What are Ear gauges?

Answer 1

Ear Gauges is a misused term and it actually means nothing. The term is used to refer to the process of "stretching" ear lobe piercings to larger sizes (bigger holes and bigger jewellery* {*refered to as plugs }). To do this jewellery of larger size is put into the piercing slowly to stretch the piercings up to a larger size.

The term "Ear Gauges" was derived from two words "Ear" and "Gauge", I think you know what Ear means so we will move on the the "Gauge" part. Gauge is the actual size of the jewellery, measured using the American Wire Gauge as a standard or AWG.

The smaller the number the bigger the diameter of the jewellery, this measurement is also used to denote the size of the needles used in medicine and body piercing. A standard starting size for ear lobe piercing would be "16g" or "14g" ( the "g" denotes the phrase "gauge" ). Stretching the piercing up one "gauge" at a time with a 4 week break between the stretches to avoid damaging the tissue.

The difference between the guages being less than 10% this prevents the piercing from tearing when done correctly (skin only stretches 10% before it starts to tear and tissue damage is the result). Trying to stretch the piercing fast (not waiting the 4 weeks between stretching) will result in damaged tissue and messy piercings. The largest size one can work up to without perminant damage is "0g" and or rare occasions "00". If the stretch is done correctly, one can remove or reverse the stretching by working down the gauges back to the smaller diameters without perminant damage.

AWG / Metric Sizes 18g/1.0mm, 16g/1.2mm, 14g/1.6mm, 12g/2.0mm, 10g/2.4mm, 8g/3.2mm, 6g/4.0mm, 2g/7.0mm, 0g/8mm

Standard sizes for body piercing are 18g, 16g, 14g, 12g larger gauges are some times used but these are the most common sizes used on a daily basis.

Answer 2

"Gauges" is a slang term for large gauge plug jewelry. Technically "gauge" is the measure of the thickness of any type of body jewelry, including standard earring posts.