At the beginning of the school year my roommate decided to pierce his ears. He was rather sceptical on whether he would like it or not. After having them pierced for about two months he started to get bored with his normal piercings so he decided to start gauging his ears. He started out at a ten gauge for his first set which he purchased at Hot Topic. He told me he was wanting to keep his ears at ten because they were still close enough to his original piercing. Little did I know, this was the start of my roommates obsession with buying ear gauges. Two weeks after he told me he was sticking with tens he bought a pair of eight gauges. Then almost three weeks later he moved on too six gauges with yet another pair he bought. Just recently this week he decided to buy a pair of four gauges. Although it was painful, he was still adamant on going up in a size. I couldn't believe how at the start of the semester he was going to stick with a size ten but has led all the way up to a four gauge today! I asked him what is his motivation behind doing this and his answer was "it's addicting". I know that gauges can get expensive so I asked my roommate how much he spends on average for a pair. He told me he can spend roughly fifteen to twenty dollars depending on where he gets them. I still think it is amazing how our consumptive patterns can change in an instant.
Wow, With a situation like that you have to wonder if your roommate will have buyer's remorse later on. It sounds like this could be compensatory spending (possible body image issues?) I could be completely wrong though. If it really is addictive for him though he might want to get help to escape the dark sided of consumer behavior before he ends up with dinner plates in his ears. Of course he may be fine and he just uses the gauges as a form of self expression in a healthy way that won't lead to harm. Hopefully the guages won't hinder him when he goes to apply for jobs once he is out of college.
ReplyDeleteRight now I am a 4gauge. And I totally understand where your roommate is coming from. I did close to the same thing. I started with piercings then got bored with them and went to gauges. I moved up to 8 gauge in like 2 weeks!! That was way too fast, but what are you gonna do. I took a little more time on my next two sizes, but I still don't know when I'll stop. I've said that about several sizes and I keep buying gauges for each one. Then I get bored and go to the next one. It's definitely addicting. Kinda like tattoos or other body modifications are to some people.
ReplyDeleteI've had 0 gauges for almost 3 years now, starting at a 14 gauge (normal piercing size) my freshman year. I totally understand your roommates buying habits, as I zoomed from a 14 to 2 gauge in a semester. I think caleb is right is comparing it to tattoos, once you start you want to keep going and going. I plan on staying at 0 gauges, as i don't want my ear lobes to hang to my elbows when I am a dad. But I bet this is less a case of compensatory spending and more likely a case of boyish rebellion.
ReplyDelete