Why is ear gauging popular

Perhaps in another years it will be a nonissue. No matter for what reasons people decide to stretch their ears, one thing is for sure. The art's popularity is growing. The tribe is expanding around the world and immensely diverse individuals are finding common ground through the art of ear stretching.

I am taking a survey to hear your story. Please comment below and tell me your story of why you stretch your ears. Simone October 23, I first stretched my lobes about 12 years ago.

I had just left my husband and I was prime to reinvent myself. I became a little fixated on Adam Lambert, he had stretchers about 8mm and I thought that would do me. I continued up to 14mm while at University; I got an infection at 14mm so stopped stretching and then took them out when I started working in my new profession.

My second job was rife with alternative types so I put plugs back in and went up to 16mm. BusyLizzy October 23, I started stretching my ears 7 years ago and now at 12mm. I was at 0g for a few years before going to 00g last year. O0g was to be my final size, but my right ear became loose and recently easily inserted 12mm plug.

So what is it about plugs and ear stretching that has had such a historical presence pre-civilization as well as today? Piercing and body modification was most commonly used as a right of passage among ancient tribes and civilisations, spanning across continents.

If you know of the famous heads on the Easter Islands, all of them have stretched ears. And he was not the only one to do it — similar practices were found in civilisations that lived in every corner of the world. A clear sign that ancient Egyptians stretched their ears as we mention above was King Tutankhamun himself. Stretched to around 10mm 00g it was such a part of who he was it was depicted on his golden death mask.

Pottery, wall paintings, and sculptures on display, as well as statues from the predynastic period show modified earlobes. This shows that everyday Egyptians wore ear jewellery and modified their ears at a young age, and often removed or discarded them once they reached adulthood.

Eastern deities were and still are depicted with stretched ears. The most famous example is Gautama Buddha, who lived in BC, and had stretched ears from wearing heavy jewelry as a status symbol of his wealth. As he went onto his journey to enlightenment, he stopped wearing heavy jewelry, but his ears remained permanently stretched. Each depiction of his is therefore shown as him having elongated earlobes but without any jewelry at all. The Dayak people who live in Borneo historically focused on ear length instead of diameter, with solid brass ear ornaments being a sign of power and prestige.

They had some of the heaviest jewelry pieces of all, with a pair of ear weights weighing up to one pound! It was considered more feminine to have longer stretches in their culture so women would usually stretch their ears to the shoulder or beyond whilst men would stick to the shorter stretches.

While the Dayak people are still around today, the practice of elongating their earlobes to this extent has been stopped. Ear stretching was also featured prominently in one of the most sophisticated civilisations of old.

Dating back to 3, years BC the Mayans used ceramic, gold, jade, and alabaster to stretch their earlobes with the jewelry of choice being ear flares and ear spools. They held the belief that stretched earlobes helped invite spirits into the body. At the same time, the material of ear spools and flares indicated their status in society.

Statistics are not easy to come by but, as with tattoos, there is extensive anecdotal evidence that ear stretching is on the rise. More people are wearing them, DIY kits are more widely available and there is a much greater choice of jewellery. Marcus Mellor, from the Holier than Thou piercing parlour in Manchester, says ear stretching has become more popular in the last five or six years.

Practising what he pierces, Mellor has stretched both his ears. He says it used to be associated with hippies, punks or the rock crowd but now it is "all walks of life and not just students".

It can be discreet and people can hide it behind their hair in work. Ear stretching is in vogue, says Alix Fox, who writes the body modification section in the British alternative magazine Bizarre. Prof Victoria Pitts-Taylor, from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, says ear stretching has become popularised in the same way as other sub-cultural practices, such as tattooing and piercing.

The sociologist, who wrote In the Flesh: the Cultural Politics of Body Modification, says it started in the s and s with the rise of the body art movement and the "modern primitives", who appropriated practices from the "global supermarket" for various reasons such as showing solidarity with other cultures or to set themselves apart. Ear stretching has became more mainstream in the last decade and different people have become attracted to it because they see it on the catwalks and celebrities.

Hard-core modifiers have to up the ante to defy the commercialisation of the practice, Prof Pitts-Taylor suggests. The more you stretch the skin, the more commitment you are expressing to a counter cultural look. I'm glad I got them closed, they look a lot better," Bocchino said. The surgery means only a couple of stitches, which stay in for about a week. Police: Driver on NJ Turnpike pointed gun in fit of road rage.

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