A piercing barbell is a variation of piercing jewellery. It consists of a barbell and two end pieces, of which at least one, but usually both, can be unscrewed. These end pieces are usually balls. All the piercing barbells shown here are handmade in our goldsmith's workshop.
Origin of the piercing barbell
Horst Heinrich Streckenbach, who ran a "Studio for Skin and Body Jewellery" in Frankfurt am Main and had trained as a mechanic himself, developed a metal barbell with screw-on balls. In 1975, during one of his many trips to America, he met the American piercer and artist Jim Ward in Reno, Texas. Jim Ward was inspired and the piercing barbell as we know it today was born.
Construction of the piercing barbell
A piercing barbell is a straight metal bar with two threaded ends that are closed by end pieces. These end pieces are usually balls. We manufacture all our piercing bars with a metric thread that will accept any end piece of the same thread size, allowing the different end pieces to be interchanged.
From a bar thickness of 3 to 4 mm it makes sense not to cut the thread on the outside of the piercing dumbbell at the end of the bar, but to make a piercing dumbbell with an internal thread. The thread is cut in the piercing bar and the external thread is cut on the ball.
Bar thickness of the piercing barbell
We manufacture the piercing bars in our goldsmith's workshop in the following bar thicknesses: 1.0 mm; 1.2 mm; 1.6 mm; 2 mm; 2.5 mm and 3 mm. As we make all our piercing bars by hand, you can also have any other thickness, please send us a message via our contact form or send us an e-mail.
Length of the barbell
The length of the barbell always depends on the type of piercing and the anatomical conditions. A big advantage of a handmade piercing is the individual adjustment to your personal needs. Although we do not offer all bar lengths in our web shop, we can make any length you require in our goldsmith's workshop. Please contact us using our contact form or send us an email.
Screw-on ends
The classic endings for piercing bars are balls, usually both of the same size. Here in our webshop we offer balls in 4mm; 5mm; 6mm and 8mm, we can also make any other size for you in our goldsmith's workshop. But there are also some other endings like hemispheres, cones or cylinders, you can see something more fancy at our dart.
If you want something special that we don't have in our webshop www.goldpiercingart.de, please send us a message via our contact form or send us an e-mail for it.
Use of the Piercing Dumbbell
The piercing dumbbell is one of the most commonly used pieces of piercing jewellery. It is very often used for nipple piercings, for some genital piercings like the Ampallang and Apadravya or Hafada piercings, for facial piercings like the Bridge Piercing and many others.
Special jewellery for dumbbell piercings
We have designed some special pieces of jewellery to wear with dumbbell piercings.
The piercing ball can be decorated with set gemstones such as diamonds or coloured stones, or a band of gemstones can be placed around the ball.
Some special jewellery for nipple piercings are the nipple ring and the nipple ring with O. This should fit exactly around the nipple and accentuate it beautifully.
The nipple pendant with emerald and the nipple pendant with peridot, sapphire and tangerine gemstones are also great jewellery for nipple piercing.
A handmade chain to hang in the piercing barbell is suitable for the nipple piercing as well as for an intimate piercing like the horizontal clitoral foreskin piercing.
Special forms of piercing barbell
The piercing banana, also called curved barbell or bananabell, is a special form of piercing barbell. It usually has a smaller ball and often a larger, decorated ball as an eye-catcher. The banana piercing is often used for bellybutton piercings, eyebrow piercings, some genital piercings like the vertical clitoral foreskin piercing or the Christina piercing, some ear piercings and many others.
The Horseshoe Ring, also called Circular Barbell, is basically nothing more than a strongly curved barbell in the shape of an open ring, which is closed at both ends with balls.
The surface barbell is similar in shape to a staple and is mainly used for surface piercings. It has a 90° or 45° bend at each end and the thread for the attachments is cut into the ends. This shape reduces tension and minimises the risk of outgrowth. It is important to adjust the length individually to prevent outgrowth. Please contact us by phone or email if you would like a Surface Barbell.
