The process of stretching in the context of body piercing is a process in which the healed piercing is stretched so that it can be added with some specific kind of jewelry. Ears are the most pierced kind of jewelry along with others like septum piercing, tongue piercing, and lip piercing, and even lip plates. While all kinds of piercing can be stretched to some point, the piercing that is made on cartilage takes more time to get stretched and are also more likely to form scars if it is not stretched adequately. Dermal punching is the most preferred kind of stretched piercing in the cartilage piercing category.

The process of stretching is done in a small amount so that it can reduce the potential for damage to the healed piercing or create scars. In the United Nations, most stretched piercing, no matter where go up by a single even-sized gauge increment at the same time. The point of no return or the maximum size is 8 mm or 0 g. A hole that would be larger than this would be not close to standard piercing size. Since each body is different and any kind of piercing, no matter stretched or not should be looked at as a permanent feature in body modification. In the rest of the world, especially Europe the jewelry size is metric but the increment between the standard size is quite the same.

The first official use of stretched earrings can be dated back to the culture in Ancient Egypt where the sarcophagus of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun was pierced. The other origin story was said to be the use of an ear gauge which began in sub-Saharan Africa. We will read more about the gauged or stretched piercing in the following article.

What is Gauging or Stretching Piercing

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Even though it is a very eccentric thing, but the youth of today not only just get pierced but they also like to stretch their piercings. Even if you have a piercing that was pierced to a smaller size which could be 20 gauge, 18 gauge, and even 16 gauge, you can still go ahead and get them stretched to a larger size. But what is more, is that it does not matter how recently you have had them pierced. You can go ahead and stretch your piercings from 10 years ago now too.