Should you gauge your ears

Answer 1

This is a personal preference and one should consider a few things about it prior to gauging.

First, what size do you plan on going to? A 14g or 10g can be classified as a gauging. If your earlobes can support the size, you can go up to what ever size you feel comfortable. Keep in mind that if you get bored of having large gauge ears, that after a certain size, your ears will only close up with cosmetic surgery.

Second, what do you do for employment, or will be doing in the future? A lot of jobs ban jewelry since they can either pose a safety hazard or interfere with equipment used for the job. If you go large, then you will always have the same issue as wearing rings, but it will be your earlobes. Some states have regulations with the food and medical fields that will not allow such gauging because of possible cross contamination. Though these are rare, you may have to be careful.

Third, what is the community like that you live in? I live in a conservative and very uptight community, and even when I had 00's in, I got funny looks. Even now, with 1" plugs in, I still get the looks, and people are revolted by the notion that I have such large holes in my ears. If you plan on working with people, take that into consideration because that can affect the way people respond.

As I mentioned, it is personal preference, and if you do decide to, then more power to you. If you decide not to, you will have just as much respect. As a note, one thing I have seen is people doing smaller gauges, and then hanging jewelry through tunnels. For that, you don't have to go too large, and you can still wear standard jewelry with it, or good looking plugs/tunnels.