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The Making of America => Your Persona => Topic started by: Hammerhead on May 06, 2012

Title: ear guages in the 1800s
Post by: Hammerhead on May 06, 2012
i could not find anywhere to suit this topic so i winged it here. my buddy wants to get into the sport and he is worried his ear guages wont look pc. they arent huge they are small guages only a quarter inch diameter he wants to look pc somehow would there be anything from back then that would suit this
Title: Re: ear guages in the 1800s
Post by: pilgrim on May 07, 2012
    This is an undocumented guess,  but possible a Native American.      The only other possibility would have been African.    I will be watching this thread to learn,  thanks Kris. 
Title: Re: ear guages in the 1800s
Post by: Tim Burns on May 07, 2012
OK Kris - Humor me: What in the world is an ear gauge???
Title: Re: ear guages in the 1800s
Post by: crazell on May 07, 2012
They are disc's that are put in your ear's.
you can stretch them out by increasing the size of the disc's. They are an alternative to earrings.
Kris I'm sure they were around ,but maybe not in bulk??  I would agree that one of the tribe's may have wore them.. Maybe for a right of passage or a spiritual thing.
Title: Re: ear guages in the 1800s
Post by: Red Badger on May 07, 2012
Good question Kris, 

I will do some research and ask some friends to look into this and post what we find out...

Also I am moving this to the approprate area "help with your persona"
Title: Re: ear guages in the 1800s
Post by: Hammerhead on May 07, 2012
ok thank you all and thank you red badger for putting it where it belonged. and yes a ear guage is just a wide diameter ear disc that is put in the ear by a regular sized piercing then takeing small tapered cone shaped pins and pushing slowly in the piercing and every week push it a little more through to widen the hole. if done to quickly it can cause blow out which is a skin sack pushing through your ear which takes months to straighten it back out
Title: Re: ear guages in the 1800s
Post by: Red Badger on May 07, 2012
Quote from: Hammerhead on May 07, 2012
ok thank you all and thank you red badger for putting it where it belonged. and yes a ear guage is just a wide diameter ear disc that is put in the ear by a regular sized piercing then takeing small tapered cone shaped pins and pushing slowly in the piercing and every week push it a little more through to widen the hole. if done to quickly it can cause blow out which is a skin sack pushing through your ear which takes months to straighten it back out

Too Much information!    pnic
Title: Re: ear guages in the 1800s
Post by: Hammerhead on May 07, 2012
sorry
Title: Re: ear guages in the 1800s
Post by: pilgrim on May 07, 2012
    1800's also leaves plenty of opening for Pirates
Title: Re: ear guages in the 1800s
Post by: Watauga on May 07, 2012
Kind of a West African thing originally I think?!?
One of the Whalers from Moby Dick?
Title: Re: ear guages in the 1800s
Post by: beowulf on May 08, 2012
I`ve seen some very old paintings of eastern american indians with what appeared to be plugs in their ears . also with ear lobes that were basically just enlarged rings . this would have been done with a form of plug , probably made from shell or bone !
Title: Re: ear guages in the 1800s
Post by: halfstock on May 09, 2012
Yup Beowulf the Osage warriors had a habit of doing that to the ear lobes.
Title: Re: ear guages in the 1800s
Post by: Bulldog lady on May 10, 2012
Just to add to this interesting topic, if memory serves me right and that is getting to be a subject of question?  The nose and ears are  the only two appendages that keep growing through out your life. at what speed I haven't a clue. 
Title: Re: ear guages in the 1800s
Post by: beowulf on May 11, 2012
Quote from: Bulldog lady on May 10, 2012
Just to add to this interesting topic, if memory serves me right and that is getting to be a subject of question?  The nose and ears are  the only two appendages that keep growing through out your life. at what speed I haven't a clue. 
that would explain why some older folk kinda look like skinny elephants   ROFL,had an uncle who could probably pick up several channels with the antennae he had for ears ! (susp) ROFL
Title: Re: ear guages in the 1800s
Post by: Red Badger on May 11, 2012
As promised here is my report:

Osage Warriors did us w bone or shell guage in their ears and there is documentation  that a few of the pacific coast natives also practiced this.  So if your friend can pass as a native american he should be alright... I tried to look for an example of an adopted white being allowed to do this but was unable to find any reference... That being said it is documented in several cases that white children who were captured and adopted became skilled and revered warriors so it is possible that one would have been allowed to follow this practice.
Title: Re: ear guages in the 1800s
Post by: Watauga on May 11, 2012
Kris
Although a little west for Ohio it could be expected that some Osage Warriors did trade within this area?
I know Thomas Jefferson had a meeting with a large number of Osage in Washington DC so they probably traveled on the Ohio river or in Indiana and Ohio on the way to the meeting?
I found this picture hope it helps.
http://www.1st-art-gallery.com/Charles-Balthazar-J.-F.-Saint-Memin/Indian-Chief-Of-The-Little-Osages,-C.1807.html
and
http://www.1st-art-gallery.com/Charles-Balthazar-J.-F.-Saint-Memin/Cachasunghia,-An-Osage-Warrior,-1806.html

Looks like ear guages to me.