Stretching, in the context of body piercing, is the deliberate expansion of a healed piercing for the purpose of wearing certain types of jewelry. Ear piercings are the most commonly stretched piercings,[1] with nasal septum piercings, tongue piercings and lip piercings/lip plates following close behind.[2] While all piercings can be stretched to some degree, cartilage piercings are usually more difficult to stretch and more likely to form hypertrophic scars if stretched quickly. Dermal punching is generally the preferred method for accommodating larger jewelry in cartilage piercings.[3]
Stretching is usually done in small increments to minimize the potential for damaging the healed fistula or creating scar tissue. In North America, most stretching methods go up by a single even-sized gauge increment at a time. 0g (8 mm[4]), is generally considered to be "the point of no return":[5] a hole larger than this size will rarely close to a standard piercing size. Since each body is different, any stretched piercings, no matter the size, should be approached as a permanent body modification. In Europe and most of the rest of the world, jewelry is metric, but the increments between standard sizes are similar.
The first recorded use of ear-stretching comes from Ancient Egypt, and can be seen in the sarcophagus of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun. In addition, anthropologists believe that the use of having stretched ears originated in sub-Saharan Africa.