Ear Gauge Size Chart

A gauge size chart offers information for those who want to join the legion of body piercers that believes in giving this art a new meaning. Normally, a piercing is done with the help of a needle of size 18 to 20 gauge which is enough to accommodate any standard sized jewelry. Because of the constant use this jewelry acts as a ear gauge plug or a taper, and over period of time, the piercing stretches and there occurs natural ear gauging. However, this is not enough for fans of this art who don't want to depend on the natural process to make the piercing large enough to accommodate trendy jewelry. For these people there is a gauge size chart to determine whether it is possible to jump a few gauges to achieve more stretched piercings, than they would normally achieve.

Ear Gauging

Ear gauging is a practice, religiously followed by numerous fans of this art, in which ear piercing is made to stretch. This enables these people to adorn their ears with jewelry of higher gauged stuff. Sounds easy? It is a very gradual process, and jumping across the sizes of plugs to unachievable higher gauge size may results in infection. It is believed that minimum of 2 weeks should be given for each piercing stretch to get stabilized and never to skip any sizes. A follower, in a hurry to register faster results by this method, of body piercing has to let the infection heal and sometimes, has to use a smaller gauge sized jewelry to restart his or her efforts. This is not how to gauge your ears. Generally, it takes months to move to the next tolerable gauge size. Well, some individuals arrive at their desired gauge size, after years of continuously striving for it. If your intentions are to join these sensible individuals then the following information may prove useful to you.

Gauge Size Chart

Ear gauging is done by pushing a plug or a insertion taper in a completely healed piercing as far as possible. For an individual, recently introduced to this art form and keen on wearing higher gauge sized objects, one of the best ear gauging tips is to take advice from a knowledgeable person in this field while selecting the gauge of the initial insertion taper to be used. It is necessary to allow sufficient time between ear gauging. They should be rested for almost as much time as you would allow for a fresh piercing to recover, i.e. several weeks. Some individuals, prefer organic ear gauges made from wood and use sea saltwater solution, petroleum jelly or alcohol swabs to protect the piercing from the infection. The following is a gauge size chart that can be used as a reference.

Taper	Gauges	Millimeters	Inches
Taper 1	16 G	1.2 mm	3/64"
Taper 2	14 G	1.6 mm	1/16"
Taper 3	12 G	2.0 mm	5/64"
Taper 4	10 G	2.4 mm	3/32"
Taper 5	8 G	3.2 mm	1/8"
Taper 6	6 G	4.0 mm	5/32"
Taper 7	4 G	5.0 mm	3/16"
Taper 8	2 G	6.0 mm	1/4"
Taper 9	0 G	8.0 mm	1/3"
Taper 10	00 G	10 mm	3/8"
Taper 11		11 mm	7/16"
Taper 12		12 mm	1/2"
Taper 13		14 mm	9/16"
Taper 14		16 mm	5/8"
Taper 15		19 mm	3/4"
Taper 16		22 mm	7/8"
Taper 17		25 mm	1 Inch

If you go through the chart, you will find that the standard gauge sizes (insertion tapers) range from 16 gauge to 0 gauge. An insertion taper of size 10 gauge (1.2 mm or 3/64'') is considered as a small-sized taper. On the other hand, 00 G (10 mm or 3/8'') gauged taper is normally used for a large jewelry. In fact, it is as far as one can go in this business of ear gauging. Some individuals have tried to stretch their piercings by using tapers of size 11.1 mm (7/16''). Individuals opting for such huge ear gauging insert plastic rings or cylinders or diamond ear gauges in the piercing. There instances where a few extremist body piercers have tried their hands (earlobes?) on gigantic 25 mm tapers. Can you imagine an ear piercing stretched with an inch of taper? It must be noted that the use of tapers of more than 10 gauge somehow, robs the piercing of its ability to recover and heal. For this reason one should do ear gauging step by step (or gauge by gauge) to prevent a swollen and an unaccommodating ear piercing putting breaks on your steady progress through ear gauge size chart.