Cheap streching equipment

joenailface

ok so im gonna start stretching and i wanna do it by myself, has anyone got any suggestions about where to get kits? i mean i know itll be a waiting game but id rather just get a few tapers and plugs of various sizes up to about 8mm anyone have any suggestions as to where to get such a thing? preferably online for laziness i can also go to piercing places in dublin also so if anyone knows anywhere up there to get them itd be great

Melion

This is what i used to get to 5mm and then tunnels from there

http://www.bodyjewelleryshop.com/online_store/steel_stretching_crescent_kit_16mm_5mm_4140467.cfm

2 sets for £34, well worth it

Gauge

Those are pinchers, they're meant to be worn, not used to stretch. And £34 for 2 pairs of steel pinchers is a rip off. The description of them on the page is a load of BS. 'Stretching crescents'?! Pinchers are not for stretching, full stop. They're not manufactured for that purpose and won't give you a long, gradual increase, and you shouldn't wear heavy, hanging jewellery in a fresh stretch, let alone use it to stretch.

If you want steel pinchers (for wearing in a healed stretch!) Bodyartforms has them for as low as $5 each, and I'm guessing they're identical if not the exact same ones as bodyjewelleryshop, only without a massive markup: http://www.bodyartforms.com/productdetails.asp?ProductID=1313

What you use to stretch is called a taper. All bodyartforms.com's ones are here, I find BAF to be the best-value for online jewellery and their customer service is A+:
http://www.bodyartforms.com/products.asp?jewelry=tapers&filter=customyes

The best ones max out at $27 for a 3" long concave taper made by one of the most respected manufacturers in the industry.

Melion

Well they worked perfectly for me anyway.

Gauge

Yeah, that may be so for you, but they're not for stretching and I certainly wouldn't recommend them as a tool for doing so.

Melion

Was i doing it wrong?

I got pierced at 2.4mm in a studio. I ordered the crescents above and when i got them i put in the 2.4mm one. Over the course of a few months i went up to the 3mm,4mm and then the 5mm ones.

Melion

And also i dont get how the ones on baf are cheaper.

I got 5 different sizes for £16(5 X 2 for £34). They are $5 for 1 on BAF($25 for 5, $50 for the 10 i got)

joenailface

the pincers probably wont work cause im stretching my conche and its always had a straight bar in it, that body art forms place is cheap but they dont ship to ireland and it takes 4 weeks unless you've had a different experience with them but also the conversion to dollars would up the price again and the other site has free delivery :P

i did find this http://www.bodyjewelleryshop.com/online_store/gift_set_stretching_tapers_5085619.cfm but im not sure from looking at the picture whether they'd be much use...looks like a brute force way of doing it maybe thats a picture of the larger guages and the lower guages are pointer? :P

Gauge

Melion wrote: »

And also i dont get how the ones on baf are cheaper.

I got 5 different sizes for £16(5 X 2 for £34). They are $5 for 1 on BAF($25 for 5, $50 for the 10 i got)

Yeah, that was my mistake, I misread your post and thought it was £16.95 per pair.

You shouldn't use pinchers to actually stretch with. Chances are they're not going to damage your ear at a small size that's healed ok, but with such a small 'tapering' area it's basically the equivalent of a dead stretch. If you wear them as jewellery straight away afterwards it could cause problems because it's heavy, hanging jewellery that can cause weak spots in an unhealed fistula/piercing. It's an easy mistake to make starting out and one a lot of people (myself included) also make with spirals because they're often misleadingly marketed as a stretching tool when they're not. They're a type of jewellery that is for healed stretched lobes.

joenailface: Stretching cartilage isn't the same as stretching a lobe so it might be worth talking to a piercer about it. Personally I took the easy way out and just got my conch punched to 6mm because it could have taken up to 2 years to stretch it to that size traditionally. If I was to do it traditionally I would probably use PTFE tape over a taper.

BAF do ship to Ireland and it takes roughly one week, not four.

joenailface

well i dont want to get dermal punched really, i can already fit a 2mm stud in and its still quite loose in my ear, 2.4mm wouldnt be too difficult with the tapers, see the thing is guage i dont want to have it 'pop' and done, thats why i said i want to do it myself, take my time with it and after about 6 months or so and go up another size. thats good about the delivery to ireland though, how much did the delivery cost by the way? and was the euro to dollar a hidden charge or is it insignificant? i am quite grateful for all your advise guage, thanks

Gauge

Well if it's one size at a time, very slowly you want to go up then you're right, a dermal punch isn't necessary.

Unless you're ordering a load of heavy stuff (and I mean a fair bit, like large bottles of liquid or something), they charge $3.50 for shipping. I know I get charged a small percentage for a cross-border handling fee by my credit card or something but it's minuscule (don't have a statement on me to check how much it is). They also give you a choice of freebies (steel plugs and stuff) if you go over $25, and free o-rings. And a sticker

For a conch the ideal way to use a taper would be to buy an externally threaded one like this: with some internally threaded jewellery like this (10g is the american version of 2.4mm) or this. That way you can screw the jewellery onto the taper and insert it in one motion.

Not going to lie though, those tapers *are* expensive if you're only planning on using them once and you have to buy the same manufacturer's barbells to guarantee they'll screw into them. The next best ones would be the non threaded concave ones which you can use with any type of jewellery, and below that they have economy tapers for much cheaper that aren't made out of implant grade steel and are shorter. The reviews are handy for seeing that the pros and cons of different ones are. Don't bother with the acrylic ones. Lube is your friend, even at small sizes

Another option is using PTFE tape to stretch up slowly but at a size like 2mm and in a location like your conch it can be very, very fiddly. Useful from about 2.4mm up when the jumps start getting bigger.

joenailface

i think http://www.bodyartforms.com/productdetails.asp?ProductID=3131 would be handiest, i dont really care if they look nice for the moment but if i get 4 sets of them, 2mm, 2.4mm, 3.2mm and 4mm its 30 euro including delivery and i can get myself a new labret stud and some O rings and have the tapers and plugs there for other things, the reviews on that site were pretty helpful, ideally id like to get the threaded ones but if im spending that much i might as well get it dermal punched and but then i dont have the stretching gear, it might be a bit more hassle but for 20 euro off per gauge

joenailface

whoops

Star Lord

So you said 8 minutes previously... :pac:

joenailface

whoops again

Gauge

This thread's contents conflict with its title...

joenailface

hows that then?