Body Jewellery vs Fashion Jewellery: What's the Difference?

There is a real difference between the hoop in your ear and the hoop in your fresh helix. It has nothing to do with price. The body piercing jewellery Australia stores sell for healing piercings is built to live inside your body for weeks.

Fashion jewellery is built to sit on top of it for a night out. Both have a place. Below is how to tell them apart on sight, and when each one is safe to wear.

Through the Skin, or on Top of It

That is the whole distinction in one line.

Fashion jewellery hangs off you. Body jewellery passes through you.

An earring back rests against the outside of your lobe. A labret bar sits inside a channel of living tissue, surrounded by lymph fluid and skin cells, around the clock. The bar has to be inert enough that your body simply ignores it.

Fashion pieces are not built for that job. Most are plated over an undisclosed base metal, glued rather than machined, and polished only where you can see.

Our piercers regularly pull out cheap sleepers with a rough seam running the length of the post. That seam has been scraping the inside of a piercing every night the wearer rolled over.

What Body Jewellery Is Actually Made From

Three materials do the heavy lifting in any body jewellery AU store worth buying from.

Implant-Grade G23 Titanium

Implant-grade G23 titanium is the first choice for anything new. It is lightweight, durable and suited to people who are sensitive to some metals.

316L Surgical Steel

316L surgical steel is a solid all-rounder once a piercing has settled. It contains nickel and is noticeably heavier than titanium.

Bioplast Retainers

Bioplast retainers are the flexible option when a piercing needs to disappear for work or sport without closing over.

What should you look for?

Fashion jewellery rarely names its base metal. Any body piercing jewellery Australia listing worth trusting states the alloy and the gauge.

When a listing simply says "silver-tone" and stops there, you need more information before using it in a piercing.

OFF YA TREE offers a range of body jewellery options suitable for different piercing styles and preferences.

Read the OFF YA TREE Body Piercing FAQs →

Body Piercing Jewellery Australia Buyers Should Check Four Things

• Gauge. The thickness of the bar, written in gauge or millimetres. An 18G nose stud will not fit a 16G nostril, and forcing it tears the channel. Most nostrils sit at 18G, navels at 14G.
• Length or diameter. Too short and it presses into swollen tissue. Too long and it snags on jumpers, hair and fingers. Fresh piercings get fitted long on purpose to allow for swelling, then downsized later.
• Threading. On an internally threaded bar the screw thread sits inside the post. Nothing sharp travels through the piercing. Externally threaded bars put the thread on the outside, so for anything healing, internal wins.
• Finish. Run a fingernail down the post. It should feel like glass. Any catch you can feel, your piercing can feel too.

Our piercing FAQs cover sizing and other piercing questions in more depth.

Choosing Body Jewellery for Your Piercing

Everyone's anatomy is different, as well as having their own sense of fashion. It is important to get pierced with the right jewellery initially to assist with the healing period.

The best starting point is talking to your piercer for professional advice. Things to consider when selecting jewellery are personal aesthetic, skin tone and complexion, style, weight and positioning of jewellery.

OFF YA TREE offers a range of body jewellery styles, including titanium and surgical steel options.

Explore OFF YA TREE Body Jewellery →

Can You Wear Body Jewellery as an Everyday Accessory?

Plenty of people do, and it holds up better than the alternative. A titanium hoop looks as good in a healed lobe as anything off a shop counter. It will still look that way in five years.

Going the other way is where it falls over. Take a piercing that is years old and completely settled. A cleaned fashion hoop in that one is usually fine for an evening. In anything under twelve months old, it is a gamble.

The honest version: you do not need to spend $40 on every hole. A $21 steel segment ring in a healed lobe is a genuinely good buy. Our gothic jewellery range covers the pieces that never touch a piercing. Save the titanium for the holes still healing.

You can browse the OFF YA TREE body jewellery collection for different jewellery options.

Conclusion

Body jewellery is engineered for the inside of your body. Fashion jewellery adorns the exterior. Do one correctly and the other is a matter of option rather than risk.

Check out our range of body jewellery Australia for jewellery that will fit properly. Or speak with a piercer who will size you up.

Useful OFF YA TREE Jewellery & Piercing Resources

Body Jewellery Browse OFF YA TREE body jewellery options. Body Piercing Curations Explore jewellery combinations and piercing styling ideas. Piercing FAQs Get answers about jewellery, sizing, materials and piercing care.

Frequently Asked Questions

Body jewellery is designed to pass through a piercing and is made with suitable materials, sizing and finishes. Fashion jewellery is generally designed to be worn as an external accessory.

Fashion jewellery should not be used for a fresh piercing. New piercings require appropriate jewellery selected for the piercing and its healing stage.

Common body jewellery materials include titanium and surgical steel. Flexible retainers such as bioplast can also be used for certain situations.

Gauge, length and diameter determine how the jewellery fits your piercing. Incorrect sizing can cause pressure, movement or snagging.

Yes. Body jewellery can also be an everyday fashion accessory, particularly in fully healed piercings. For healing piercings, jewellery should be selected for the healing process rather than simply for appearance.

Find Body Jewellery for Your Piercing

Browse OFF YA TREE's body jewellery collection or speak with a professional piercer about choosing the right jewellery for your piercing.