll avoid the car fume $^{29}$ [Authorized by Julie Jantzer]