Among the most popular sites for body piercing is the navel, which is thought to have recently overtaken the nostril in numbers (both being somewhat behind piercings of the ear lobe). This said, it is said to be one of the most painful and certainly most difficult of the more common piercings, though its relative difficulty in healing and maintenance depends greatly upon individual anatomy. For most people, the a belly button piercing has the potential to be permanent. For others, however, it is essentially a surface piercing, meaning skin tension will make it unlikely or unable to fully heal. The deciding factor usually has to do with the amount of skin you have to pierce, which can depend upon your body type and your individual physiology. Another contributing factor is the placement of your navel (which, contrary to popular assumption, is variable) and your mobility. Moving about tends to keep a piercing on any part of the body from healing, and it so happens that the abdomen is a particularly mobile part of your body. Your piercer may be able to tell you whether you are a good candidate for navel piercing, though as the trend has become so entrenched it may be hard to find one who still discriminates. You may want to reconsider a navel piercing if you are extremely active in sports or rely on full flexibility of your abdomen for other reasons, but the choice, as always, is yours. Somewhat more than ninety percent of navel piercings heal completely, given enough time, according to a study conducted by the Association of Professional Piercers (The Point, Fall 2005).

Usually a navel piercing is filled with a variation of the barbell or a ring, especially a captive bead ring. The latter may be your best bet for starter jewelry since the navel is such a mobile area of the body; captive bead rings tend to be a good choice of starter jewelry for the ease they lend to cleaning and healing. The piercing may be placed through either the upper fold of the skin or the lower, though the former is more common for either aesthetic or practical reasons.

A belly button piercing should be cleaned much as any other body piercing. Begin with a shower, ideally, as the heat and steam from the water tends to loosen any dried discharge surrounding the jewelry and piercing while softening the skin to facilitate cleaning without causing damage to your healing piercing. Avoid drying the pierced area with a towel during the healing phase, as cloth towels are a plentiful source of bacteria that can infect your piercing. Use a sea salt soak or a saline solution (optional) on the area, either by cupping a small amount of the solution over the piercing or by dabbing it on gently with a sterile cotton ball. Soak for one to two minutes. This will help to soothe and clean the area of any debris without drying or damaging the tissue. Now use a drop of anti-bacterial soap (unscented, to avoid irritation and possible allergic reaction) on another moist cotton ball to clean your piercing, moving the jewelry gently to clear any discharge and to let the soap clean the wound thoroughly. Allow the soap to sit for about a minute and rinse it thoroughly but carefully away. Dry with another cotton ball or a clean tissue, avoiding again the use of a cloth towel. Repeat this process twice a day for the first week and once a day thereafter until the area has healed completely. This may take anywhere from six weeks to six months (or more), depending upon your body and the care you give to your piercing.