"I began gauging my ears"

Stretching versus gauging again. Change is certainly difficult for some
to accommodate, but it looks like gauging will eventually make it into
Merriam-Webster as a verby related to body piercings. Just a guess, of
course.

It's definitely being used as such by at least one youth.

The following article appears in _Black and White Online_, the Walt
Whitman High School online newspaper.

Students discover body art

by Caroline Mattey
Feature Writer

Almost every girl likes jewelry, and sophomore Liza Friedman is no
exception. She likes necklaces, rings, and earrings. But unlike other
girls walking down the hall, she has the opportunity to wear
accessories in the five holes in her left ear, the six holes in her
right ear, her bellybutton and her eyebrow.

Students from various social circles choose to branch away from the
norm and pierce body parts such as belly buttons, eye brows, tongues
and noses. Variations of the traditional ear piercings include
cartilage piercings, industrial piercings and gauges. While these
piercings may express a personal style, they also carry risks of both
social and physical repercussions.

Friedman says she decided to have multiple piercings so that she could
display her own unique style. "I got my eyebrow done after I saw
that Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas had one, and I figured you
didn't have to have any sort of 'punk' or 'rebellious' style
to wear one, and I thought it was really cool to be one of the few
girls with that piercing. As for my ears, I just like having them
incredibly colorful and artsy."

Friedman's mother Aimee says she finds only some of her daughter's
piercings attractive. "Although I believe her eyebrow piercing is
quite ugly and ruins her pretty face, I approve of her belly button
ring because it's subtle, and I believe her earrings are an
expression of her artistic side."

Senior Jon Knighton pierced both of his ears to a size 0g [gauge] and
his tongue. "I got my left ear done in sixth grade because I wanted
to be 'cooler' than the other kids. I pierced my right ear in
eighth grade to take it up a level.

Then, I began gauging my ears last year
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
because I saw some of my friends doing it, and I became instantly
intrigued by it."

Knighton resisted when his parents strongly disapproved of his
piercings, he says. "There were numerous times where they made me
take my piercings out, but I would just pull out a backup pair and put
them back in. In terms of the tongue, they really did not approve, but
they kind of gave in to it because they don't have to look at it all
of the time."

Many people buy into the stereotypes surrounding body piercings. "I
think that when people look at others with piercings, they
automatically have this negative mindset of drugs, alcohol, crude
behavior, and other illegal activities," Knighton says. "But a lot
of people that have piercings are just like you or anyone else."

Adults cannot relate to a teenager's desire for piercings, Knighton
says. "I feel like most adults are either apathetic or they truly
despise piercings. This is mainly because it is a different era and
teens now are doing outlandish things with piercings that adults only
used to see in National Geographic."

Body piercer Andy Scott, who works at the Bethesda Tattoo Company, says
he has noticed a trend towards piercing body parts other than the
bellybutton or nose. "I guess surface piercings are starting to
become more common around here even though I'm pretty sure they have
been in other places for a while. Also a lot of people are getting the
industrial piercings with the barbell that goes through the ear."

Friedman trusted her friends to pierce her ears, but says she went to
professionals to pierce her other body parts. "I got some of my ear
piercings done at the mall, and a couple of my ear piercings my friends
pierced for me, which isn't usually a good idea, but they ended up
fine. As for my belly button and eyebrow ring, I got those pierced at
a tattoo parlor in Coney Island, New York."

Scott says customers rarely experience infections or complications
resulting from the piercing itself. "Not too many people have
infections and the ones that do it's always caused from them not
taking care of it properly. People will come in because cartilage
piercings get little bumps, but that is very common and happens a lot
and is totally fixable."

Horror stories of complications from piercings never scared Friedman
away from multiple piercings. "I decided that as long as I take good
care of them, which I do, then they'll be fine," she says.
"There are cases where your body may just reject the piercing and if
that ever happened to me, I'd gladly take it out and probably just
come up with another body part to pierce."

Teenagers know of the age restrictions on piercings, they must have
parental consent if under eighteen, but choose to consciously
circumvent them, Scott says. "Most of them know about it, but they
try anyways sometimes. But when people come in to try get something
pierced without [parental] consent they very rarely get it done because
you can tell it's a fake ID or if it's not a government-issued one.
It's not a problem though because usually people know and come in
with their parents from the beginning."

Aimee says she did not initially support her daughter's decision to
pierce multiple body parts. "She usually had to beg for them until I
gave in, aside from her ears which she decided to pierce without me
knowing."

In the future, Friedman says she may choose to add to her collection of
piercings. "I may get a few more on my ears, my tongue, and maybe my
nose if I ever decide to take out my eyebrow ring."

In his line of work, Scott says he gets some unusual requests for
piercings. "I mean it's a little odd to do male or female
genitalia because you don't know the person and hygiene is always a
concern. As far as weird goes, I have pierced people's cheeks,
necks, necklaces around their necks, sternums on their chest, arms,
their pubic line and their lower back." /copy and paste

Related:
http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/schools/whitmanhs/
http://www.blackeyedpeas.com/
http://www.bethesdatattoo.com/main.htm

Fwiw, Urban Dictionary shows gauge - as a verb - in the 15 slot and
with 10 up and 19 down so far as approval versus disapproval of the
definition goes.

15. gauge

A word that describes the act of stretching a piercing.

1. How long did it take you to gauge your ears.
2. I think I'm going to gauge my ears today. From:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/defin...m=gauge&page=3

--
Curt
http://curtjames.com/