One of the recent trends of personal marking or adornment is that of gauging. Similar to piercings, gauging is basically an extension of this concept only with an end result of larger holes and jewlery. It is done by starting with a traditional piercing, usually in the ear, and then gradually enlarging the piercing hole by the slow sequential replacement of a ‘hole expander.’ Over time, the earlobe hole gets stretched until it can accomodate a metal insert that is often larger than the original size of the earlobe.
Gauging is undoubtably a short-lived phenomenon done mainly in the young. Eventually, most people with gauging piercings or jewelry may want it reversed. Fortunately, in the ear, this is fairly easy to do. Because no actual earlobe skin has been removed, but merely stretched, its correction is similar to that of an earlobe reduction procedure. The edges of the enlarged hole are excised and brought together, restoring the earlobe to a near normal size.
In areas other than the earlobe, however, gauging is not so easily corrected. In other parts of the ear, there would be loss of cartilage (unlike the earlobe which is only made made up of skin) and this can be replaced. Such holes in cartilage-containing part of the ear must be cut out with significant alteration of the size and shape of the ear to close it.
Dr Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indianapolis