Recommended Gauges for New Body Piercings

With the ever growing popularity of heavy gauge body piercings and the common desire to stretch piercings beyond their original size, we are frequently asked what size piercing we recommend for various locations. Although the final decision on what gauge piercing to do in any location will ultimately be up to you and your piercing professional, we have decided to include a list of recommeded piercing gauges and jewelry styles for some of the more popular body piercings.

Belly Button (navel) Piercing

For navel piercings, 14 gauge is without question the norm. Although piercing a navel with either larger or smaller gauges is possible, the vast majority of belly button jewelry (probably more than 99%) is 14 gauge. Choosing sizes other than 14 gauge will make finding navel rings next to impossible and should be avoided.

The length of the piercing will depend somewhat on the size of the person being pierced and we have seen navel piercings ranging from 5/16" (8mm) all the way up to 5/8" (16mm). In most cases, either 3/8" (9 - 10mm) or 7/16" (11mm) will be most appropriate and these are the sizes that most navel rings come in. In fact, most navel piercing will accomodate either 3/8" or 7/16" bellybutton rings with ease.

Eyebrow Piercing

The most common gauges, and the ones we would recommend for an initial eyebrow piercing gauge would be 16 gauge or 18 gauge. Although 14 gauge is slowly becoming more popular for eyebrow piercings, the bulk of available eyebrow jewelry still falls into the 16 - 18 gauge range.

Nose (nostril) Piercing

Nose piercing is commonly done in either 18 gauge or 20 gauge and either size will allow you to find a wide variety of very nice nose studs or nose screws. The biggest thing we would caution people about with getting a nose piercing is to avaoid any piercing shop using a gun. A few shops are still using piercing guns for 20 gauge nose piercings and this form of piercing is much harder on the body and more likely to result in problems. In short, if they use a gun...just say no.

Septum Piercing

Septum piercings, through the septum bridge between the nostril openings, are most commonly done at 14 gauge although larger guage septum piercings are becoming more popular (particularly 12 and 10 gauge). Septum piercings in gauges larger than 10 are rare, but not unheard of.

Tongue Piercing

Tongue piercings range from 14 gauge up to even 2 gauge or larger on occasion. Despite the wide range of barbells available for tongue piercings, we recommend getting your initial piercing done in 14 gauge. Once healed, the tongue is a relatively easy piercing to stretch if desired. The length of barbell you need will vary somewhat based on the thickness of your tongue, but 3/4" (19mm) is usually a good size to allow for the inevitable swelling that occurs after the piercing. Once healed, 5/8" (16mm) is the most common length and stretching should be a breeze if that is what you desire.

Labret Piercing

Labret piercings, also known as monroe piercings, are usually done in 18 gauge, 16 gauge, or 14 gauge. We recommend 16 gauge as it is by far the size which will give you the widest selection of labret jewelry. If you later find a 14 gauge labret ring that you have to have, stretching the healed piercing up to 14 gauge should prove to be an easy and largely painless undertaking.