SUBMITTER’S COMMENT: Saw this scrolling though the “plugs” tag on tumblr. They also had other tags such as “stretching”.
WHAT’S AWFUL: They stretched their ears with silicone, it’s obviously very angry and inflamed. The caption said it had been like this for 6 HOURS!
HOW IT CAN BE FIXED: Take it out! Never stretch with silicone at all!!!
This is my own story about how stumbling across your page saved me from my own ignorance. I was stretching at the time and by stretching, I mean shoving acrylic tapers in my ears that were two sizes too big. Eventually the inevitable happened; one of my ears got a nasty blowout. I quickly took them out and looked online for modification sites for help. I stumbled across Awful Mods and read through easily 20 pages of submissions. I have three self pierced holes and four done with a gun, which I was completely unaware was bad. I signed all of the anti gun petitions and vowed never to use them again. I went and got my daith pierced in a very reputable shop as well as my navel and stretched back up safely, following directions you guys have posted as closely as possible. I also got a tattoo for my 15th birthday (legal in my state with parental consent) at the same reputable shop that I go to for my piercings. I try to educate my friends on what not to do and discourage their self piercing attempts. My friend recently offered to “make me some gauges” out of polymer clay, which I declined and warned her not to use. I credit this blog alone with most of my modification interest and knowledge. Thank you guys and keep up the amazing work!
I just want to second the other post about not buying Hot Topic body jewelry…I bought some “6g” pinchers and couldn’t get them in my ear; they were too big. I’d been stretched to 6g for months, so there shouldn’t have been a problem, unless of course they mislabeled their body jewelry. I tried to return/exchange them and they refused to take them back even though it was their fault for selling me “6g” pinchers that were actually larger than that!
So forgive me for not doing this in “ask” form, but I apparently can’t submit a question without first joining tumblr, and I’m not doing that just to ask one question to one blog.
Anyway, I’m the one who uploaded the picture of that lobe that I *THINK* belongs to an APP piercer (I am literally not able to confirm whether he is or not, however). Blowouts are bad. Blowouts are ALWAYS bad. You guys and all your followers always agree that blowouts are bad, icky, wrong, etc.
…until the lobes *MIGHT* belong to a professional?
Why is everyone acting like it’s okay all of a sudden? Normal, healthy stretched ears DON’T look like that…ever. It’s NOT okay, no matter who they belong to. And no, it’s not an “old injury.” That photo is less than two years old, and in all his newer photos (of his ears), his lobes look pissed and thin. I’d love to say that he downsized and corrected the issue, but in his current facebook profile picture (taken in september 2012), one of his ears is shown and it’s still blow-out city.
And in response to the comments directed at me…
1. I am 21 with 3/4” lobes, but I don’t think my age or the size of my ears should have anything to do with what’s wrong or right. 2. If most peoples’ ears that you know look like those, you should educate them. 3. If your lobes “naturally” started to look like that “once you got over a certain size,” then how come the man who has 5” lobes (I can’t recall his name, I know at least one of the moderators does though) doesn’t have blowouts? 4. Sorry for my incorrect use of the word “certified.” It was like 5 a.m. when I found and posted that. Whoops.
But yeah, can you /please/ tell your followers that a bad mod is not okay when it’s on a certain person (seriously, go read about Kate Moss’ million dollar tattoo of tiny, shitty sparrows)? Those comments are only going to perpetuate to others that blowouts are okay. :(
MODERATOR COMMENT:
Holy shit. wow. I didn’t see the notes on it because usually I don’t check the notes of our posts unless i get bored. But wow. What you’re saying is fucking spot on. And you’re talking about Bear Big Ears/Daryl “Bear” Belmares.
And there’s also Efix Roy:
And Mateo Way
Do their ears look like that? No. No they do not.
-Kat
Source: facebook. Cropped out as much as possible to conceal his identity.
This blow-out (and the matching one in his other ear) belong to someone I’m pretty sure is an APP-certified piercer. The fact that he’s a professional and puts pics showing these monsters on Facebook, is just scary to me…I’m sure he’s a great piercer, but I still don’t think I’d get pierced by a guy with blowouts you could land planes on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kuvhFDm_J3E
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MODERATOR’S COMMENT:
You didn’t follow the submission rules, but I don’t even care.
We needed this video on our blog.
- Hayley
This took place while I was staying with my back-then boyfriend in Adelaide, Australia. I lived in a suburb (I don’t recall seeing ANYONE with tattoos; those that were considered “alternative” were merely teens with too much black make-up), and the only place to get piercings were the jewelry store in a mall an hour away.
Back then I did not research nor know about how bad piercing guns are.
I decided to get the top part of my ear cartilage pierced, and didn’t think twice when I saw the shop used piercing guns.
So, I got the piercing, and loads of swelling and pain followed. The absolute worst part was the healing process, as my skin wanted to heal OVER the piercing. I had a little bubble of skin filled with blood sitting atop the piercing, and nothing helped. Needless to say, the jewelry “piercer” didn’t provide any tips to aftercare apart from “don’t sleep on it, don’t let your hair rub on it.”
The stud I had in didn’t even allow for swelling because the lock on the back was tight, and the staff very short.
Eventually I got so scared that it’d have to be surgically removed (I was there on a tourist visa; no health insurance) that I had to take it out.
At some point I went back to get the other ear done too, but the exact same thing happened.
My ears did heal perfectly once the jewelry was removed - but I want to help spread the word; IF you are getting pierced anywhere… say NO to guns!
SOURCE: Myself
SUBMITTER’S COMMENT: This was my first cartilage piercing done with a needle. I got this piercing done at Steady Tattoo in Minneapolis over a year ago. The piercer asked me what kind of jewelry I wanted for the hole—in which I believe he shouldn’t had asked me. He should have told me that I should get the straight barbell for my new piercing. I went ahead with the hoop ring. My pierced cartilage was fine until around three months later. I developed the bump in the picture. I thought it was normal since the previous piercing I got, developed a small bump but it went away on its own. It has been over a year and the bump is still there. Sometimes it hurts, others it doesn’t. I still get clear discharge that dries into crusties. I’ve notice that sometimes the bump gets smaller. I’ve been trying to find good, reputable piercing shops in Puerto Rico to advice me on the piercing, but it’s really hard. I don’t know what else to do aside from the saline soaks.
WHAT’S AWFUL: Getting a hoop ring for a cartilage piercing.
HOW CAN IT BE FIXED: Maybe replace my hoop ring with a straight barbell, unless it’s pointless. Keep doing saline soaks and hope for the best.
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MODERATOR’S COMMENT:
Seriously, take your own advice and try a straight barbell. :)
Source: myself
Submitter’s Comment: First of all, sorry if my English isn’t good, I’m not a native speaker.
I got my industrial done in October, 2012. I went to a “reputable” piercing studio near my house to get it done. I was told that the barbell was “high quality stainless steel”, the first week was healing normally, like a normal piercing, after the first week it started to get very swollen and itchy, “It may be healing” I thought, but every day my ear became more swollen and the itchiness didn’t let me sleep, until one morning I woke up and find my ear was like twice the size swollen, and EXTREMELY itchy (like in the photo).
Until I decided to go to the doctor and find out that the stainless steel barbell I was pierced was what caused the allergy. The doctor prescribed me some antibiotics to avoid infection, some pills to prevent the allergy to spread through my whole ear and a cream, so the itchiness could disappear. Nowadays, I have a nice and healthy ear again, but I still can feel the scars where my industrial used to be.
What’s Awful: I was pierced with a low quality “jewelry” which caused me the allergy.
How it can be fixed: Get pierced with jewelry that the piercing studio knows what material is made of, not materials made of God knows what.
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MODERATOR COMMENT:
1. your english is better than quite a lot of native speakers.
2. Note to all: Stainless Steel is pretty much never “high quality” unless it’s Anatometal or Industrial strength. (Iirc, Neometal and BVLA don’t work with steel at all.) If you’re getting pierced with steel and don’t know if it’s Anatometal or IS, ask for titanium jewelry. I know outside the US Anato and IS are hard to come by in quite a lot of places, so asking for Ti is your next best bet.
-Kat
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I’m gonna add that not all titanium is created equally, it has different grades just like steel… Even “bad” jewelry companies work in titanium. There are also more companies than just Anatometal & Industrial Strength that deal in high-quality steel jewelry. There’s more to jewelry than just the metal, you want something that is made properly with a good surface finish that isn’t covered in tool marks. Your best bet is to just go to a GOOD shop that uses good jewelry, that knows the grade of the metal they’re using. You can always ask them to special-order from a better company or order it yourself from a site like BAF. You can find more information about metal quality and what to ask for on the APP’s website under their minimum standards for jewelry. Basically, for steel you want to hear “F138” and for titanium you want to hear “F136.” Neither metal is just flat-out better than the other, it all depends on the quality of the piece.
- Hayley
i desperately want to learn how to and start piercing people, although its not suggest i have pierced myself a couple of times and none have rejected nor gotten infected due to careful cleaning and proper “technique” or what little i have. where should i start looking? does one have to be a certain age before being allowed to pierce people? and last of all where could i find synthetic skin to practice on without the consequences of screwing up somebodies body?
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MODERATOR’S COMMENT:
If you really want to become a professional piercer, stop what you’re doing.
Don’t pierce yourself. Don’t pierce your friends. Don’t pierce “synthetic skin.”
Piercing is about so much more than just being able to stick a needle through something. Find yourself a good apprenticeship under a good (I cannot stress this enough, don’t just jump at the first opportunity you get) piercer, and they will get you started on the right path. It’s not necessarily an “easy” industry to get into, since everyone and their mother wants to be a piercer.
In the meantime, all I can suggest is doing some research. Find all the information you can, and read it three times. Use your internet resources! Comb through BME, blog posts by industry professionals, back issues of The Point. I know reading and learning is ~boring~, but if you’re looking for an exciting action-packed glamor job, you’re checking out the wrong industry.
DISCLAIMER: In case someone somehow reads my post wrong, I would like to point out that DOING THE RESEARCH I SUGGESTED DOES NOT MAKE YOU A PIERCER. IT DOESN’T EVEN NECESSARILY MAKE YOU QUALIFIED TO DISH OUT YOUR OWN PIERCING ADVICE. LEAVE IT TO THE PROFESSIONALS.
- Hayley
