Choosing the Right Jewelry

There is a a lot of information is the Jewelry section of the site and even though I cover some of that there, I thought some of it should be expanded on. Possible one of the most important factors in the healing of a piercing is the correct jewelry. I don't know how to stress this enough and often what is fashionable is not the best choice for a healing piercing. One of the keystones of piercing is to reduce your body's ability to reject the jewelry and to have jewelry that is as acceptable to the healing process as possible. A lot of factors going into choosing the correct jewelry and it's the piercer's responsibility to choose what will work best based based on the following:

• The anatomy of the piercee
• The location of the piercing 
• The piercee's sensitivity to metals and materials
• What the predicted amount of swelling will be 
• The security of the jewelry
• Which jewelry size, weight and shape will be best to reduce stress or abuse to the piercing during the healing period of the piercing.

There is a number of factors that come into play when selecting the correct jewelry fit based on my experience. Mainly there is three that dictate the choice:

1. Shape or style of jewelry - The jewelry needs to fit into the natural shape of the piercing area and not put unneeded stress on the piercing. Also reducing the likelihood of abuse to the piercing caused by catching on jewelry or other trauma. 
2. Size - Room for swelling, allowing the piercing to discharge and for cleaning. Also when choosing the size it should be at least an 1/8th of an inch larger than the thickness of the jewelry and only allow about a 1/4 turn of the jewelry to be inside the piercing. Jewelry that is too "tight" increases the amount of tissue needed to heal the piercing and prolong the healing time and increase the likelihood of rejection or migration. Also other problems can occur from the abuse of the jewelry being too tight including scarring. 
3. Weight - The jewelry needs to be as light as possible to reduce stress to the piercing.

Each piercing has different needs and concerns so I've created sub-chapters that cover some of the most common piercings. Just click on the Links below: