THE NAVEL

BELLY BUTTON PIERCING

A revisit to a popular adornment

History: The navel piercing first hit the mainstream when models Christy Turlington and Naomi Campbell revealed their recently pierced navels at a London fashion show in 1993. The popularization of the piercing, however, is accredited to the 1993 Aerosmith music video for their song “Cryin’“, wherein Alicia Silverstone has her navel pierced by body piercer Paul King.

CONSIDERING A NAVEL PIERCING?

If you’re thinking of getting your navel (belly button) pierced, we would love to welcome you to the studio.
We get lots of inquiries about this piercing, and with lots of information floating around on the Internet, we thought we would pop together a little blog explaining all you need to know ahead of booking in for your new piercing!

Biology: Your belly button formed when the umbilical cord was cut after birth, and like you, it’s entirely unique. There are as many variations of belly button as there are people on the planet. Some have shapes that stay wide open even when seated and others close – while some have a protruding shape – and many other possible variations from ther!

When we assess YOUR anatomy for A navel piercing, we are looking for three MAIN things;

Shape

Is there a ‘lip’ or fold of tissue above (or below) that will support a barbell?

Movement

Does your belly button stay open, or does it close, when you sit down?

Lifestyle factors

What does your daily life look like, your clothing and activity styles

LIP:

If your navel stays open when you sit down and you have a nice pronounced lip at the top (or bottom) of your navel, then you may well be a good candidate for a “traditional” navel piercing – a la Britney Spears in the 1990’s – with a large decorative piece at the bottom, and a smaller bead at the top. Like the two images above

No lip:

If your navel closes when you are sitting down, and you have a pronounced lip at the top of your navel, you may well be suited for a “floating” navel piercing – this is when a piece of jewellery is used that has a larger, decorative end at the top, and a smaller disc or bead on the bottom. These piercings are placed a little deeper into the navel, and when downsized, the jewellery can appear to “float” magically at the top of the navel – which is where they get their name!

VARIATION, THE SPICE OF LIFE

It’s important to note that if your pierced in the “floating” style, you won’t be able to switch around to typical styles of navel jewellery later on – this can cause serious irritation, even to well healed navel piercings, and it also runs the risk of causing migration; all whilst being very uncomfortable.

Of course, these two broad descriptions of navels could never possibly encompass all of the wonderful variation we all have as individuals.  Some folks will have shapes that do not close when they sit down, but are very narrow so a big gem might be uncomfortable for them. Others might have protruding belly buttons (“outies”) which sadly, are not suitable to be pierced safely in most instances. 

Good to know: If you’re unsure what your options are, we have a brand-new option on our booking options for navel consultations, which gives you the opportunity to book in with one of our piercers for an anatomy check and to thoroughly discuss your options for piercing.

LIFESTYLE CONSIDERATIONS

Every piercing means considering your lifestyle a little – we are whole beings with interests and hobbies and jobs and clothing preferences – which means that we all have different piercing journeys and things to consider.

If youre required to wear a uniform with high-waisted clothing, or a hobby/interest which calls for high-waisted clothing, a navel piercing may not be the best choice for you. These piercings will not heal if they have clothing rubbing against them, and will become very irritated and uncomfortable. 

If you’re someone who has a job or hobbies in which you’re doing a lot of twisting/bending, again – maybe navel piercing isn’t quite right for you in this chapter of your life. Keeping these piercings as still as possible (it IS a high movement area naturally) is key to healing.

You’re going to want to avoid submerging the new piercing in water for a good 6 weeks, possibly longer – the belly button can collect and hold moisture for a long time, and a wound that can’t dry can end up in all sorts of trouble.

You will also have to be mindful of beauty and cosmetic products like fake tan, body oil and body lotion whilst you are healing – if you’re someone who loves using those types of products, do ask yourself the question of whether you can forgo them for a period of several weeks!

TYPES OF JEWELLERY

Vertical design

When you think of a ‘belly bar’ this is likely the image that comes to mind, consisting of both a top and bottom gem with both looking out and away from the body

FLOATING ATTACHMENTS

Utilizing a single attachment (threaded onto a curved barbell) looking out at the world.

CASCADING

A healed Floating Navel can wear some gorgeous cascading jewellery such as these

“The navel, also known as the belly button or umbilicus, is a scar on the abdomen formed after the umbilical cord is detached at birth”

– Wiki

TO THE FUTURE – PREGNANCY

If you are thinking of becoming pregnant, and are also thinking of getting a navel piercing – our advice would be to focus on your pregnancy journey, and recovery post-partum for a period of 6 months or so, and then plan your piercing. Please note, we cannot pierce you whilst you are pregnant or if you are breastfeeding and even until three months after you cease breastfeeding.. 

If you’re already pregnant and have a navel piercing, our advice would be to remove this piercing as soon as you notice changes to your tummy. This means that the chances of scarring from migration as your pregnancy progresses are minimized. Post-partum, we can often ‘rescue’ a well established piercing for you. 

Unfortunately, flexible “pregnancy bars” or attempting to keep jewellery in place for the duration of your pregnancy often result in migration and scarring, as the skin becomes tighter and changes as the pregnancy progresses.

SURGERY & RECONSTRUCTED NAVELS

Lots of folks have surgery scars around their belly button area, and it does not always mean that you cannot get a navel piercing. There’s lots of things we need to consider as your piercers, to help you make the best choices. 

These include; 

• What sort of procedure was performed, and what method your surgeon used
• How long ago the procedure was performed, and how scarring has settled if there is any 
• If any further abdominal surgeries are planned 

Piercing re-constructed navels (for example, from a “tummy tuck”) or when there is other surgical scarring is not impossible, but it is something that would require an in-person consultation ahead of your appointment, and some frequent check-ups just to check in on your healing journey.

BOOK NAVEL YOUR PIERCING HERE

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Just for this piece, we are going to talk about cartilage/ear piercings as this is the most common issue we most frequently see with our clients when offering advice at reception.

Room to grow

Once you have been in for your new piercing with our piercers, they cover a lot of things when it comes down to healing your new piercing. They talk about aftercare and the importance of choosing quality jewellery. Something that often gets forgotten by clients is the step of downsizing your jewellery. This is critical to the overall healing of your piercing.

Most cartilage piercings at first require jewellery that is slightly longer in length, or wider in diameter to allow for the swelling that usually arises. Yes, this length may be slightly irritating, its a necessary evil to prevent jewellery from embedding into the tissue.

The initial jewellery may look rather long in the pictures above, but we took those straight after the piercing took place. 2 or 3 weeks later the flat back of that labret was flush against the tragus tissue and the rook was rather plump!

After being pierced

You are often invited back for a ‘check-up’, at this point we can see how your piercing is healing. We see if we can help you fix any minor issues that may have arisen that you may not have noticed and all importantly change your jewellery to something shorter if its needed.
This visit is just you walking into the studio for us to see you and your piercings overall health. We would then book you in for an appointment at an appropriate time to get the jewellery adjusted for the rest of the piercings healing time.

We have established that longer jewellery is needed, but overly long jewellery can cause problems as well. It is more likely to get caught on clothing, hair or snagged, causing the piercing become to be irritated and upset, thus making the already lengthy healing time of cartilage even longer. This is another reason why its important to see a reputable piercer.

With many cartilage piercings, longer jewellery being left in too long can cause the piercing to migrate. (A shift in the piercing channel which makes the piercing wonky)

So what do I do?

Some people are ready sooner than others, we give the most ‘average’ figure for our check up invitation. Usually after a few weeks to a month is adequate time to change a helix piercing. Don’t leave it longer, this leaves a window of opportunity open where you are more likely to catch your piercing and then go through all the swelling again and delaying your downsize. Don’t forget, most cartilage piercings take around a year to heal, so after this change, its really important you leave it in until it has fully healed!

After all this being said, when can you actually come to change your jewellery to something that is a good, snug fit?

This is where it starts to vary from each client/piercing to the other. Your piercer would have worked this out with you and wrote it on your care sheet to take home with you.

 

You will of course have to pay for your shorter jewellery, getting a piercing is a project. It takes time and a little dedication towards its healing and care. Aesthetically pleasing piercings are worth a little bit of hard work. Good piercings ain’t cheap, and cheap piercings ain’t good!

Thanks for reading, we feel better for sharing this with you 🙂