Latest in ear fashion puts lobes to the test

By Zenaida Serrano Espanol
Advertiser Staff Writer

Geoff Brown, a body piercer at TNT Tattoo in 'Aiea, shows off gold barbells dangling through his ear plugs. Plugs, put into holes in the earlobe that can be made almost any size, have been gaining in popularity. Photos by Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

If you're daring enough to take self-adornment to the next level, one of the latest trends in piercings is ear plugs.

These plugs — not the kind that you stick in your ear to block sound — are basically cylindrical- and disc-shaped earrings that go into an extra-large, stretched-out puka in the earlobe — a curious oddity to the squeamish, a cool form of self-expression for the bold.

Although the trend seems to be just catching on in Hawai'i, it started in the Mainland about 20 years ago, said Joe Mariconda, owner of the Hawaiian Piercing Co. in Kapahulu. "California was probably the trendsetter," Mariconda said. "Then New York."

Celebs such as Brandon Boyd, lead singer of the music group Incubus, and Jack Osbourne, son of the famous Ozzy, are among those who sport the funky ear ornaments.

Mariconda said he has seen a steady increase in the popularity of plugs in Hawai'i over the last couple of years. Customers who have gotten ear plugs from his shop have increased from about a dozen in 2000 to two to three dozen last year, he said.

David Bentley, owner of TNT Tattoo, a tattoo and piercing shop in 'Aiea, said that lobe-stretching actually is an age-old practice. "They've been doing it in Africa for eons," he said.

Mariconda added that people in China, Vietnam and Papua New Guinea, among other places, have been doing similar lobe-stretchings for centuries.

A plug starts off as a piercing, usually done with a 14-gauge needle, which is about the diameter of a pencil lead, Bentley said. (The size of a conventional needle for a typical ear piercing is 20 gauge. The smaller the gauge number, the bigger the size, Bentley explained.)

After the initial healing, which takes four to six weeks, the hole is stretched open with a tool called a stretching taper and a bigger plug is then inserted. Stretchings are done about every two weeks, at least, until the desired size is achieved.

Plugs, which so far are more common among men than women, typically range in size from 10 gauge, which is a little bigger around than a toothpick, to 2 gauge, the size of a pencil, or 0 gauge, which is a little smaller than a dime.

But those going for a more extreme look can get plugs that are up to two inches in diameter, which is done through the same stretching process for plugs at piercing shops. But Bentley warned that getting plugs bigger than 0 gauge will result in permanently-stretched earlobes; the holes for smaller plugs usually close eventually if left alone.

Daryle Fountain, 25, of Palolo Valley, began stretching her lobes two years ago. She initially went from 20 gauge to 14 gauge, and now wears 00-gauge plugs, which are each about the diameter of an AA battery, Fountain said. Her plugs are solid, tempered glass that are clear in the front and colored with specks of red and blue in the back.

Brown, 24, has had his 2-gauge ear holes for almost a year now. He says the process of having the hole stretched did not really hurt.

Piercings for plugs can cost $40 to $60 at piercing shops. Both Bentley and Mariconda said that stretchings are free for their customers if they purchase the plugs from their shops, but if customers use their own jewelry, it costs $10 per stretching.

Plugs cost $20 or more, Bentley said, depending on the style, which include surgical stainless rings, acrylic and even wooden plugs.

"For the real intricate stuff that we have to special order, (the cost is) $50 to $100," Mariconda said. Such detailed plugs include elaborately carved animal bone.

Geoff Brown, 24, of 'Aiea, has had his 2-gauge plugs, which are gold rings with gold-hooped barbells dangling through the rings, for about a year now. The initial stretching didn't hurt, he said, because he had his 10-gauge piercings for a couple of months before he decided to stretch them.

The stretching process usually isn't as painful as it looks or sounds, said Brown, a body piercer at TNT Tattoo. "It just feels kinda tight," he said.

Fountain also said her stretchings were bearable.

"It kinda feels like a burning sensation," she said. "But it's not too bad."