Belly Button Ring Sizes
September 11, 2008 by admin
Choose your navel jewelry from wide range of belly button ring sizes – from tiny ones to extra long and thick ones
A standard sized belly button ring is 1/16″ (1.6mm) thick and 3/8″ (9.5mm) or 7/16″ (11mm) long and the ball sizes are 5mm and 8mm with the largest ball at the bottom of the belly ring.
In fact, this is the difference between bananabells and common curved barbells – the last ones have balls of one size, but bananabells or belly button rings are specially designed for wearing in navels. The biggest ball sits in the middle of the navel and looks spot on!
When you visit body jewelry stores, you’ll see that every store offers different options for choosing the size of navel jewelry you want to buy. Some only indicate the thickness of the shaft in gauges, some will let you choose the length of it, but some allow you to choose the best combo of gauge and length from the drop-down menu. Some won’t say any sizes at all and in that case you have to presume that it’s a standard sized belly ring.
Having checked body jewelry stores I found out that the size range is quite big for needs of everyone. Belly ring sizes vary from 16ga to 10ga in diameter and from tiny 1/4″ to 5/8″ in length. If you need even a longer belly ring (say, in case of pregnancy), you should consider buying a PTFE or bioplast belly ring.
Below are the belly button ring sizes – you can see what a certain piercing gauge number means.
| Gauge | Fraction | Inches | Millimetres |
| 16 | 0.051″ | 1.291mm | |
| 14 | 1/16″ | 0.064″ | 1.628mm |
| 12 | 5/64″ | 0.081″ | 2.053mm |
| 10 | 1/10″ | 0.102″ | 2.588mm |
They insert standard belly rings at piercing studios and your piercing size is most likely to fit a 14ga thick and 3/8″ long shaft. Just to make yourself sure, measure your navel ring and see if it isn’t longer than 3/8″. The widest belly button ring sizes range offer TheChainGang
online jewelry store – see it yourself.
You’re about getting pierced and can’t decide what size piercing to buy? You can buy a navel ring of any gauge and length! Maybe you want the shaft be a bit thicker. Or you want the top end of the ring to emerge out of your skin a bit higher than usually. Piercer will use the piercing needle of the same gauge and you’ll get the piercing you want.
Only thing I’d suggest and I think many piercers would agree – don’t go for extra short shafts. The skin fold might be too thin to fit 1/4″ long belly ring and the piercing can migrate out of the skin – as they sometimes do.
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ok question….so once u have ur belly button pierced is it normal that the thickness of the skin would shrink a lil leaving u to see more “bar” then b4? and would this be a situation where you would change to a smaller belly ring.with a shorter shaft?
Yes, it happens sometimes. The worst case scenario is when the piercing falls out – the skin becomes thinner and thinner until the belly ring just ‘grows out’ of the piercing hole. It’s called migration and could be down to a bad belly ring quality etc.
But if the skin just becomes a bit thinner, it’s OK, after all when you get the piercing done, the skin swells up and when healing it just may look to you that it shrinks.
Question…So I just had my belly button pierced w/ a 16 ga mostly because I was not aware of the options between 14 ga & 16 ga. Now I want to get a 14 ga belly ring.
Can I put that in a 16 ga piercing?
Hi Danii,
Yes you can, the difference between these two gauges is only 0.4 mm, so the new belly ring won’t be hanging loose in the piercing hole.
[...] the body piercing gauge of 20, for example, the smallest nose rings, but standard piercings like navel rings have 14 gauge. Most of eyebrow rings are 16 gauge, so the body piercing gauge really depends on the [...]
mines not the guage mines the length will the length shrink once it heals? because right now the shorter bars dont come out the end
A 14 gauge belly ring barely comes out of the top of my belly button piercing, will it shrink up once it heels more? I have had mine for 6 weeks also if not what gauge should I try for more length?
i had my belly button pierced before and it got ripped out so they re-pierced it but i tried putting my belly button rings that i got and none of them will fit they arent long enough what do i do? do they make long ones?
ive had my belly button peirced now for about 5 years but what im finding is that my peircing hole is very big (stretched out) i guess and my belly button rings are constantly falling out. I love having my belly button peirced but im going through jewelery like crazy!!! any recommendations? ive tried different types of belly button rings and nothing seems to work long term. Please Help
Hi Heather,
I think the solution for you is reverse belly rings, have a look here:
http://www.belly-button-rings-guide.com/reverse-belly-button-rings.html
Rgds,
Robby
Ok so i got my bellybutton pierced a little more than two months ago, but apparently i was not aware that he used a lightly longer shaft than what the normal length would be. so now when i bought a new one at the store it was too short to go through the hole, which means that any of them in the store that are standard lengh would be too short, eliminating 80% of the market, which in turn means i could not buy what i want but what fits. what should i do?
my belly button was pierced about 5 months ago and i just noticed that i could see more of the jewlery (length) than i had before. i don’t know if its because the skin was swollen and now its gone down or that the bottom part of the piercing is migrating. the top part hasn’t caused me any problems but the bottom gets pretty swolen at times; lets out puss and sometimes blood which leaves crusts at the bottom ball. i’m unsure of which one it could be therefore i don’t know what to do.
Hi Laura,
If the piercing is migrating, there’s actually one thing you can do – change the jewelry for a PTFE or Bioplast one – these materials will facilitate the healing process. Probably the belly ring is of a poor quality and that is causing the problems.
Robby
eyyy. so i have a 14 gauge curved barbell for my bellybutton. it was fine for the first few months or so but the past few months i can see more of the jewelry (like the length of it) and its annoying. so would a size 16 gauge work better?
I got belly button pieced about 3 years ago, and there is just a little part of my skin that is holding the ring in. The thing is is i have and inny/outy for a belly button can i get it re-pierced or do i have to wait for mine that i have now close up and then get it pierced?
I’ve had my belly button pierced for a month and 1/2 now. Everyones talking about their skin feeling thinner but mine feels the opposite it feels super thick and if I take it out to change it it still feels like the bar is inside. The only way I could really explain it is when you have ur ears pierced and the hole feels like a little little little ball or w.e it feels like that but times a million. Is this normal? What does it mean?
okay i have a question
i got my belly pierced with a 16G because my piercer did not offer me an option. but now looking at all the jewelry it seems like its mostly 14G can i put a 14G ring in mine? if so will it hurt?
I just got my navel pierced with a 14 gauge but I want to use that size since I’m not comfortable with the larger ones. Where can I purchase fine jewelry online in that size?
Sorry. I meant 16 gauge.
Hi Susanna,
In this shop http://www.thechaingang.com/ you can get 16g belly rings.
Robby
hello! i have my pierce for almost 4months. and unkwoledgable about the sizes, i ordered thru internet a bunch of different color flexi belly rings (i was attracted because of the cute colors) but when im trying to change my belly ring seems that it is not fitted. my old silver ring is smaller that the rings ive bought. what should i do? thanks alot!
grace,
i have the same problem. you prolly got your peirced with a 16 G and most belly rings are 14 G. my friend had this peoblem to and she said that she just shoved the larger one in. but i dont think i want to have to do that. so im looking for some tips to!
When I had my belly button pierced 4 weeks ago he used the regular length. I tried to change it out the other day but now the regular size bars are tooo short. It just barely comes out on the end. Is it because the piercing isnt healed yet? Does it usually take a while for swelling to go down or am I not going to be able to wear regular length bars???
Hi Christa,
Your piercing is definitely still healing – don’t take the ring out and wait for at least 6 – 8 weeks! If you browse this site you’ll find many stories of belly piercings gone wrong because the jewelry was taking out/changed too early.
Meylin and Grace,
You can stretch your 16g piercing by sticking some adhesive tape on the belly ring. Then in a weeks time stick some more. In 6 – 8 weeks time it can be stretched to the next gauge.
Just make sure:
* the piercing has to be completely healed before stretching to avoid any complications, scarification and infections;
* use high quality tape
All the best,
Robby
thanks Robby!
thats helped alot. when its healed i will deff. try that
I just got my belly button pierced 1 week ago and its really swollen and sore (which i expect), but now the top ball is actually going inside and the skin is trying to grow over it. My piercer used a 13mm length, and i found a ring that is a little longer and is still surgical grade steel. Is it okay to switch it out, and then leave it alone for the rest of the healing process? Im afraid that if i dont do something soon i am going to heal with this huge hole on the top. Any advice?
the bit in between has shrunk quite a bit it looks fine but where can i buy smaller belly bars as mine are too big and they irritate me
.
okay i got mine done on may 2 its the 18th I still have to wait to get mine changed this is thae last week of school and idk if i will be here to get it changed my mom says she dont want me to change it in FL she says it would be bad if i got fake gold so is it bad that I have to wait still??????????
Hi Destiney,
You really have to wait still… for at least 4 weeks. A few girls have posted really bad infection experiences on this website and all because they didn’t want to wait for the healing process to complete!
Robby
Hi, i got my belly button pierced about 8mths ago and i can see more of the bar of my belly button ring coming down what do i do do i change the size of ring? or what cuz it seems like it might ripped or somehting
like it doesnt look as high up anymore
I’m a mom of two.. used to be a ballet dancer and had a really tight body … however after pregnancy ended up with scaring and a basically “melted” look of saggy skin on my tummy area. I have a “sad” belly button and have always wanted to improve on it’s appearance with a beautiful belly ring as this is the area that has destroyed my confidence and i want to do something about it. Is is possible for the belly button to be improved by this? eg. shape? what bar should i be looking at getting? .. is it a good idea?
Hi Vivian,
The belly piercing wouldn’t change the way your skin and belly button looks and its shape either, I’m afraid. I’d say – if you just want to do it – go for it!
For the best first time belly rings have a read here:
http://www.belly-button-rings-guide.com/belly-button-piercings-first-time.html
Robby
I just got my belly button pierced 1 week ago and its really swollen and sore (which i expect), but now the top ball is actually going inside and the skin is trying to grow over it. My piercer used a 13mm length, and i found a ring that is a little longer and is still surgical grade steel. Is it okay to switch it out, and then leave it alone for the rest of the healing process? Im afraid that if i dont do something soon i am going to heal with this huge hole on the top. Any advice?
******* i got the same problem!! i got my belly button pierced five days ago and i do not know the length of the barbell orgauge but the top ball of my piercing is inside my skin and swollen.. i cannot go to my piercer because i am out of state and he told me to take ibuprofen and just keep cleaning it with dial and ear care solution. but i stoppped the ear care solution and only wash it once a day with dial soap.. So i am just thinking of trynig to get another ring and switch it out?
okay so i called my piercer and ahe said ahe pierced me with a 14 guage and and 7/16th bar which is standard..and i think i need a longer one for my piercing. Even my mom said that is a small piercing for how much skin he pierced throught.
ok.. i got mine done a week after christmas in 08.. and at the bottom of the ring, inside my belly button it has like some meat poking out, but not at the hole. it bleeds and ozzes all the time.. is this normal? cuz i know its not infected.. well i dont think it is, i clean it all the time.. and i have not changed it.. i will be tomorrow though. lol.. but just let me know please! thanks
it doesnt bleed all the time.. only sometimes..
and idk what to do.. i love it so much, i dont want to take it out.
I got my belly button pierced 1 1/2 years ago. I wasn’t aware that they length of the shaft was larger than normal, and now I have trouble finding jewelry that fits me. If I’m understanding this article correctly, I am currently wearing a ring that is 7/16″?
i recently got my bellybotton peirced about 2 weeks ago. I have been taking very good care of it, useing saltwater. It has become very red around the holes and the upper ball has completely dissapeared into my bellybotton. I can push it back out, but it wont stay and it is very painfull. Do i need a bigger bellyring?
I’ve had my belly button pierced for 10 years now and the top ball finally fell off for good and cannot be found. I purchased a 14 gauge ring with balls on either end but I think my old ring must be a 12 gauge (curved bar looks smaller). Could I possibly put a 14 gauge ring in a 12 gauge hole??? Has anyone ever tried it???
okay so how exactly do u mesure ur belly rung to find the size/g
recently got my bellybotton peirced about 2 weeks ago. I have been taking very good care of it, useing saltwater. It has become very red around the holes and the upper ball has completely dissapeared into my bellybotton. I can push it back out, but it wont stay and it is very painfull. Do i need a bigger bellyring?
I had the same thing happen to me the first time I had my belly button done I had to let mine close and get it done over. I think it might have been from my ring pulling and getting caught in things.
Hi Madison,
It’s really weird the top of the belly ring disappears in the piercing – the bar probably is too short or the ball is too small! I’d say you go back to the piercing shop and show them your problem – if they’re any good they’ll fit in a proper piece of jewelry.
Bri Carr – go to this link and it’ll show you the body jewelry gauge chart:
http://body-jewelry-guide.com/images/body-jewelry-gauge.jpg
Jenna – 14 gauge is smaller than 12 and you can definitely put it in! Maybe you meant that you probably have 10 gauge belly ring now – if so then you may have some difficulties putting it in. In this case don’t just try to push it in – buy a new belly ring of the right gauge and by putting sticky tape around it you can stretch your piercing to a bigger gauge in a month’s time or so.
If I use a thinner ring than the normal ring I’ve been using, will I have trouble putting a thicker one back in?
Ok, so I got my navel pierced with a curved 14G on December 8th… Today is June 28th. I have tried all different types of rings-(bio plast, stainless, titanium, ect) the only ring that doesnt make me red and itchy is the one I got it pierced with, the stainless steel. I itch when I use another stainless steel one though. What could be the reasoning? Also I think it’s starting to migrate bc in a relaxed position I can see almost half the bar sticking out. How can I stop migration? Does weight matter? I gained like 5 lbs since having this done, do you think im stretching it out? haha… idk what’s going on!!!! Oh yeah, if it does migrate, will i have a scar there still? and will i be able to repierce it? I absolutely love it being there!
I have both my upper and lower navel pierced. When I got my upper piercing done, it did heal slightly farther down, so I need a shorter size ring for the top. Does anyone know of any website that sells industrial navel rings? I can only find them for ear piercings. Or, is it possible to get a small size hoop to wear on the top hole?
Thank you!!
Hey! Okay so I got my upper naval pierced in Mexico (sketchy I know, alcohol was involved) and the belly ring I bought is much shorter than all the rings I’ve bought in the states… I was wondering where I could find a really short in length belly ring because all the other ones stick out and are way too long.
Thanks soo much
I got my belly button pierced about 3months ago and i change my belly button ring about 2 weeks ago nd recently ive noticed that i have very little skin in between both balls i decided to take my piercing out because i was scared of it ripping and see if my skin in between the holes will grow/thicken alittle and then put it back in is that fine? Or should i get it repierced?
Hello
I got my navel pierced 6 days ago and i’ve been cleaning it regularly but it has swollen some and the top ball seems to be somewhat in the skin. I can push it from the bottom and it comes out fine, but I think maybe the bar is too short… What should I do?
question…so today i was changing my belly button ring and i noticed that the skin holding it is is really thin…i’m not totally sure that this is bad or not? also, should i take it out and let it grow a little more? i’m afraid that it might rip out.
My belly ring gets red and sore whenever I put a ring in it. Im not sure if I am allergic to the ring or if their is to much skin between the ends of the ring. I have to push the skin in to get the ball on the end of the ring. It’s a standard size belly ring. Can I get longer rings than the standard 11m length.
There are adjustable belly rings available-have a look in our the Adjustable Bioplast belly rings in the BBRG shop. They can be adjusted to 16mm.
I have a question….I have pierced my belly button 3 times, it has rejected twice. Right now it looks fine but it got a lot thinner from when i pierced it which is why i need to get a smaller ring.
I was wondering what type of belly ring I should buy? (stainless steel, titanium, gold, bioplast or anything) or where to get it?
So if you can please recommend something safe that wouldnt cause it to reject, that would be amazinggg. Thanks!
Hi Angela,
you will nees something light and body friendly. Bioplast may be best. Bioplast is guaranteed not to reject. Check out our selection at-http://www.belly-button-rings-guide.com/navel-ring-bioplast.html- or just visit our shop on the home page.
i got my belly button periced 4 days ago and the top ball came off and i lost it can i put a differnt ball on there it surgical stile …. or will it get infected??
If you lost the entire piercing, dont try to re-insert a new one yourself. Its too soon after your piercing and will probably cause an infection or your piercing will have partly closed. Go back to your piercing studio to have it re-inserted. If your piercing hasn’t been removed it shouldn’t get infected as long as you follow your piercing aftercare instructions, and putting on a different ball shouldn’t be a problem.
hello, i have had my belly button pierced for a little over a year a and a half, almost two years and i wanted to no is it normal having a 12g belly button ring to big
I’ve had my top bellybutton pierced three times.. first time it rejected, second time it got infected, and now its ok i guess.. it’s just all red because of scar tissue, and i’m afraid that will reject it. and that pus stuff gets all over it.. i’ve had it done about a month and a half. and i also got my bottom one pierced back in april, but now, the skin above it is rly small.. the guy who did my top one said the place who did my bottom one used cheap jewelry, so he put in a different one in the bottom too. i was wondering if either of those sound like they’re gonna reject? or how to get more skin to cover the bottom one? or how to get rid of the scar tissue? also, i tried changing the bottom one earlier, but i can’t get it untwisted. it feels like i’m gonna pull it out of my skin, and then i got very light headed and had to lay down.
i got my belly pierced like 5 months ago instead of getting a regular ring they put a circle ring 3 weeks ago i broke my ring but i went out to buy a new one and it didnt fit. i ended up buying a good 6 new rings and all didnt fit.
they were to short it barley reached the top
is there a bigger bar size i can buy somewhere?
and if so what size should i get????
So I’ve had my belly button pierced for a little over a year and a half now. Its also my first time getting it pierced.. I never had to get it re-pierced or anything. But I have this little scar tisse on the top hole and I was wondering if that was normal.. because I saw my friends belly button hole piercing and her hole is completely healed with no scars and the hole is about the size of the belly button ring bar.. and it looks perfect with nothing wrong with it. My hole is still small and I have to sqeeze the belly ring bar in.. but its not like difficult to do so or anything. But I know its not infected or anything becase there is no discharge, or swelling, or redness. No pain at all.. Jus a very small scar tissue and a hole not so big compared to other girls completely healed belly button piercing. Also when I take out my belly button ring it still feels like there bar is in it.. I dont know if its because it was pierced too thick ?
whats wrongg?! is this normal because i havent heard any other expierences like mine ?
I have had my belly button pierced for about 8 months and i took it out and changed it a couple time and had no problems. One day i took it out and lost the top ball so i just left it out over night until i got a new ring. When i tried to insert the ring back in the next day it WOULD NOT go through. so i tried a smaller guage earring ( like a normal earring) and it went thru but it seemed really tight.. is there any way to get my ring back in without gettin it repierced? i have been looking at tapers and wondering if i could use the taper to insert the bigger gauged ring back in? PLLEASE help..
Hey, i got my belly button pierced like 3 weeks ago and i was told to leave it in for like 2 months before i change it out. when i do change it out how do i know what belly button rings will fit and what one’s wont?
hello, i got my belly button pierced 3 weeks ago and i know i cant take it out for like 2 months. when you go to change the ring what size should it be?
Hi, I had my belly pierced since i was 15 now im almost 20 recently i put a eyebrow ring in my belly ring because i wanted a shorter shaft because i felt i the belly rings were to long. Now i had the eyebrow ring in for about a few months now. So, now I tried to put a a regular belly ring and it wont go in.. its as if it closed. I try and try and it wont go in all the way. It goes through bottom but not through the top tell me what i can do so i can put my regular belly ring in.
Hey there, when measuring a barbell, do you measure the threading aswell, or just the solid bar?
Just the bar!!
When you are talking about the gauges of the bar… I got mine pierced two weeks ago and I have no idea what gauge it is… But I have other belly button rings that I will put in once the piercing is fully healed. If I got pierced with a 16 gauge, and then when it was healed I tried to put in a 10 gauge one, would the 10 gauge not fit? And is there any way to tell what I got pierced with?
The standard gauge is 14 – it would be unusual to have anything bigger in a first-time piercing. You would have to ask your piercer to be sure. Once your piercing is healed, you will be able to use other gauges. If you want to use a larger gauge, contact a piercing pro before putting it in.
hi. i just got my belly button pierced a week ago with a 14 gouge bananabarbell. i went to the store yesterday and accidentaly bought an eyebrow piercing insstead of a navel piercing, and i think the eyebrow piercing is around 10 gouge, but the same length as my belly button piercing. when i change my piercing in a few months, would i be allowed to use the eyebrow piercing in my navel or did i waste my money?
sorry, the eyebrow piercing is around 16-18 gouge**
Hiiii!!
OK so my bely piercing is healed and I need a MUCH shorter ring!! but i dont know where to find one?? Ive been looking for a website but havent found many that offer differet legths….so any help with that would be greatttT
but als wondering…if i were to get my belly button repierced…to be able to wear a standard ring…will my old pircing show under the new? like wil if ever go away or wil i always have a hole under my top ball..lol
okay so i am getting my naval pierced in a few days and my friends are telling me to buy the 16 gauge. is that true? And when will i be able to start working out again?
So I’ve had my bellybutton pierced for almost 4 years, and there’s not much skin left inbetween the ring itself and skin. I’m afraid it will rip out, and I’m not sure whether I could get it pierced with more skin or if I’d have to wait for it to close up? Or if there was any way skin will go back inbetween the pierced area and my skin so it doesn’t feel like it will fall out?