Ear measurement involves gradually stretching ear piercings to accommodate larger jewelry, originating in Asia and practiced by African and South American tribes. The process can take years and involves slowly expanding the hole, with larger gauges allowing for different types of jewelry. It’s important to work slowly to avoid damage or infection, and after a certain point, the ear measurement becomes irreversible.
Ear measurement is a practice in which ear piercings are slowly stretched to accommodate larger jewelry. When done correctly, the process is very gradual, and it can take years of patient work to get to the desired size, especially for people who want to go overboard with their ear measurement. The practice appears to have originated in Asia, where evidence suggests people have been stretching ear piercings for thousands of years, and it has also been widely practiced among African and South American tribes for centuries.
A typical ear piercing is pierced with an 18- or 20-gauge needle. This creates a piercing large enough to insert most standard jewelry, but small enough that it won’t stand out when there’s no jewelry. This size also heals relatively quickly and easily, for people who decide to abandon their ear piercings later in life.
When ear measurement is practiced, the hole is expanded so that it can accommodate jewelry of a larger size. The lower the number, the larger the hole, so someone going from a 20 gauge piercing to a 10 gauge piercing will have a larger hole. Sizes go to 00 (3/8 inch or 10 millimeters), at which point they are measured in either one-inch increments or millimeters, depending on where you are.
The type of jewelry that can be inserted into gauged ears varies, depending on the size to which the holes have been stretched. Some people stretch to large sizes in order to use plugs, cylinders of material that completely fill the calibrated hole. Others use tunnels, hollow jewelry that encases the calibrated piercing while leaving an open space in the middle of the piercing. It is also possible to wear thick earrings, and in some cultures, people insert multiple loops of wire into their gauged ears, adding wire as the hole increases in size.
There are several ways to perform ear measurement, also called stretching. The important thing to remember is that working too fast can damage the piercing and potentially cause infection and other problems. Some people like to use cones, lengths of metal, wood, or bone that are slowly inserted into the ear to stretch and tighten as the ear gets used to the larger size. Other people simply insert jewelry one size larger, giving the ears a month or two to adjust before going up a size. It is also possible to measure the ears by cutting them to enlarge the hole, although this should be done under the supervision of a body modification professional.
Up to about size 00, it is possible for the ears to heal after measurement. The larger the gauge, the longer it will take for the hole to shrink, although massaging the lobes with vitamin E oil can help speed up the healing process. However, after 00, the ear measurement passes a point of no return, so people should think carefully about how big they want the holes to be at the end, and how they would feel with 20 enlarged ear piercings. years.
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