May, 2003

Our ever expanding line of body jewelry now includes 18 gauge ear wires which fit regular pierced ears!  With 89 pictures to choose from there's bound to be one just right for you.  And while you're at it, pick up a matching navel picture barbell!  

Our new omega ear jewelry has a retro 60s "That Girl" look.

We hope you enjoy John's article on the tragus and we look forward to bringing you many more new designs in the months to come!

Tragus Piercings and Jewelry
by John Coffman
SteelNavel.com

Background

The tragus is a popular piercing for both sexes. The tragus is the small protrusion of cartilage and skin in front of the ear canal as shown in the picture at left.  Not every tragus is a good candidate for piercing.  It needs to stick out far enough from the face to be pierced.  Your piercer will be able to determine this for you.

Placement

Freshwater pearl CBRs are perfect for the tragus

The piercing should be placed at the natural fold where the tragus meets the face. There are two ways to pierce the tragus.  Of course, you should never have it done with a piercing gun.  Please see this months piercing the web for more details on why piercing guns are a bad idea.  The tragus can be pierced with a needle or dermal punch.  A dermal punch actually punches a hole out of the skin and cartilage.  This is superior to using a needle and may decrease the healing time.  You can research this further at bmezine.com.  

Healing & Aftercare

While the ear lobe is one of the fastest piercings to heal, the healing time for a tragus piercing, which goes through cartilage,  can take anywhere from two to twelve months.

Please see our Aftercare Guidelines for Facial & Body Piercings for complete aftercare information.

Jewelry

Crystal CBRs are another great choice for the tragus piercing

The typical initial body jewelry for a tragus piecing is a captive bead ring in gauges from 20 to 14 and inside diameters from 5/16" to 3/8".  SteelNavel.com offers a wide selection of tragus compatible captive bead rings.  After your tragus piecing is healed you could also try small circular barbells or small curved barbells for different looks.

SteelNavel.com body jewelry is now available at wholesale prices for qualified businesses! Visit our wholesale body jewelry page to sign up!

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What's New This Month?

We've added five new products this month.  Click any picture or description to read more or purchase.

Body Art News from the Web

Our featured website this month is Rebecca's Tattoo Gallery. Rebecca Hendriks is a tattoo artist currently working at True Blue Tattoo in Austin, Texas.  Her work was recently featured on the cover of International Tattoo magazine seen here.  Rebecca has an interesting gallery of her tattoo art, tattoo aftercare instructions and even a video of her at work.

Those of you new to the piercing world may not be aware of the great animosity towards piercing guns felt by those who do body piercing for a living.  Shannon Larratt, the editor and publisher of BMEzine.com, explains why in this well written article.

In a related article, Lish Daelnar explains why an autoclaved, sharp needle is superior to a piercing gun.

April '03 Trivia Winner
Shari Watson

All our acrylic retainers are 25% off!

For the next few weeks, all our acrylic retainers for eyebrow, labret,  navel  and tongue piercings are 25% off!

All of the items available for the discount are listed below.

Your 25% discount will be taken automatically when you check out.  These prices are valid from 5/19/2003 to 5/31/2003.

Each month we give away five FREE $25.00 SteelNavel.com gift certificates good towards the purchase of body jewelry on our site.  

This month's winning email addresses are: 

All subscribers to the SteelNavel.com News are automatically entered in the monthly gift certificate drawing.