Plugs & Tunnels (Body Jewelry)

Stretched piercings need jewelry sized past the point where ordinary studs stop, and the two names split by whether you can see through them. A plug is solid, a tunnel is hollow, and both fill a lobe opened gradually over months or years. The gauge scale keeps running the same inverted way, with 2 gauge at 6 mm, 0 gauge at 8 mm and 00 gauge at 10 mm, after which sellers switch to millimeters or inches.

How a plug stays in comes down to the flare, meaning the lip at the end that stops it sliding out. Single flare plugs have one lip and a rubber O ring holding the other side. Double flare plugs have a lip at both ends and must be squeezed through the hole. So they only suit a size that is fully healed and settled. Saddle plugs waist in the middle and are gripped by the lobe itself. Materials divide the same way, with implant grade titanium, borosilicate glass and steel safe on a lobe still settling, while stone, wood, horn and bone are porous and belong only in a completely healed hole.

Pace is the entire skill. Move up one gauge size at a time, a fraction of a millimeter at the small end and 1 to 2 mm at the largest sizes, and wait at least four to eight weeks between steps so the tissue rebuilds rather than simply thins. Use a taper and a plain lubricant, never force, and stop at once if there is pain or blood. Skipping sizes causes a blowout, where the inside of the channel is pushed out through the hole and sets as a permanent lip of scar tissue behind the jewelry. A piercer will do the steps for you, and punches and scalpelling are their work rather than yours.

Nothing else here comes so close to permanent. Lobes under about 10 mm, which is 00 gauge, usually shrink back a long way once the jewelry has been out for a few months. Above that many will not close on their own and need surgery, so pick your final size before you start. Check any workplace jewelry rule too, since a tunnel cannot be swapped for something discreet.

Confirm that the edges are rounded and polished, and that glass carries no chip, because a chipped edge cuts a lobe. Weigh heavy stone plugs against your own tissue, as 30 grams hanging all day thins a lobe over years. Wash plugs and the lobe with soap and water in the shower, dry both, then massage the skin with a plain oil such as jojoba twice a week to keep it supple. Take wood and other porous pieces out before showering, since they swell and crack.