It’s the beginning of sixth grade, so just like every other boy he is going to try out for the football team. Brown hair, average height and around average weight. He easily blends in, but Tanner Melton wants to be different.

Melton had seen stretched ears on his favorite musicians, but never here. After researching how and looking at sizes, he made the choice to pierce and stretch his ears.

“It took a while to convince my mom, but she finally caved in and let me get them pierced at WalMart. She still doesn’t like the look of gauges, but I love them. You see guys with ear piercings, but gauged is a totally different style,” Melton said, now a sophomore.

The usual styles of stretched ears are spikes back, solid circle plugs or open plugs. Melton, however, chooses to wear his spikes forward.

“I can’t get them any bigger because of my parents, but I still want to be different. Wearing them forward makes mine more like me, and not like the trend that people are following,” he said.

The gauging process is a pattern of steps into increasing the size, making the stretching less painful. Stretched ears are permanent piercings, leaving the gaps always visible. Many teens worry about how this will affect their future jobs.

“Now that so many people have their ears gauged, I think in the future, it will not be as big of a deal,” Melton said.

The prices of having stretched ears vary with the size and design of the gauge. Starting at around $5, ranging up to 20 for a pair of plugs. Starting with just a regular ear piercing, gauge piercings can easily be accessed.