There was a time, not so long ago, when a glint of jewellery from the midriff area resulted in gasps of surprise and raised eyebrows. Serena Williams at the 2002 US Open and Victoria Beckham launching a new single on Top of the Pops circa 2001 hit the headlines not for their sporting or musical abilities, but because they had unveiled shiny new belly-button piercings to the unsuspecting world.
These days it’s almost harder to pinpoint celebrities who don’t have tattoos and piercings than it is to identify those who flaunt them. And that trend has spilled over into everyday life.
At Tribal Body Art on Edinburgh’s Canongate, up to 15 or
20 fresh navels are presented for piercing each day. It costs £20 to £35, depending on the jewellery you choose, and demand comes from teenagers up to professional women in their mid-forties. "The navel is the most popular piercing we do in the shop," says tattooist Steve Scott. "People of all shapes and sizes get it done." He says that the fashion for low-cut jeans and cropped tops has fuelled the desire to put a little sparkle in one’s navel. And it seems that you don’t need a midriff as flat as Britney Spears’ or Christina Aguilera’s to want this particular piercing. Even the normally reticent Scots have become blase about baring their belly-buttons.
The acceptability of piercing has always largely depended on the location of the adornment. The ears have never caused controversy, but elsewhere in the face, be it the eyebrow or nose, tends to get headteachers and employers a little hot under the collar. Navels, on the other hand, can be easily disguised, leaving your colleagues none the wiser. One Edinburgh 30-year-old who prefers to remain anonymous had her belly-button pierced while at university and, although she keeps it under wraps, doesn’t regret having it done. "Every now and again it has popped out at work when I’ve been reaching for shelves and colleagues always comment on it, but it’s no great shock," she says. "I wouldn’t like to go through the pain of having it done again, but I’m proud of it. It’s my little secret."
The increasingly respectable status of piercing is reflected in the fact that earlier this year, upmarket London department store Selfridges introduced a temporary tattoo and body piercing studio. It has now become a permanent fixture.
David Forest, co-owner of Chaebol jewellery and body piercing studio in Glasgow’s Byres Road, thinks navel piercings are here to stay: "I think it’s become so mainstream, by which I mean so many people have now got it, I don’t think it’s a little thing that’ll come and go. Time will tell what direction it takes - maybe in the future people will go for more precious metals, but in a way it’s quite nice being able to chop and change quite frequently."
As demand has increased, the jewellery itself has evolved. Initially, a banana-shaped bar with a jewel at the end was the standard, but today there’s much more scope for individuality. "People are getting different things now," says Forest. "There are spirals, and we sell loads of attachments that you can screw on the ends and really customise it." He says that after getting a piercing, many people think there’s an arcane art to how you change them, but it’s simply a case of being careful. You can then match your jewellery to the occasion - there are even ultraviolent ball attachments for clubbers.
At Tribal Body Art, the most popular material for their navel jewellery is medical-grade titanium, although they do use silver, gold and surgical steel. An in-house jeweller is on call to make bespoke pieces. Scott says that despite their recommendation that people choose a simple, lightweight piece when they are first pierced, customers tend to want something glitzier.
Of course, there are those who just can’t face the needle. Suzhy Winfield liked the idea but not the pain factor, so she created a clip-on jewellery range for navels, Clipbitz (www.clipbitz.co.uk). The cleverness of the design is down to the sprung hinge - tests were carried out for two years to ensure the design was strong enough to remain in place without causing discomfort.
Whether our navel jewellery is of the pierced or clip-on variety, it’s currently unlikely that Brits will go as far as their American counterparts in the belly-button stakes. All that showing off of navels in the US sunshine has led to a rise in the number of umbilicoplasty operations. Last year 83,000 individuals underwent the surgery to have their navels reshaped into a perfect oval.
Navel-gazing, it seems, has reached new levels.
