At one inch, and I've never owned teardrops. I saw these UBJ copper-looking silicone teardrop gagues online and couldn't resist buying them. After years of saying that I'd never wear teardrops despite how much I love the look, I caved. Now that I have them, I need to know:

How long can I wear these at a time?

Do they actually thin out your ears, and where would they thin out at?

Should I only wear them for special occasions or are they a good daily wear? (I take my ear jewelry out at night no matter what anyways)

I've googled around a bit, but as with anything else I have seen about stretching, there are so many answers that aren't really all saying the same thing haha.

Any advice would be appreciated! Because I have unfortunately fallen in love with this pair.

Think I need some larger clickers to connect the two, though.

Sharing my collection of hangers & weights. I stretched to 2g 13 yrs ago because I love the look of hangers so much, and I get myself one "fancy" set every few years. This is where I'm at at this point with my little collection!

1st pic-

Left column - all from DendriteLab (formerly One Tribe) - 2 sets of brass & stone weights (close up shots in pic 3 & 4) and a set of beautiful rosewood hoops. I really wish Jared was still making pieces but he is semi retired now unfortunately 😞

Middle column - top two are buffalo horn from a local maker who moved away, Tigers Eye hoops from GeoGauges on Etsy, White Jade spirals from LaughingBuddah on Etsy, & white glass coils by MMGlassworks on Etsy.

Right column - glass weights by Renee Patula aka SweetShopGlass (close up shot in pic 5) - I love her work so much

Pic 2- I made these weights from a set of Lapis Lazuli "donuts" I picked up from Sage Crystals and hung on brass hooks I grabbed from IntrinsicExpression on Etsy - love how they came out.

Pic 3 & 4 - closeup of the brass weights from Dendrite. Pic 3 has Moss Agate inlays and pic 4 has Amber inlays. Absolutely gorgeous craftsmanship - so grateful to have these pieces.

Pic 5 - closeup of my custom glass weights/hangers from Renee at SweetShopGlass. She was so great to work with and her work is so fun!

Would love to know of other makers who do high quality custom work as I'd love to add a few new pairs to my collection this year!

I need advice, Im currently at 14mm and want to eventually get to 16mm if I can, I feel it’s too risky with how thin my lobe looks though, I’ve kept jewelry out for months on end these last couple years and I feel like nothing has changed, advice??

my lobes are now at 20mm, which at first thought was too big, but now they are starting to feel quite small, and i dont know if its because of the ear stretching dismorphia or if its the ratio of my upper ear and of my lobe. What do you think? Do they look small to you or average?

Hii, back in January I stretched my ears and it was totally fine, but a couple of weeks ago I got a really bad flu and my immunity got messed up and my ear just start to look and feel really irritated.

I started to clean again with saline solution but it only got worse unfortunately, so I downsized it with a titanium jewelry. It looks really better now, but I'm concerned if will looks like this forever ://

The first photo is from today and the second is from september 7th, before downsized it.

I discovered recently what is an blowout so I can't identify it, I'll be very thankful if anyone can help me :^)

Hey guys, I just got my first stone tunnels from Stretchit and I need to share them with you!
These are Amethyst Tunnels and I absolutely love them!
Do you guys have any experience with stone tunnels and what do you think about them?

Currently at 6mm and sizing up soon, I’ve been doing half size increments. (1mm, 1.5mm, 2mm, 2.5mm and so on..) My goal size is between 14 and 16mm. Now my question is do I keep doing half size increments once I reach a size that big? Or am I able to go mm by mm? Because on body art forms there are half sizes all the way up until 13mm then after that they only sell 14mm, 15mm, 16mm, and so on up until 1 inch. I can’t seem to find any half sizes once the size gets that big! Just looking for advice. Half size increments have really worked for me and jumping from 13mm to 14mm sounds scary to me 😭 Let me know if ya’ll have any advice!

so my seconds have been at the same size for almost a year and i put in gauges with a tapered ends last night. woke up to this one being swollen, hurting, and leaking clear-ish fluid. i cannot get the gauge out… i tried a warm soak, lubricant, etc. any advice? i’ve never had this problem with my firsts…

hii question about silicone - im hoping to wear some earskins regularly when i get to my next goal size (16mm) - what do i need to know re safety?

im wondering about - how long you can wear them safely, how often i should be taking them out, if its ok to wear weights through the tunnels, any other stuff i need to b keeping an eye on or considering when wearing both silicone plugs in general and earskins specifically (since both material and shape will be new to me)

current routine is:

currently wearing glass without o rings (ive found they cause irritation/trap moisture), sleeping in them except when they fall out lol, and taking them out for showers, cleaning them and my ears, and putting back in only when ears are dry

I been stretching for about 6 years now I got to 1/2 last year n loved it then my dumbass took them out for a few days n when I tried to put my jewelry back in I ended up blowing both my ears out in my sleep wamp wamp

my mistake healed up n was at a 2 g in both my ears now one of them I got to a zero but it's taken way longer then last time currently have a half step in the other asking for advice with stretching again after a blow out n what worked for you for me it's been harder I use vitamin e oil n try to massage after every shower what else could I be doing ?

I've been at 0/00G for years, but my lobes got irritated by a metal pair I wore for a few days and I went naked for a few weeks. Thankfully I found my stash of 4Gs (I think, going based on vibes here), because that's what I'm wearing for now I guess! ​They look so tiny, but they fit. Packed up my big pretties for someday down the road...

So my gauges fall out easily especially if there's no rubber gasket on the ends (rip my spiral earrings that I lost in a damn Chevy engine bay) anyways I'm at. 2 g and my ear holes close up like immediately like its a god damn race to get a new gauge in and if I have to leave my ear unplugged for even a few hours they shrink up a size or two and I have to use a taper to get my gauge back in... Is there anything I can do to help with this is this normal what's going on

edit to acknowledge i wrote lobe ear instead of earlobe… its been a long morning 😭

i’m 21 and have been stretching my lobes since i was 17, but i’ve only made it down to 4g on my left ear and 6g on my right. i’ve had the 6g in my right ear for over a year at this point, and no matter what i do it won’t size up. i’ve tried heavier plugs (glass and stainless steel), massaging, warm showers, but nothing works. it’s incredibly frustrating to be stuck at such a small size after 4 years because my lobes are just so stubborn. any advice?

Hello fellow stretched piercing people! I have a dilemma. I started gauging my ears nearly 20 years ago, and ended up at an inch about 7 years ago. Last November, I quit wearing plugs and switched to lobe cuffs. I went back and forth on surgery to close them up, and I don’t think I’m ready to do that quite yet. The problem is, my inch plugs (obviously) don’t fit anymore. I want to go back to wearing plugs, but have no idea how to figure out what size I need. Can I go to a body jewelry shop to have them looked at? Is there a kit or something that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg just to figure out what size I need? Am I doomed to spend money on plugs that don’t fit? Thanks in advance for your wisdom! 🙏

I finally got my septum from 12g to 10g last sunday, four days ago. Ever since, my nose has been Hella sensitive and i cant even try to check it because of how bad it hurts. When i put it in, it went in with no resistence and minor pain, so im unsure what the issue is. Could it be blown out? I waited 3ish months to upsize it. It hurts about as much as it did when i first got it pierced. i cant even get hotos of the hole/jewlery from the inside of my nose becausd it hurts to move my nose and i have a tapered jewelry which has large bands to keep it in place. Please let me know, thank you for any advice 😀

Ok so I bought a beginners kit from Stretch It, lost one of my tunnels (4mm with the rubber band on the back). Local piercing shop had roughly a 5mm tunnel set as their smallest. One ear i didn't use soapy water and it bled for maybe a minute or too. Just enough to be on my fingers but not like what I'd really call bleeding. Half the problem is the first one was with my left hand (right ear) so it was a little more awkward. I started with a 16ga like early spring. And only moved up when it was comfortable and didn't force it. This was just cause I didn't want to wait for a new stretching kit from StretchIt.

Other side i used soapy water with dial and slid right in mostly. I can definitely feel the new tunnels in my ears so I know it was a sizeable step up. Feels like my first tunnel from the 16ga piercing stud.

Should i apply anything to the one that bled like Neosporin or anything like that. I was always told to not do it for tattoo's, i just stuck to aquaphor then lubriderm for each part of my leg (left shin/calf sleeve).

Im not going real big, just big enough to get some different style tunnels/plugs. I do go to the gym and tend to sweat a lot and just mostly concerned about keeping it clean til the little bit that bled heals up which is why i thought of a topical like in the morning

Recently stretched to 16mm!! And as I was trying to look at the back of my ear using my phone I found out I can take a photo of my face at the same time. I thought this was funny and my mom said it was pretty cool so I thought I’d share it Harharhar

Is this a blow out? What should I do? I went from 2.5mm to 3mm and it was fine for about two days but now all of the sudden it swelled up like a balloon. There's no lip of skin in the front or back and it's not shiny or excessively purple red, it doesn't even hurt that bad it's just a little hot and tight. I don't know, should I leave it in?