My Own Story

Source: My photo, my ears

SUBMITTER COMMENT:  

What’s awful: I got these done when I was really young at Claire’s and they are horribly crooked. The left photo is fine, that’s how I wanted these piercings to turn out. The right photo just makes me want to cry. Both ears look completely different. It’s like the lady who pierced the second holes was blind or something… it’s so obvious how wonky they are. 

How it can be fixed: I talked to a professional piercer who said he could definitely make another hole between the first and second, where the original second was SUPPOSED to be. NEVER GET YOUR EARS DONE AT CLAIRE’S, OR ANY OTHER PLACE THAT USES A GUN AND DOESN’T TRAIN ITS STAFF. You could end up with depressingly lopsided ears like mine. :(

This photo is from my private Facebook page. SUBMITTER COMMENT: I hope you publish this: When I was 17, I got a tattoo in a basement with my brother. from a kid who dropped out of my highschool. WHY IT’S AWFUL: He used a nickel based ink that I had an allergic reaction to. Almost 3 years later, the ink from my tattoo leaks onto my clothes when my skin is wet, and it still itches. DON’T GET TATTOOS FROM UNLICENSED ARTISTS. You will regret it. I am now left with an asymmetrical, itchy, leaky tattoo. HOW IT CAN BE FIXED: Help!
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This photo is from my private Facebook page.

SUBMITTER COMMENT:
I hope you publish this: When I was 17, I got a tattoo in a basement with my brother. from a kid who dropped out of my highschool.

WHY IT’S AWFUL:
He used a nickel based ink that I had an allergic reaction to. Almost 3 years later, the ink from my tattoo leaks onto my clothes when my skin is wet, and it still itches. DON’T GET TATTOOS FROM UNLICENSED ARTISTS. You will regret it. I am now left with an asymmetrical, itchy, leaky tattoo.

HOW IT CAN BE FIXED:
Help!

Source: My ear

Submitter Comment: So I’ve been at 5/8” for about 8 months and thought my ears had dead stretched to 3/4” because my jewelry kept falling out and I could almost get my 3/4” plugs in. I was so excited, istead of just taping my existing plugs like a normal person, I put silicone in my lobes because I figured I was close enough already that it couldn’t hurt. Oh how wrong I was. At least, with my right ear anyway. My left lobe looked fine when I took the silicone out to shower.

What’s Awful: Stretching with silicone. Don’t do it, kids!

How It Can Be Fixed: Not using silicone, for starters. As you can see, I’m leaving my lobe naked and I’ve covered my ear in triple antibiotic ointment. When it’s not so raw and pissed off I’ll start doing sea salt soaks and when I’m able to wear jewelry in it again, I’ll be sure to take extra time and care in getting back to 3/4”


MODERATOR COMMENT:

Also DO NOT FORGET 17mm and 18mm!! It will ease your stretching process and help prevent this kind of thing from happening. :)

-Kat

Submitter’s comment: Posting my own ear. Was gonna post it to Awesome Mods but I thought it’d be more useful (and educational) to post here. My lobes are 19mm (3/4”). What’s awful: Nothing! (: I wanted to show off what a nice, healthy lobe *that has never, ever had a blow-out and was stretched over several years* is supposed to look like. Show your friends what it looks like when it’s done right! MOD COMMENT:I was really confused when i saw this submitted to awful mods because there is NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS LOBE/EAR. And I bet some of you are going “ERMAHGERD WRINKLES DEY DID EET WRONGZ”. No. Stop. The fistula (the skin that forms around your jewelry to encapsule it and create a healed hole) is the same color as the rest of her earlobe - that means it’s healthy and normal, not a catbutt or anything bad like that.  Just…though I’d get that out there before everyone… -Kat
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Submitter’s comment: Posting my own ear. Was gonna post it to Awesome Mods but I thought it’d be more useful (and educational) to post here. My lobes are 19mm (3/4”).

What’s awful: Nothing! (: I wanted to show off what a nice, healthy lobe *that has never, ever had a blow-out and was stretched over several years* is supposed to look like. Show your friends what it looks like when it’s done right!

MOD COMMENT:
I was really confused when i saw this submitted to awful mods because there is NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS LOBE/EAR. And I bet some of you are going “ERMAHGERD WRINKLES DEY DID EET WRONGZ”. No. Stop. The fistula (the skin that forms around your jewelry to encapsule it and create a healed hole) is the same color as the rest of her earlobe - that means it’s healthy and normal, not a catbutt or anything bad like that. 

Just…though I’d get that out there before everyone…

-Kat

Don’t buy plugs at Spencer’s Gifts

Recently I purchased 3 pairs of single-flared steel tunnels in 1 1/8” , 1 3/16” , and 1 1/4” from Spencer’s Gifts. I usually don’t but I just needed some steel tunnels. I’ll remind you that I spent a total of $75.00 (about) on these 3 pairs. When I got home I opened them so I could put them away in my jewelry drawer. I went to put in the 1 1/8” tunnels (which is the size I’m at) into my lobes but they didn’t fit. So then I continued to compare the size differences between the 3 tunnels. They were the SAME SIZE. All 3 of them were EXACTLY the SAME. $75.00 wasted on 3 pairs of the SAME sized plugs. So I’m pissed and I contacted Spencer’s Gifts and I’m hoping for a reply soon. Moral of the story, don’t buy any kind of body jewelry from stores like Spencer’s or Hot Topic.

Source: Me. 1. SUBMITTER COMMENT: So that little black thing on my wrist is a tattoo I gave myself when I was 12.. Ive always loved tattoos.. So i used a needle and PEN ink. I know. 2. WHAT IS WRONG: It was supposed to be a heart.. You can see how that worked. It was also super unsanitary and super awful all around.. 3. HOW TO FIX IT: Obviously get it covered up.. Because I’ve tried, and it does not come out.
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Source: Me.

1. SUBMITTER COMMENT: So that little black thing on my wrist is a tattoo I gave myself when I was 12.. Ive always loved tattoos.. So i used a needle and PEN ink. I know.

2. WHAT IS WRONG: It was supposed to be a heart.. You can see how that worked. It was also super unsanitary and super awful all around..

3. HOW TO FIX IT: Obviously get it covered up.. Because I’ve tried, and it does not come out.

SUBMITTER’S COMMENT: Well, this is my first tattoo. I was too impatient to wait for my brother to take me to a shop and ended up going to a scratcher.

WHAT’S AWFUL: They’re just bad. They’re uneven, at different angles, and different sizes. The shading is all stripe-y, too. It used to look even worse.

I was only a few months away from being legal to get a tattoo. I don’t know why but I was stupid and decided to go with my upstairs neighbor to a “friend” of hers. She said he was a “professional.” I trusted the wrong person. When we got there I wanted to back out but didn’t feel like I could. He didn’t wear gloves. He and the two other people there were smoking pot and cigarettes the whole time. He used an ink pen and deodorant to put the “stencil” on. I laid on a Bowflex in the back room of his parents’ house.

Surprise! I got MRSA. I caught it really early so I didn’t get too sick. I had a blister right in between the two wings. It was just a little bubble, maybe half a centimeter across, but was raised up and really painful. At first I thought maybe it was an ingrown hair or something, but then it started to feel like I had a bladder infection. It hurt to pee and my stomach ached. I actually had a teacher I showed it too who used to be a nurse and she convinced me to go to a doctor. I went to the ER and they wanted to lance it but it popped on it’s own before they could get to it. I got some antibiotics and had to keep it covered for a little while. I’m allergic to bandaids too, so yay, raw skin from a tattoo, MRSA blister, and welts from bandaid adhesive, all right there. I had a scar for up until maybe a year ago that looked like a square with a little dot in the middle from it.

Then about a year later, I had it sort of covered by a guy in a shop that my friends had been tattooed by. They’re tattoos came out fine. I’m not sure if he was out of his depth or what, but the way it looks in the pic is after he “fixed” it.

HOW IT CAN BE FIXED: When I have the money, I’ll go to a reputable artist and have it covered up. Until I know what I want it covered with and I have the money, I’ll just have to settle for having a crappy tattoo for a little while.

SUBMITTER’S COMMENT: So this is my ugly ass tattoo it’s not as bad as compared to my friends four tattoos she got done by this guy and they’re all in a row on her stomach, though, it’s still really bad.  I got it done at his apartment which is was like THE dumbest thing ever. I usually take great pride in the fact all my modifications and clean and done right. Except this one. It’s on my thigh. This was when I first got it done, it looks worst now and faded, I am also only 16. But I’ve always loved tattoos and everything but it kills me my parents hate them.  WHAT’S AWFUL: It’s badly done, apparently this was one of his “Better tattoos” the lines aren’t straight the shading is horrible the color faded to BLUE.  HOW IT CAN BE FIXED: Go get it fixed or covered at a shop when i’m 18!
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SUBMITTER’S COMMENT: So this is my ugly ass tattoo it’s not as bad as compared to my friends four tattoos she got done by this guy and they’re all in a row on her stomach, though, it’s still really bad.  I got it done at his apartment which is was like THE dumbest thing ever. I usually take great pride in the fact all my modifications and clean and done right. Except this one. It’s on my thigh. This was when I first got it done, it looks worst now and faded, I am also only 16. But I’ve always loved tattoos and everything but it kills me my parents hate them. 

WHAT’S AWFUL: It’s badly done, apparently this was one of his “Better tattoos” the lines aren’t straight the shading is horrible the color faded to BLUE. 

HOW IT CAN BE FIXED: Go get it fixed or covered at a shop when i’m 18!

SUBMITTER’S COMMENT: Be patient with your stretches. I recently got a MRSA infection in my earlobe. I was at 10mm at the time but my right ear was being stubborn with a double flared tunnel so I was a little rough with getting it in - as far as I know, shoving the tunnel in created a tiny tear on the inside that allowed the bacteria in. The first picture (top left) is when it started to bother me. Swollen, tender, and the entire area around the back of my ear was constantly red. The next picture (top right) was taken a few weeks later, when my lymph node started to swell - that’s the lump underneath the ear. The infection entered my bloodstream and made me very sick. I was convinced I was going to die. I was on the strongest antibiotics available but nothing was working. I was completely drained of all energy and my entire body was in pain. The third picture (bottom left) is a few nights before I went to the emergency room to get it taken out. My ear had completely swollen around the tunnel and it was completely stuck in my ear. I was in extreme pain at this point and I couldn’t go 5 minutes without having to clean pus/lymph/blood off my neck. I ended up in the ER with 6 needles in my face and neck to numb the area before a doctor and a surgeon wrenched it out with clamps. It was an absolutely horrific experience. The flesh inside my earlobe had begun to die at that point. The 4th picture (bottom middle) is my ear a few days after having the tunnel pulled out. You can see immediately that it is much less swollen. It wept for about a week afterwards but there was no way the infection would have healed if I hadn’t gotten the tunnel taken out. At this point it was no longer painful, just gross. The last picture is what it looks like tonight, a month later. Still a little messed up but far better than losing my earlobe entirely - or dying from septic shock, all because I was a little impatient. These pictures don’t come close to fully illustrating just how horrific and draining this whole experience was. Please stretch safely.
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SUBMITTER’S COMMENT:

Be patient with your stretches.

I recently got a MRSA infection in my earlobe. I was at 10mm at the time but my right ear was being stubborn with a double flared tunnel so I was a little rough with getting it in - as far as I know, shoving the tunnel in created a tiny tear on the inside that allowed the bacteria in.

The first picture (top left) is when it started to bother me. Swollen, tender, and the entire area around the back of my ear was constantly red. The next picture (top right) was taken a few weeks later, when my lymph node started to swell - that’s the lump underneath the ear. The infection entered my bloodstream and made me very sick. I was convinced I was going to die. I was on the strongest antibiotics available but nothing was working. I was completely drained of all energy and my entire body was in pain.

The third picture (bottom left) is a few nights before I went to the emergency room to get it taken out. My ear had completely swollen around the tunnel and it was completely stuck in my ear. I was in extreme pain at this point and I couldn’t go 5 minutes without having to clean pus/lymph/blood off my neck. I ended up in the ER with 6 needles in my face and neck to numb the area before a doctor and a surgeon wrenched it out with clamps. It was an absolutely horrific experience. The flesh inside my earlobe had begun to die at that point.

The 4th picture (bottom middle) is my ear a few days after having the tunnel pulled out. You can see immediately that it is much less swollen. It wept for about a week afterwards but there was no way the infection would have healed if I hadn’t gotten the tunnel taken out. At this point it was no longer painful, just gross. The last picture is what it looks like tonight, a month later. Still a little messed up but far better than losing my earlobe entirely - or dying from septic shock, all because I was a little impatient.

These pictures don’t come close to fully illustrating just how horrific and draining this whole experience was. Please stretch safely.