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 Please excuse my unkempt early-morning appearance |
According to my current front-page poll, about one in five people that try KAOS softwear silicone tunnels have a bad experience with them, and my own interaction with people using them reflects that. I have seen far more people than I'm comfortable with lose their stretched lobe because of use (or misuse) of this jewelry. That said, the remaining four out of five often swear by it.
When I moved out to Tweed three years ago I took out my lobe piercings (which were at just over two inches) due to the cold weather and never got around to putting jewelry back in. I've been missing them more and more, and I recently picked up a set of KAOS plugs that will return my ears to two inches, so I thought I'd mention what I consider the two primary reasons people have problems with this type of jewelry and what can be done to minimize them.
Stretching-related damage. If you over-stretch using wood, metal, or other “solid” jewelry, your ear becomes stressed, tears slightly, and then the stress is relieved. However, when over-stretching with silicone or other flexible jewelry, your ear becomes stressed, tears slightly, but then the jewelry adapts and applies more stress, causing the problem to compound until you reach the upper limit of the jewelry or remove it. I can not emphasize enough how important it is to listen to your body. If you start to experience pain, you have as little as half an hour to go back to your previous size or risk doing damage that will cost you months of stretching or more.
Tackiness-related damage. Silicone jewelry is, in most cases, extremely “sticky” and can adhere to the skin. This makes it difficult for the skin to breathe and heal, and motion of the jewelry can even tear off large pieces of the inside of your stretching. This can also compound the stretching related problems above. It is very important to be gentle when taking this jewelry out or attempting to rotate it. Personally I also use generous amounts of olive oil to lubricate the jewelry and treat the lobe, which has the added side-effect of entirely eliminating “ear stink”.
 STIFF: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers |
I read the book on the left on the airplane back from Vegas. It's not terribly exciting, but one of the chapters deals with the mechanics of crucifixion — what placements of nails could support the body without tearing out, and so on (I guess in an attempt to legitimize the Shroud of Turin). They interviewed a doctor who'd been doing crucifixions (with rope, not nails) to test various breathing issues and he recounted a funny story.
Over the years, [Rockland County, NY's Frederik] Zugibe has occasionally received calls from volunteers seeking the real deal. "Would you believe? A girl called me and actually wanted me to nail her. She's with this group where they put plates in their face, they surgically alter their heads, they bifurcate their tongues, and put those things through their penis."
I wonder if anyone we know made the call? Somehow I think so.
Anyway, the book also talks about attempts to reanimate guillotined (as in chopped off) heads in 19th century Paris by injecting them with oxygenated blood — disturbingly, neural function (eye tracking of objects, facial expressions) does appear to be achieved. I mention it here because there's an interesting description of one of the “subjects”, a murderer named Gamahut — his name is known because he had a large gansta-style rendition of it across his torso. What, you thought Tupac came up with that style?
He also had a self-portrait of his disembodied head, in a sort of eerie foreshadowing of his demise.
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