Curved barbells are generally used for navel piercings, eyebrow piercings, genital piercings etc. and are designed like a curved bar with beads at ends. These are also called banana barbells or bent barbells.

Your piercer will avoid curved barbells for surface piercings as there is a risk of the jewelry being rejected. They are best suited for belly button piercing and eyebrow piercings. You can also wear them as nipple rings and earrings, if you want.

Most curved barbell body jewelry is made of surgical grade stainless steel and titanium, though you will also find acrylic and gold. They come with internal or external threading. You probably know that internal threading is superior because it is safer. It is also more expensive as the process of making it, is costlier. Curved barbells are available in a variety of gauges although the larger gauge size can cost more – and that again depends on where you buy it. For eyebrow piercing, 16 gauges are used, but for navel piercing – 14 gauge curved barbells are standard.

Check out the curved barbells below!

When you shop for curved barbells, you will come across universal curved barbells that are good to wear on a variety of piercing. Expect to find an amazing variety of these. If you used to wear a captive bead ring earlier and are planning to try new types of jewelry, you will find that curved barbells are a good choice.

The moment people speak of banana barbells, it is the navel ring or belly ring that comes to our mind, though it is not really a ring. In curved barbells, often one bead is larger than the other, with a 5 mm ball on top and an 8 mm ball at the other end, if worn in the navel piercing. You can get many designs with pretty gems and dangles in different creative styles and themes. As with the straight barbell, the curved barbell also features, apart from the beads, pretty cones, dice, half ball shapes, spikes and many combinations. So you should definitely consider building your own interesting collection of curved barbells!

The name comes from the “barbells” which is used by weightlifters. Jim Ward who is reputed to have designed a lot of early body jewelry made them famous back in the 1970s. These are very easy to wear and come in different materials, designs, shapes, sizes and colors. Barbells are usually made of a straight bar that has a bead at each end.

You will often find that you can interchange the beads in a barbell, letting you use the same bar for a huge variety of beads. The common type is the barbell that has one permanent bead with the other being removable. The removable bead is internally or externally threaded.

For most initial body piercings, barbells are the best choice. The bar goes through the piercing and beads hold it in place. Since the bar is available in different lengths, longer barbells are used for fresh piercings, and later, shorter barbells are used. As far as threading is concerned, internally threaded barbells are the best since they don’t graze against the piercing. In internally threaded barbells, it is the bead that screws into the bar of the barbell, causing less irritation. In the externally threaded one, it is the bar that screws into the bead.

Check out the different barbells below!

Barbells are worn in tongue, nipple, eyebrow, nose, septum, nasallang, ear, belly and genital piercings. You can expect to see all kinds of gauge sizes if you look at the gauge chart, but the most common is the 14-gauge barbell. Materials used are generally surgical grade steel, titanium, PTFE, Bioplast, niobium and gold.

Straight barbells are not the only type available. You also get curved barbells, banana barbells, and circular or horseshoe barbells. Surface bars are also considered to be a type of barbells used in surface piercing. Just like the bars, the beads also come in a variety of shapes like cubes, triangles, cones, disks etc. Barbells are made with lathe, taps and dies. If you opt for the handcrafted barbells you end up paying more as they use better quality material and you get jewelry items that are better finished!