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Belly Side Up

Navel piercings are one of the most popular body piercings and have been around for quite some time. But did you know that there are sizes and shapes of body jewelry that are better suited for certain types of belly buttons? Whether your are an “Innie” or an “Outtie”, finding the most appropriate fit for your navel piercing will ensure that you keep your belly button piercing at its best.
In this article, we’ll show you how to measure body jewelry for your navel piercing so that you can comfortably and accurately choose the best body jewelry for your belly button. We’ll also touch base on some of the hottest body jewelry trends for this versatile body piercing.
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Why Size Does Matter?

The size of the body jewelry that is most appropriate for your belly button type is important in ensuring that your piercing is the most comfortable it can be for you as well as preserve the piercing itself; body jewelry for the navel piercing that does not fit well can contribute to premature “giving up” on the piercing as well as bodily rejection and unnecessary wear and stretch on the skin surrounding the body piercing.

Beginners Note:

Beginners who are in the healing phase, both primary and secondary phases, should consult your body piercer before attempting to change jewelry. Healing times are individual, however, the usual time frame for healing is 2-3 months and can be determined by your body piercer. You should not have any pain or sharp discomfort during the changing of body jewelry if your body has completely healed. If you are uncomfortable changing out the jewelry, do visit the expert who pierced you for assistance.
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Determining Factors

The type of belly button you have, including the depth of your belly button and whether you are an “Innie” or and “Outtie” are the key factors to where around your belly button the body piercer can actually place the piercing. For instance, if you have a deeper belly button, the more skin there is for consideration, which is usually the case for “Innies”.
One thing to keep in mind is that your beautiful body type is not what determines that angle and placement of the body piercing. Just like your fingerprint, no two belly buttons are identical. Although there are guidelines to the ideal placement for this piercing, your body piercer has made necessary adjustments to place the piercing in the most ideal location on your body, which might be different that someone else.
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Bust Out Your Rulers, we’re going Jewelry Shopping!

If you have only the body jewelry that was used to pierce your belly button, that’s okay; you should still keep on reading because eventually, you will be able to choose a snazzier piece of body jewelry when you are healed and ready for an upgrade.
Because of the curvature of the skin on surrounding your belly button, most of you will be using a curved barbell to dress your umbilical cord remnants. The problem with this is that most people have no idea how to accurately measure this type of body jewelry, so it becomes a guessing game. We’ll show you how here so that you can understand how to choose the true size of curved barbells.
Unlike measuring for your waist size or bust, we will not need measuring tape. That’s right, we will not measure the body jewelry along the lines of it’s curvature- this is precisely how a larger than needed curved barbell ends up in your “someday” pile.
Grab your ruler and your belly ring and follow these guidelines to measure your current or past body jewelry, than match up with our general guidelines to determine which body jewelry size is best for you.
1. Grab a plain, straight ruler and lay it down or hold with steady hands as if you are playing connect the dots from the ball end to ball end.
2. Determine which way the curved barbell is is arched –  curved side in and curved side out (the curved side in is the side that is closer together end to end.)
3. Now move the ruler to the curved side in, if it is not already oriented that way- if trying to connect the ball ends, it usually lays this way already.
4. To get accurate measurements, we’ll measure at the junction where the ball meets the bar, on the inside edge of the curve.
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What did you get? Share Your Answers

It should fall somewhere between 8mm and 15mm.
Extra Deep Belly Buttons (Most likely Innies with with very deep skin & depth surrounding the piercing) : 15mm curved barbell
Deep Belly Buttons (Most likely Innies with moderate skin & depth surrounding the piercing) : 12mm curved barbell
Plain ol’ belly buttons (Can be Innie or Outie with moderate skin & depth surrounding the piercing) : 10mm or 11mm curved barbell
Shallow Belly Buttons (Can be Innie and most Outies, with little skin & depth surrounding the piercing) : 8mm curved barbell
*By depth, we mean the “middle button” part of your belly button – the concave or convex circular area.
Keeping in mind that body jewelry should not be tight and some of the bar should show is normal. The body jewelry selected by your piercer at the time of your navel piercing is longer to accommodate the swelling that follows a piercing, so there is no reason you need to stick to that length and jewelry. Finding one that fits your belly button snugly without pulling or pinching  with the design and style that floats your boat is expected. If curated some body jewelry for you in our Idea Book below to get you started. The measurements above are guidelines, therefore some adjustments and experimenting will lead to getting the perfect fit. All of our jewelry is 100% risk free, so don’t fret if it the wrong size, just send it back.