As many of my Twitter followers know, last year I decided to start stretching my ears to accept larger gauge jewelry. I did this for two reasons. The most obvious reason to many is the fabulous ethnic jewelry we tribal bellydancers love to indulge in. Large gauge hoops, wood and bone plugs, the works. I of course adored these aesthetics and wanted them for myself. But even before that I had considered stretching to accept simple tunnels for a reason not everyone would know about.My mother was a lover of chunky gold jewelry in the 80's. She was always wearing some large, heavy earrings of some ilk every day. And as the years wore on, it took its toll on her lobes. The hole continued to stretch, looking somewhat like a cheese-cutting wire slicing downward due to weight and gravity.
Finally, several years back, one of her earlobes split, and she had to get surgery to repair it. It was at that moment I started taking a closer look at stretching, because now I, too, wear some pretty heavy jewelry regularly (not every day, but frequently). My ears would often ache after performances from the weight of the jewelry, or even the simple act of wearing a slightly thicker wire than my regular fashion jewelry earrings. And finally, there was the mixed metals and materials these items were made from--some of which when worn in necklaces can cause dancers to suffer rashes or greening or blackening of the skin. I already have a mild silver reaction sometimes with earrings and nose rings, to boot. Putting these metals into the enclosed channel of my ear piercing was surely asking for continued issues down the road. So I was inspired to work toward wearing some smaller tunnels, to reinforce my lobes against the "cheese-cutter-syndrome", as I now call it, and to keep the mysterious metals from direct contact with my skin.
