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Body piercing jewelry is jewelry manufactured specifically for use in body piercing. The jewelry involved in the art of body piercing comes in a wide variety of shapes and sizes in order to best fit the pierced site. Jewelry may be worn for fashion, cultural tradition, religious beliefs, personal symbolism, and many other reasons.
Originally, hardly any other jewelry than circular earrings were used in modern Western body piercing. As the body piercing became more of a fashion, a vast amount of specially crafted jewelry became available to the public. Common types of body jewelry that are sold often in modern days include barbells, captive bead rings, labrets, navel curves, plugs, spirals, and various other types of piercing jewelry. Materials used for production have grown from traditional gold and silver to widespread use of surgical steel as well as titanium, niobium, glass, and several kinds of plastics (PTFE, Tygon, bioplast, nylon). Wood, horn, amber, stone, bamboo, silicone, fossilized ivories, tusks, bones, and porcelain can also be used to craft body piercing jewelry.
The Prince Albert (PA) is a penis piercing which extends from the urethra to the underside of the glans. It is one of the most common male genital piercings. The related reverse Prince Albert piercing enters through the urethra and exits through a hole pierced in the top of the glans.
A lip piercing is a type of body piercing that penetrates the lips or the area surrounding the lips, which can be pierced in a variety of ways.
A bridge piercing is a facial piercing through the skin on the bridge of the nose, usually directly between the eyes of the wearer. A variation on this piercing, the vertical bridge piercing is a surface piercing, with all of the risks or potential complications related to surface piercings.
A navel piercing is a type of piercing that penetrates the skin of the navel. It is most commonly located on the upper fold of skin but can also be affected underneath or around the edges of the navel. Healing usually takes around 6–12 months but varies person-to-person due to differences in physiology.
A clitoral hood piercing is a female genital piercing through the clitoral hood surrounding the clitoris. In addition to being an adornment, a clitoral hood piercing can enhance sexual pleasure during masturbation, foreplay and intercourse. In an empirical study at the University of South Alabama, the authors reported a positive relationship between vertical clitoral hood piercings and desire, frequency of intercourse, and sexual arousal. There are two main types of clitoral hood piercing: the vertical clitoral hood (VCH) piercing and the horizontal clitoral hood (HCH) piercing. As the names indicate, the difference is in the direction the piercing is oriented in the skin above the clitoris. Neither of these piercings penetrates the clitoris itself, although in common parlance they are sometimes called "clit" piercings. The deep hood piercing is a variation of the clitoral hood piercing that passes deeper through the clitoral hood.
Nose piercing is the piercing of the skin or cartilage which forms any part of the nose, normally for the purpose of wearing jewelry, called a nose-jewel. Among the different varieties of nose piercings, the nostril piercing is the most common.
An earring is a piece of jewelry attached to the ear via a piercing in the earlobe or another external part of the ear, or, less often, by some other means. Earrings have been worn by people in different civilizations and historic periods, often with cultural significance.
An eyebrow piercing is a vertical surface piercing, wherein a twelve to eighteen gauge cannula needle is inserted through the bottom of the eyebrow and exits through the top of the eyebrow to permit insertion of jewellery. Those performing the piercing may use a pennington clamp to better guide the needle through the skin. A curved barbell is the most common jewellery inserted post-piercing.
A tongue piercing is a body piercing usually done directly through the center of the tongue. Since its decline in popularity around 2011, it has seen a recent upsurge making it now the second most popular piercing amongst young women aged 18-25 in 2019. It has become quite unpopular amongst men, although in the 1990s and early 2000s, it was more popular for men than women to get and associated with punk culture. Midline tongue piercings, or one hole through the center of the tongue is the most common way to have the tongue pierced.
A frenum piercing is a type of body piercing located on the underside of the shaft of the penis. A series of parallel frenum piercings is known as a frenum ladder. A frenum ladder may be extended to include lorum piercings, hafada piercings and guiche piercings.
A labret is a form of body piercing. Taken literally, it is any type of adornment that is attached to the lip (labrum). However, the term usually refers to a piercing that is below the bottom lip, above the chin. It is sometimes referred to as a "tongue pillar" or a "soul patch piercing".
A tragus piercing is the perforation of the tragus, which projects immediately in front of the ear canal, for the purpose of inserting and wearing a piece of jewelry. The piercing itself is usually made with a small gauge hollow piercing needle, and typical jewelry would be a small diameter captive bead ring or small gauge post style piercing jewelry. A related piercing is known as the antitragus piercing.
Barbell style piercing jewelry is composed of a straight bar with a bead on each end, one or both beads unscrewable for removal and/or changing of the beads. Often one of the beads is fixed, either via epoxy or welding, so that only one bead is used to install or remove the jewelry. Barbell threads are usually right-handed.
An industrial piercing, also known as a scaffold piercing (UK/Ireland) or construction piercing, is any ear piercing that consists of two pierced holes connected with a single piece of jewelry. These piercings typically consist of a double perforation of the upper ear cartilage specifically. Two piercings must be made: one is fairly close to the head, while the second one is further down the helix on the opposite side of the ear. Industrial piercings that are vertical are also known as a suicide industrial.
Stretching, in the context of body piercing, is the deliberate expansion of a healed piercing for the purpose of wearing certain types of jewelry. Ear piercings are the most commonly stretched piercings, with nasal septum piercings, tongue piercings and lip piercings/lip plates following close behind. While all piercings can be stretched to some degree, cartilage piercings are usually more difficult to stretch and more likely to form hypertrophic scars if stretched quickly. Dermal punching is generally the preferred method for accommodating larger jewelry in cartilage piercings.
A clitoris piercing is a genital piercing placed directly through the head (glans) of the clitoris itself. It is a relatively uncommon piercing by choice because of the potential for nerve damage, and because many may find it too stimulating to allow the constant wearing of a small ring or barbell. Most piercing studios will refuse to do a clitoral piercing. It is often confused with the more common clitoral hood piercing, which pierces only the hood covering the clitoral glans, allowing the jewelry to make only occasional contact with the most sensitive area.
A rook piercing is a perforation of the antihelix of the ear for the purpose of wearing jewelry. It is located just above the tragus on the ridge between the inner and outer conch with the piercing passing from the underside to the top of this ridge, differing from many ear piercings that essentially span between a "front" and "back" surface. Erik Dakota, a well known professional piercer and the individual responsible for originating and popularizing the rook piercing, is said to have named this modification after a shortened version of his first name. The piercing was first named in issue #4 of the magazine Body Play and Modern Primitives Quarterly around 1992 alongside the first printed reference to the industrial piercing, then termed "industrial ear project".
A Monroe piercing is a lip piercing placed off-center, above the upper lip on the left-hand side and is meant to resemble Marilyn Monroe's beauty spot, although Monroe's beauty spot was on her cheek, not her lip. The Madonna piercing is similar but worn on the right-hand side.
A philtrum piercing, nicknamed a medusa piercing, is an upper lip piercing placed in the philtrum, directly under the septum of the nose. It is typically pierced using a labret stud as jewelry, with the ball sitting outside the mouth in the dip of the top lip.
A plug, in the context of body modification, is a short, cylindrical piece of jewelry commonly worn in larger-gauge body piercings. Modern western plugs are also called flesh tunnels. Because of their size—which is often substantially thicker than a standard metal earring—plugs can be made out of almost any material. Acrylic glass, metal, wood, bone, stone, horn, glass, silicone or porcelain are all potential plug materials.