Choosing Jewellery for a New Piercing VS. a Healed Piercing

So you’ve done everything right. You did your research, found out just the right piercing to get, and picked out the best piercing artists around, but you’re not quite done. The coolest piercing in the world is nothing without the right jewellery.

There is a huge selection of piercing jewellery for all sorts of piercings. There are loads of options for accessorizing, adding flair, accentuating features, or making a statement. But with so much choice, where do you start?

We find the best place to start is determining whether you’re shopping jewellery for a brand new piercing, or one that’s already healed.

Choosing Jewellery for a New Piercing

Your starting jewellery options are a little more limited with a fresh piercing. But don’t worry. Depending on your piercing, you’re only a few weeks to a few months away from opening up to a world of options.  Here are some considerations for choosing jewellery for new piercings:

• Jewellery Style
• Materials
• Gauge

Jewellery Style

Those big, dangling hoop earrings you have your eye on aren’t practical yet, but you’ll wear them soon enough. When your body piercings are still healing the area around them is tender. You want to use jewellery that doesn’t move around too much and isn’t likely to catch on anything.

Hoop or dangle earrings can easily catch on clothes, hair, and objects. As well, they have lots of opportunity to move around inside the piercing hole. Either of these problems slows down healing and can result in irritation or complication.

Some of the jewellery styles often recommended for a fresh piercing include:

• Studs
• Barbells
  • Circular
  • Curved
  • Straight
• Fixed Bead Ring
• Nostril Screw

All of these styles minimize the amount of exposed jewellery. That means there is less movement and less chance of the jewellery catching or pulling.

Can I Put A Ring in A Fresh Conch Piercing?

This is one of our most common questions on this subject. We advise against using a ring in new conch piercings. Conch piercings heal slowly, and a ring has a high likelihood of moving and catching. It’s safer to start with a barbell and switch to a ring after healing. 

Materials

Piercing jewellery comes in all sorts of material. But the safest kinds are implant grade titanium and 14k to 18k gold. We recommend these materials for all jewellery as they are safe and hypoallergenic. However, they are especially important for new piercings.

Implant grade titanium are ASTM F-136 and ASTM F-67. It has the benefit of being lightweight, so it doesn’t pull on your piercing. As well it is free of nickel contamination, nickel sensitivity is the cause of a common allergic reaction to jewellery. It is available in a wide variety of colours. 

Yellow or white gold is also a good option for new piercings. It should be at least 14k to ensure it is biocompatible and doesn’t contain nickel. Anything over 18k is too soft for new jewellery because the surface is too easily damaged.

Even small scratches or porous surfaces on jewellery can slow healing. Cells form inside of the imperfections, tearing the piercing each time it moves. 

Gauge

The gauge size of piercing jewellery is relative to how thick or thin it is. The larger the gauge, the smaller the piercing hole needs to be to fit the jewellery. Getting the right gauge is important. If it’s too small the jewellery will shift around and slow healing. If it’s too big it may tear the skin around a new piercing.

Gauge sizes range from 20g (0.81mm) up to 00g (10-51mm). Gauges can sometimes vary a little between body jewellery companies. So it’s usually best to purchase jewellery from the same shop that you get pierced. The piercer is familiar with the jewellery and its corresponding gauge variants. 

For most piercings, you will base the jewellery gauge on the gauge of the piercing and not the other way around. Your piercer knows the best gauge sizes to use, for instance, nipple piercings are usually 14g, where most nose piercings are 20g or 18g.

If you intend to stretch the piercing, however, your piercer may recommend starting with a larger gauge piercing.

Many piercing shops carry stretching kits, but they shouldn’t be used until the piercing completely heals.

Find Piercing Jewellery & Artists in Newmarket

Whether you’re looking to get a piercing or are searching for new body jewellery, our piercers are happy to help. Contact a piercing expert today or visit us in our Newmarket piercing shop.