Jewelry

More piercings are ruined by jewelry than by bacteria. The metal sits inside an open wound for months, so three things matter before anything decorative: what it is made of, how it is assembled, and whether it fits.

The three questions

1. What is the material? Ask for the standard, not the adjective. “ASTM F136 titanium” is a specification; “surgical grade” is a marketing phrase with no meaning. See materials.

2. How does it assemble? Threadless or internally threaded gives you a smooth post through the channel. Externally threaded drags a screw thread through it. See threading.

3. Does it fit? The right material in the wrong length can still cause problems. A post left longer than it needs to be after the swelling drops moves and catches more, and the APP advises avoiding friction and excessive motion. See gauge and sizes.

What to avoid in a healing piercing

• Anything plated, including gold, rose gold and black coatings
• Sterling silver, which tarnishes on contact with tissue and can stain permanently
• Unspecified “surgical steel” and mystery metals
• Externally threaded posts
• Acrylic and plastic, which are porous and cannot be autoclaved
• Hoops before a piercing is fully healed
• Anything heavy or dangling while healing

After healing

Once a piercing is genuinely healed you have far more freedom, and this is the point of the whole exercise. Even then, anything you wear daily and sleep in is worth buying properly: healed piercings still react to nickel, plating still wears, and weight still stretches a channel over years.

Buying guides for each piercing are in production.

Start with these

• Flat back earrings — what studios use instead of butterfly backs, and the post lengths by placement.
• Nose ring sizes — gauge, post length and hoop diameter for nostrils and septums.
• Nose piercing jewelry — studs, hoops, nose bones and screws compared, and what to wear at each stage of healing.
• Septum piercing jewelry — circular barbells, clickers and retainers, and what to wear while it heals.
• Eyebrow piercing jewelry — why the barbell is curved, the sizes, and when a ring is safe.
• Nipple piercing jewelry — barbell first, how the length is chosen, and what suits bras and exercise.
• Conch piercing jewelry — why the conch hoop has to wait, and how it is sized.
• Cartilage earrings — what the sources say goes in a new helix, tragus, daith or rook, and what you can wear once it has healed.
• Belly button rings — the curved barbell to start, the bar length the sources disagree on, and styles for later.
• Lip piercing jewelry — labret studs, rings and post length, with the dental research.
• Tongue piercing jewelry — barbell length, the end under the tongue, materials and what dentists say.
• Nickel allergy and piercings — the signs, and why surgical steel is not the answer.
• Piercing retainers — hiding a piercing at work or in hospital without losing it.
• Ear stretching — the 10% rule, how long to wait between sizes, and whether a stretched lobe shrinks back.
• Ring and hoop styles — captive bead rings, seamless rings, clickers and circular barbells, and which one suits which healed placement.