With all eyes on their ears, lobe stretchers snip BODY MODIFICATION

Colton Tidwell of Oakland, Calif., shows his repaired ear lobes on Monday, January 2, 2012, that were surgically reconstructed by Dr. David Kahn. Tidwell used to have disc earrings for years and decided to have the lobes repaired for various reasons. Since his surgery, Tidwell has gotten a new job at a bank and is glad he had the surgery done. less Colton Tidwell of Oakland, Calif., shows his repaired ear lobes on Monday, January 2, 2012, that were surgically reconstructed by Dr. David Kahn. Tidwell used to have disc earrings for years and decided to ... more Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 7 Caption Close With all eyes on their ears, lobe stretchers snip 1 / 7 Back to Gallery

At one point, Oakland resident Coleton Tidwell could fit a golf ball through the hole in his earlobe.

Tidwell, now 21, was among those who purposely stretched their earlobes with plugs or disc earrings in the name of body modification.

Yet after one year with drooping lobes, and some reflection on life, Tidwell found himself sitting in a San Francisco plastic surgeon's office with his dangling ear parts tucked beneath the sides of a baseball cap.

"I went a little too far with it," Tidwell said. "Then it was like, 'OK, so how do I fix it now that I'm done with this phase in life?' "

Thirty minutes and $1,800 later, Tidwell was among a new class of body modifiers: Those who cut off their earlobes.

"My body had become a bumper sticker," Tidwell said. "It bothered me that people could take one look at me and think they knew what I liked or didn't like."

Outgrowing a phase

Some plastic surgeons are reporting an increase in younger clients, specifically those who are ready to undo a generational fashion statement that has left a lot of self-conscious people with a lot of sagging earlobe.

Dr. David Kahn, who performed Tidwell's surgery, was blunt in his assessment of his client's condition. "It was unsightly, a distortion that needed to be overcome."

Kahn, who has performed plastic surgery for 30 years in San Francisco, saw his first ear distortion two years ago and has worked on half a dozen patients since, he said.

To repair a stretched lobe, surgeons often work with little room for error. They make tiny incisions to release the hanging flesh, then smooth whatever lobe remains to make the ear's surface look natural again.

YouTube videos of the procedure can churn the stomach, yet the online presence has also brought several new clients to Dr. Haresh Yalamanchili, a Houston plastic surgeon who has gained some notoriety as "the guy who does ears."

Changing for jobs

Yalamanchili said he performed 14 such operations last year and has booked several more for the start of 2012.

"Listen, I get it," Yalamanchili said. "I used to live in the East Village, and I've seen a lot of people do different things to their bodies. But at some point, people are going to think about how they're perceived when they enter the workforce. They need to know they have an opportunity to change."

Tidwell pierced his ears at age 18 with the intent of stretching them for show. It took him almost a year of steadily increasing the gauge of the disc earrings until he reached an inch and a half.

Had a 'stigma'

He worked construction in Sacramento and gave little thought to future job prospects.

"They didn't care what I looked like," Tidwell said of his construction co-workers. "I liked how it looked on me. ... But I didn't like the stigma that came with it."

Tidwell said that when the earrings were out, his lobes touched his shoulders if he tilted his head slightly. When he slept, he swept the lobes to the side so he wouldn't roll on them.

"You either love 'em and continue to love 'em and take pride in them," Tidwell said, "or you wake up one day and you just have to assess where to go from here."

Last year he moved to the Bay Area; he'll attend UC Berkeley next semester as an English major and finance minor. Realizing he'd need a job someday, and not wanting to limit his opportunities, he decided to get his ears done immediately.

'Phantom lobes'

At first, he said he suffered "phantom lobes" - the surgically removed body parts itched at times. Plus, the tidy shape of his head looked unusual in shadows and mirrors.

But he adjusted to his new ears, which look remarkably similar to his old ears, if more svelte.

"I don't regret doing it," Tidwell said of the stretching. "And I don't regret fixing it, either. You learn something from all of it. It put it in perspective for me: Whatever you do, especially if it's to your own body, it really matters."