Body jewelry sizes
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Body jewelry sizes express the thickness of an item of
Background
Items of
Generally, the system of gauge-and-inches is used: In gauge notation, jewelry less than 1⁄2″ thick is typically measured in a system originally devised for measuring wire thickness. A gauge number denotes a thickness on a standardized scale which, for most purposes, starts at 20g (0.812 mm thick— often used for the posts for
Even though the gauge system was originally meant for wire, it is now used regardless of whether an item of body jewelry is an actual wire, or is instead a wooden plug, a plastic ring, or any other material.
The alternative to using the gauge-and-inches system is to specify the thickness in millimeters.
Conversion table
gauge (AWG) |
diameter | ||
---|---|---|---|
inches fractional |
inches decimal |
millimeters | |
20 | · | 0.0320 | 0.812 |
18 | · | 0.0403 | 1.024 |
16 | · | 0.0508 | 1.291 |
· | 1⁄16 | 0.0625 | 1.588 |
14 | · | 0.0641 | 1.628 |
12 | · | 0.0808 | 2.05 |
10 | · | 0.1019 | 2.58 |
· | 1⁄8 | 0.1250 | 3.18 |
8 | · | 0.1285 | 3.26 |
6 | · | 0.1620 | 4.12 |
· | 3⁄16 | 0.1875 | 4.76 |
4 | · | 0.204 | 5.19 |
· | 1⁄4 | 0.250 | 6.35 |
2 | · | 0.258 | 6.54 |
· | 5⁄16 | 0.312 | 7.94 |
0 | · | 0.325 | 8.25 |
00 | · | 0.365 | 9.27 |
· | 3⁄8 | 0.375 | 9.52 |
000 | · | 0.410 | 10.40 |
· | 7⁄16 | 0.438 | 11.11 |
0000 | · | 0.460 | 11.68 |
· | 1⁄2 | 0.500 | 12.70 |
· | 9⁄16 | 0.562 | 14.29 |
· | 5⁄8 | 0.625 | 15.88 |
· | 11⁄16 | 0.688 | 17.46 |
· | 3⁄4 | 0.750 | 19.05 |
· | 13⁄16 | 0.812 | 20.6 |
· | 7⁄8 | 0.875 | 22.2 |
· | 15⁄16 | 0.938 | 23.8 |
· | 1 | 1.000 | 25.4 |
· | 1+1⁄16 | 1.062 | 27.0 |
· | 1+1⁄8 | 1.125 | 28.6 |
· | 1+3⁄16 | 1.188 | 30.2 |
· | 1+1⁄4 | 1.250 | 31.8 |
· | 1+5⁄16 | 1.312 | 33.3 |
· | 1+3⁄8 | 1.375 | 34.9 |
· | 1+7⁄16 | 1.438 | 36.5 |
· | 1+1⁄2 | 1.500 | 38.1 |
· | 1+9⁄16 | 1.562 | 39.7 |
· | 1+5⁄8 | 1.625 | 41.3 |
· | 1+11⁄16 | 1.688 | 42.9 |
· | 1+3⁄4 | 1.750 | 44.4 |
· | 1+13⁄16 | 1.812 | 46.0 |
· | 1+7⁄8 | 1.875 | 47.6 |
· | 1+15⁄16 | 1.938 | 49.2 |
· | 2 | 2.000 | 50.8 |
Usage of the systems
Some jewelry makers or sellers who express the size of their jewelry in millimeters, may also list the nearest approximate gauge-and-inches measurements for each item.[1] Using millimeters as the primary notation is most common in Europe and Australia.
Units and notation
Discussions of gauge in this article use the
In most discussions of body jewelry, sizes are specified by giving the gauge, usually abbreviated by the suffix "g", the same symbol as used for
See also
- Jewelry wire gauge
- Earring
- Body piercing
- Body piercing jewelry
- Body piercing materials
- Wire
- IEC 60228, the metric wire-size standard used in most parts of the world.
- American wire gauge, used primarily in the US and Canada
- Standard wire gauge, the British imperial standard BS3737, superseded by the metric.
- Stubs Iron Wire Gauge
- Circular mil, Electrical industry standard for wires larger than 4/0.
- Number 8 wire, a term used in the New Zealand vernacular
External links
- SteelNavel.com Body Piercing Jewelry Size Reference — illustrating the different ways that size is measured on different kinds of jewelry
Notes
- ^ As supporting examples for the claim about just-gauge, metric-and-gauge, and just-metric: Just in gauge-inches: an example item at Tribalectic Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. With metric and gauge: an example item at Body Jewelleryshop. Just in metric: an example item at Neo-Piercing, and an example item at Inoki Piercing.
- ISBN 978-0-87116-703-3.