This type of body piercing jewelry is one of the most popular. As the name suggests, they consist of a ring with a missing segment and a bead used to bridge the gap. Since they don’t snag easily, they are popular for new piercings. Captive bead rings or CBRs can be used for various piercings in the lip, eyebrow, earlobe, cartilage, nostril, and navel.
How Do Captive Bead Rings Work?
The ball or bead fits an opening in the captive ring that is held in place with tension. You must adjust the tension carefully, or you can damage the jewelry. Hold the hoop with the fingers of one hand while using the other to pull horizontally on the bead. That creates the opening required to insert or remove the ring. Reverse motion to close the gap. While just changing out the bead can be fairly easy to do on your own, we typically recommend having a piercer help if you’re wanting to change out the ring as it can be much easier with tools.
If you like to change up the look of your jewelry, these are a great option because you can just swap out the bead to give it a completely different look!
Different Types of Captive Bead Rings
There are several variations of captive bead rings:
Screw-on ball rings: The bead on this combination of CBR and circular barbell is held on by screwing into place rather than tension. They are popular for nipple, nose, and ear piercings.
Seamless rings: A seamless ring is a beadless CBR inserted into the piercing by separating the ring and closed by applying gentle pressure.
Segment rings: These rings have the look of an unbroken circle. They are differentiated from a typical captive bead ring by a section that can be removed to insert or replace.
Shop Almost Famous Body Piercing for Your Captive Bead Rings
For the best selection of piercing jewelry, shop online or visit one of our stores in Minneapolis, Bloomington, Mankato, or St. Cloud, MN, Champaign, IL, Fargo, ND, or Billings, MT. For questions or help locating specific items, contact us today.
