I turn to my wife and daughter and ask if they think it would be okay for me to ask him about them.
After the look at him and me a couple of times back and forth, I get the nod, okay.
First, I had no idea those disks in his ears were called plugs.
(Now I'm a Jewish kid from the Bronx, and to me earplugs are what I use for swimming!)
I asked innocently, "How did you get your lobes that big?"
He then described this process where you start with an earring in your earlobe and over time, you stretch the hole with larger and larger insets.
He had been doing this for 8 years, but confessed that his holes could've been much larger by now.
I asked, "Do you ever take them out?"
He told me sure at night, and for showering, swimming, etc.
Curious, I inquired what he does about the big flappy earlobes when the plugs aren't in.
The young man said, "It's no problem....it just hangs there."
At this point, I thank him for talking with me, but now am laughing at the conversation as I read it over, and happy to be a little innocent and even naive to some things. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)