The Cheaper way to Stretch your Piercings

Step 4: Finishing

Ok, you definetly want to get the surface of the material as smooth as possible. Fine-grit sandpaper or steelwool will work. if you are using acrylic or poly-carb you can flame polish your masterpiece for that "glass smooth" final touch. From my experience flame polishing doesn't work as well on PTFE-teflon.
So there you have it. If you want to wear your taper for awhile, as it stretches, you can get those lil rubber "o-rings" at most any hardware store in the plumbing dept.
One of the best aspects of this project is your ability to create in-between or custom sizes. Anyone who has progressively stretched a piercing knows, it gets much harder and more painful with each gauge increment.
The last thing I have to say is, PTFE-"teflon" kicks ass for this kind of stuff! It's flexible, so it's very comfortable & nothing sticks to it, so it's very clean and easy to take care of. Go ahead! Try and find a teflon taper at any of the piercing stores or sites. Even if you do, %#@!'em you just made one for under a buck!

Comments

[Treknology]

You state that moving up from one gauge to the next in larger sizes can be painful. If you have such a significant length of material, can't you make custom tapers that stretch in sub-guage sizes instead?

[gnossos]

I'm all about DIY stuff, and I agree that tapers and plugs can get REALLY expensive, but I found that as long as you buy tapers online instead of from WAY overpriced head shops it's not so bad. I usually pay about $5 for each taper that would probably cost me double or triple that at a head shop by buying online. Interesting how-to, it just seems like a whole lot of trouble just to save like $2 or $3, if even that... However, if you want a unique and interesting handmade taper, this is great.