Do the gauges correspond dimensionally to anything I could relate to, like AWG?
8 gauge electrical wire through your wang, holy hell!
yes i do believe that the jewelry gauge is the same as wire.
here is a chart that might help.
http://www.bmeworld.com/sweetie/gauge.html
my 8ga ears will keep getting stretched. not sure were i will stop. and my prince albert will also get stretched. i'm thinking no bigger than 4ga or 2 ga max.
Neither Hyaline, Elastic nor Fibrocartilage (the three types of cartilage found in the human body) can ever 'shatter'. In particular, Elastic cartilage, the type of cartilage found in pinnae is highly elastic (hence the name) and is highly resistant to impact damage. When a person gets a lump in their ear after a shoddy piercing, its due to scar tissue formation and/or displaced cartilage...
well i'm not a doc, so maybe that was wrong. but what i was going off of is pictures and people i have seen that had it done with those piercing guns and it went horribly wrong. now the section of their ear from the piercing on up just hangs down like a dog ear. like the cartilage can't support it any more.
this text is from the association of professional piercers:
Though slightly pointy in appearance, most ear piercing studs are quite dull. Piercings must therefore be accomplished by using excessive pressure over a larger surface area in order to force the metal shaft through the skin. The effect on the body is more like a crush injury than a piercing and causes similar tissue damage. Medically, this is referred to as “blunt force trauma.” At the least, it can result in significant pain and swelling for the client, at the most in scarring and potentially increased incidence of auricular chondritis, a severe tissue disfigurement
.
Occasionally the intense pressure and speed of the gun’s spring-loaded mechanism is not sufficient to force the blunt jewelry through the flesh. In these cases, the earring stud may become lodged part way through the client’s ear. The gun operator, who may not be trained to deal with this possibility, has two options. S/he can remove the jewelry and repierce the ear, risking contamination of the gun and surrounding environment by blood flow from the original wound. Alternately, the operator can attempt to manually force the stud through the client’s flesh, causing excessive trauma to the client and risking a needlestick-type injury for the operator. How often such gun malfunction occurs has not been documented by manufacturers, but some gun operators report that it is frequent.
When used on structural tissue such as cartilage, more serious complications such as auricular chondritis, shattered cartilage and excessive scarring are common. Gun piercings can result in the separation of subcutaneous fascia from cartilage tissue, creating spaces in which fluids collect. This can lead to both temporary swelling and permanent lumps of tissue at or near the piercing site. These range from mildly annoying to grossly disfiguring, and some require surgery to correct. Incidence can be minimized by having the piercing performed with a sharp surgical needle, which slides smoothly through the tissue and causes less tissue separation. A trained piercer will also use a post-piercing pressure technique that minimizes hypertrophic scar formation.
http://www.safepiercing.org/FAQ.html
