As we are asked the question so often, I thought it would be a good idea to make the information readily available. So – if you already know this, you may think it obvious – however, you may have been told by your body piercer – which many people are not.
Certain types of body piercings, in particular the tongue, labret & monroe piercing (also referred to as the madonna piercing) swell up when the piercing is performed, so, they are pierced with a longer bar length to allow for the extra space the swelling will take up – hence the bar in most cases will be longer than necessary.
Once the swelling has gone down, the bar may seem to long and may be changed to a shorter bar once the initial healing period is over. If the bar is changed earlier than this then there is a risk of infection, so, should only be changed earlier if the bar is causing extreme discomfort or in the case of an allergic reaction to the jewellery worn.
Many people are not given the above information by their piercer, so may not be aware that body piercing jewellery is available in different bar lengths, so may struggle along with an uncomfortable or awkward badly fitting bar.
tongue bars are available in 10mm, 12mm, 14mm & 16mm lengths. labret studs & monroe studs are available in 6mm, 8mm, 10mm and 12mm lengths. Nipple bars are available in many lengths ranging from 8mm to anything upto 30mm depending of the style of nipple jewellery it comes with. Nipple Shields are often wide designs requiring the nipple bar to protrude out either side of the nipple shields hence the lengths of the Nipple differeng so widely.
When selecting a new bar length, you will need to ensure that you know the gauge of your piercing (the width of the needle it was pierced with and the width of the bar you are presently wearing) in order to select the correct piercing jewellery for your piercing. If you don’t know, then if you are able to ask your piercer, then this is recomended, however, if not, if you have a friend with the same piercing or with piercings that may be able to identify the bar gauge for you. (As you become used to owning body jewellery – you will learn to tell the gauges by a glance). If none of the above are possible, all is not lost.
Get a ruler with mm on it, lay the bar accross the ruler – not alongside it. You need to set it down so that one side of the bar lines up with a millimetre mark, then – look at the opposite side of the bar. (You will really need to look hard and closely at this, because to an untrained eye, this is a comparatively tiny amount of difference we are looking for). If it is only two hairs breadth away from the 1mm mark – then your bar is 1.2mm – 16 gauge, if the bar is closer to the 2mm mark – the bar is 1.6mm – 14 gauge.
With the gauge sizing covered – all that is left is to try to work out what size bar you need to move down to. Bar sizes go up / down in 2mm. So – what you need to do is to firstly now the length of your bar – which when the time is right and not before – take out the bar to measure the length of it if you are not sure what length it is (get the ruler out again). Then – what you need to do, after replacing the stud / bar is, push it as far to one end as possible so you can see what area of the bar is then visible. Your practice with the mm ruler will come in handy now. You need to estimate the space in mm of the bar left over to work out how much shorter the new bar should be. Do remember however, the new bar must not be too tight or this will be uncomfortable and restrictive – it may also cause the piercing to swell again. So whatever bar length you decide on, do ensure it won’t be a tight fit and leaves a little bit of room.
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