Lobe holes & helmets

So. I have a tender new lobe piercing and a serious motorcycle habit. I
would seek commentary from anyone with experience of full-face helmets and
modest lobe stretches.

I started at 12ga, aiming for 1/2" or so with a silicone eyelet. FWIW, LIMA
seems to be working pretty well so far.

-Scott
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Scott wrote:

> So. I have a tender new lobe piercing and
> a serious motorcycle habit. I would seek
> commentary from anyone with experience
> of full-face helmets and modest lobe stretches.

The short version:

LIMA worked for me. In fact, LI*THA* worked really well initially when
I got my dermal punches (2ga). And wearing a balaclava kept my
pre-punched jewelry from snagging on my Shoei full-face helmet. But my
3/4 helmet was much easier to deal with as compared to the full-face.
Eventually, I stopped using o-rings which were constantly being lost
while putting on and taking off my full-face.

The long version:

Scott, I have a serious motorcycle habit, too, as well as a Shoei
full-face and 00ga jewelry in both lobes. I was fortunate to have my
lobes worked on in October - still a lot of riding time, but it's not
as "painful" for me to miss out on a bit of fall riding versus summer
riding.

Regardless of that, I did ride while my lobes were healing and one
thing that helped me was to wear a balaclava which held my ears snugly
to the side of my head thus allowing the helmet less obstruction (I've
got car-doors-are-open ears) while pulling it on.

Jewelry type is another obvious variable. Hoops and regular jewelry
with Piercing Pagoda or Claire's backs are going to snag, of course. I
initially had my lobes gunned at PP and the backs would constantly get
snagged on the full-face. I initially owned a 3/4 open-face helmet
<http://www.geocities.com/curt_james/sportster.html> (on the deck in
the middle pic, fwiw) which was hella easier to get on my skull and
then off again without losing jewelry.

Although I originally had my lobes pierced, I followed-up by having
them punched <http://www.geocities.com/curt_james/dermal.html>, so
perhaps my experience is not directly applicable to your situation.
Ymmv is obviously in play here, but I found that I lost a lot of
o-rings while donning and removing my full-face. The solution for me
was to just not wear o-rings. I wear stainless tunnels and also have
two pair of www.glasswearstudios.com -provided plugs that I wear
without o-rings. They stay in easily and, voilà, there's no frigging
o-ring there to snag or fall off. My first 2ga jewelry was a pair of
"bullets" with o-rings on both sides. They were ridiculous to try to
pull a helmet over. Snag city.

> I started at 12ga, aiming for 1/2" or so with a
> silicone eyelet. FWIW, LIMA seems to be
> working pretty well so far.

Excellent. I've never had silicone eyelets, but do love my plugs from
Glasswear Studios. I've found that the low profile of the glass plugs
is much better for wear with a full-face than jewelry like the bullets
I wore. I was out on the bike for a Christmas Eve ride yesterday. High
today is only predicted to be about BRRRR degrees, but I'm planning on
a brief ride anyway. Best of luck with reaching the half-inch mark. And
safe riding to you.

> -Scott

--
Curt
http://curtjames.com/