All About Belly Button Rings

Belly button rings are, without question, the most popular from of body piercing jewelry. Since belly button rings reign supreme among all of the many forms of body piercing jewelry on the market (they account for over 90% of our sales!), we felt that Montanabodyart.com would not be complete without a page dedicated to the sexy and popular navel piercing adornments collectivey known as belly button rings.

Unquestionably, belly button rings are very popular in modern western culture and customers who purchase our many styles of navel piercing jewelry range across the entire spectrum from teenage girls to even grandmothers and the occasional male. Although the vast majority of people who choose to adorn their navel piercing with a belly button ring at the present time are female, and most belly button rings are decidedly designed to appeal to the female customer, this has not always been the case. In fact, much to the contrary, some of the earliest recorded history surrounding the belly button piercing seems to indicate that they were originally reserved for males.

The Royal Origins of the Navel Piercing

Not only were the earliest wearers of belly button rings male, there is some very strong historical evidence which suggests that the belly button ring was given special royal status in ancient Egypt and was a mark of royalty reserved only for the Pharaoh himself. Since, by royal decree of the Pharaoh, piercing a navel and wearing a belly button ring by anyone other than the reigning Pharaoh was punishable by death, it is not surprising that this now extremely popular style of body piercing jewelry failed to catch on among the masses in ancient Egypt!

Belly button rings may have been reserved for only the highest of royalty in ancient Egypt, but other body piercings were quite popular and considered a status symbol among wealthy Egyptians. While belly button rings were off limits to most, earrings (particularly heavy gauge plugs) were worn by practically all of the upper class and numerous mummies dating back to about 3,000 BC have been found with plugs made of gold, bone, and other materials.

Luckilly for you (and of course for us as well) wearing a belly button ring by those not in the royal family is no longer punishable by death! The belly button ring has become so popular that there are an almost unlimited number of designs and styles available today. It seems that the design of belly button rings is limited only by the imagination as new ones appear on an almost daily basis. The most popular styles (at least for the present) seem to fall into three major categories including:

• banana belly button rings (the standard curved barbell)
• dangle style belly button rings, and
• reverse dangle belly button rings (which have the dangle on the top instead of the bottom).

Belly button rings, in addition to coming in a variety of styles, are also manufactured from a wide variety of materials. Although the most popular material for belly button rings and other body piercing jewelry continues to be 316L surgical implant grade stainless steel (popular for it's durability and resistence to metal allergies due to it's being nickel free), many other materials are also used for the manufacture of belly button rings. In addition to the 316L stainless steel belly button rings, customers commonly buy navel jewelry manufactured from such diverse materials as:

• solid 14 karat gold belly button rings 
• acrylic bead belly button rings 
• silicone belly button rings 
• surgical grade plastics, and exotic hypoallergenic metals such as:
• titanium belly button rings 
• niobium belly button rings