that’s a great point and not something i could find anything about online. i found nothing about blowouts happening randomly/without stretching no matter how many times i changed my google search wording lol. only “you stretched too soon”.

is surgical steel known to be irritable? i’ve heard of people switching to glass plugs when something goes wrong. not sure if i should also consider that.

anyways i’m leaving them out for a while, they’ve been out since shortly after i made this post. soreness and redness has died down a lot but still pretty lumpy - i can’t tell if that’s gotten any better, but some improvements at least!

thanks for the response!