As piercing of the face, ears, and just about anywhere becomes more popular, shopping for jewelry for ourselves or as gifts for others may be more confusing. One surefire way to be certain you’re shopping for the right kind of jewelry for a piercing? By knowing the name and location of popular body piercings and what jewelry can be worn there. And like always, we’re here to help with a quick reference guide and study session. Today we’ll cover facial piercings!
Piercings of the face
There are few basic facial piercings that everyone should know before doing holiday shopping for pierced family members. They are the eyebrow piercing, anti-eyebrow piercing, labret, monroe, medusa, dimples, nostril (commonly referred to as just nose piercing), septum, and bridge.
As shown here, eyebrow piercings are generally worn with an eyebrow ring, which is a small curved barbell, while anti-eyebrow or “cheek piercings” tend to be worn with a surface bar. Similarly with nose piercings, septum jewelry is usually a circular barbell like a horseshoe or BCR, while piercings of the nostril will always be referred to as a “nose ring” and come in five basic styles.
The monroe and medusa are above the upper lip, and are almost always decorated with stud style jewelry, while the labret is below or on the bottom lip, and has a wider selection of jewelry styles due to location. Hoop or “ring” type jewelry is generally the most popular amongst youth culture for piercings of the bottom lip. Other styles of multiple lip piercing are shown below, and are pictured with the type of jewelry most often worn in each piercing.
For surface piercings of the face like the bridge, anti-eyebrow, and piercings of the eyelids, preference is key to picking the right piece. While some have been pierced with a surface bar and continue to wear only this style jewelry, others will prefer to use flexible bioplast barbells or even regular straight or curved barbell items. Or, in the case of rarer piercings like the “third eye” piercing, dermal jewelry may be needed.
Dermal piercings are done with a large gauge needle or what’s called a dermal punch, and go through the skin with a single hole instead of having both an entry point and an exit point. The jewelry consists of two parts: one underneath the skin called an anchor, and some type of decoration that is visible and screws into the anchor. This allows for the look of a single jewel or spike embedded in or “growing out of” the skin. For types of microdermal or transdermal piercing in which jewelry can be changed, only the visible portion may be switched out or removed, and is usually referred to as a “dermal top.”
Stay tuned for our next reference guide, and happy holiday shopping!
