Captive bead
Encyclopedia
Body piercing jewelry
Body piercing jewelery is jewelery manufactured specifically for use in body piercing.Originally, hardly any other jewellery than circular earrings were used in modern Western body piercing. As the body piercing became more of a fashion, a vast amount of specially crafted jewellery became available...
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The captive bead or ball fits into a small opening in the circle of the ring. The bead is slightly larger than this opening and has small indentations or depressions that correspond to the ring's end-points so that it may fit snugly against them, thus completing the circuit of the ring. Often, a hole is drilled through the bead to allow easier fitting.
It uses the natural tensile
Tension (mechanics)
In physics, tension is the magnitude of the pulling force exerted by a string, cable, chain, or similar object on another object. It is the opposite of compression. As tension is the magnitude of a force, it is measured in newtons and is always measured parallel to the string on which it applies...
or compressive strength of the metal the ring is made of, usually surgical stainless steel
Surgical stainless steel
Surgical stainless steel is a specific type of stainless steel, used in medical applications, made out of several components: chromium, nickel and molybdenum....
, niobium
Niobium
Niobium or columbium , is a chemical element with the symbol Nb and atomic number 41. It's a soft, grey, ductile transition metal, which is often found in the pyrochlore mineral, the main commercial source for niobium, and columbite...
, or titanium
Titanium
Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. It has a low density and is a strong, lustrous, corrosion-resistant transition metal with a silver color....
, to hold the bead tightly in place. The bead or ball itself may additionally be made from coloured glass
Glass
Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...
or ceramic
Ceramic
A ceramic is an inorganic, nonmetallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous...
, or a gemstone
Gemstone
A gemstone or gem is a piece of mineral, which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments...
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This is a popular piece of body jewelry because it conveniently allows the wearer to remove the ring by simply removing the captive bead, yet the bead is held so firmly in place that it will not easily fall out. Additionally, because of their closed shape and rounded edges, these rings do not easily snag on clothing, hair, or furniture, making them a popular choice for piercings which are still healing. However, its circular shape means that it can drag dried lymph back into the healing piercing, meaning that barbells
Barbell (piercing)
Barbell style piercing jewelry is composed of a straight bar and with a bead on each end, one or both beads unscrewable for removal and/or changing of the beads. Often one of the beads is fixed, either via epoxy or welding, so that only one bead is used to install or remove the jewelry...
are seen as being preferable for certain healing piercings.