Stretching (body piercing)

Common card · No. 316136

Stretching, in the context of body piercing, is the deliberate expansion of a healed piercing for the purpose of wearing certain types of body piercing jewelry. Ear piercings are the most commonly stretched piercings, with nasal septum piercings, tongue piercings and lip piercings/lip plates following close behind. While all piercings can be stretched to some degree, cartilage piercings are usually more difficult to stretch and more likely to form hypertrophic scars if stretched quickly. Dermal punching is generally the preferred method for accommodating larger jewelry in cartilage piercings. Stretching is usually done in small increments to minimize the potential for damaging the healed fistula or creating scar tissue. In North America, the American wire gauge system is used, and most stretching methods go up by a single even-sized gauge increment at a time. 0g (8 mm), is generally considered to be "the point of no return": a hole larger than this size will rarely close to a standard piercing...

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