Pinch the skin at the top of your belly button. What you're feeling for is a shelf — a defined lip with some depth behind it. That lip is the entire structural basis of a navel piercing, and a fair number of people don't have one. It has nothing to do with fitness or body type, and no technique substitutes for it. Which is why the first thing that happens at our Santa Monica studio is a piercer pinching your rim and telling you what's there.
The second thing that happens is a conversation nobody enjoys having: this is the slowest heal on the price list. Six months to a year, and that's not padding. The appointment is quick and the pain is manageable, so a navel gets talked about as an easy piercing, and then people are surprised when it's still touchy at month five. Waistbands, seatbelts, desk chairs and ab days all sit directly on it. Service is $75, jewelry separate, and we would rather you started this one knowing exactly what you're signing up for.
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What a piercer is feeling for, why some rims fail the test, and what the alternatives actually are
A navel piercing does not go through your belly button. It goes through the rim of skin above it — a fold that hangs slightly forward over the hollow, with the top hole entering through the outer surface and the bottom hole exiting on the inner wall. That fold is what the jewelry lives in. If the fold isn't there, the piercing has nowhere to be.
So what makes a good rim? Depth first: the shelf needs enough front-to-back distance that a bar can sit inside it with tissue above and below, not a thin flap with metal pressed against skin on either side. Overhang second: the rim should hang forward a little, creating a defined edge rather than sloping smoothly into the abdomen. And consistency third, which is the one that gets missed — the rim needs similar thickness across the width where we're piercing, because a bar with one end in a thick section and one end in a thin one heals unevenly from day one.
The people who fail this test are more varied than you'd expect. Very flat abdomens where the navel is a shallow dimple with no forward lip. Navels that are essentially a vertical slit with the rim tucked inward rather than hanging out. True outies, where the protruding tissue is umbilical scar rather than the kind of skin fold this piercing needs. Some post-surgical navels, where the anatomy has been reconstructed and the rim's blood supply and thickness are simply different. And bodies where the rim exists standing up and disappears entirely the moment you sit down, which we only catch because we make you sit.
None of that is a verdict on you and none of it is permanent in every case — a rim can read differently at different points in a person's life. But it does mean a straight answer at the counter beats a hopeful piercing that spends a year irritated before migrating out. If your upper rim won't work, the honest options are a lower-rim inverse placement, a floating setup where the lower ball is small enough to sit in a shallow hollow, or a surface bar beside the navel that comes with the shorter lifespan surface work always carries. We'll say which of those applies. Sometimes the answer is none of them, and you'd genuinely rather hear that from us than find out over the following eight months.
Your piercer pinches the rim above your navel and looks for a defined shelf of skin with depth behind it. No shelf, no standard navel — and you'll hear that in the first minute rather than after you've paid.
A navel that looks perfectly placed while you're standing tall can fold in half when you sit down. We mark you upright, then have you sit, slouch and bend, and move the dots if the rim swallows them.
Both ends of the bar have to sit in equal thickness. Take the top hole too shallow and it's under a translucent strip; too deep and the ball buries as soon as you swell. The rim varies across its width and the entry gets chosen accordingly.
The starter is deliberately oversized for swelling. We tell you to come back for a shorter one once that's settled, because a loose bar in a healed-enough navel is the thing that rocks and catches for the next eight months.
How you sit at work, what you wear, whether you're in the ocean weekly, when you train abs. This is the placement where those answers change our advice, and sometimes change the timing of the piercing itself.
Single-use sterile needle opened where you can see it, tools out of a hospital-grade autoclave, EPA-registered disinfectant on surfaces, bloodborne-pathogen-certified piercers, licensed and inspected by LA County. No guns, ever.
Why the fastest appointment on the list produces the slowest heal
Here is the mismatch that causes most navel problems. The appointment is genuinely easy — quick pass, moderate pinch, you're up and dressed in minutes. Everything about that experience says "minor." Then the healing takes longer than a lobe, a nostril, a septum and most of the ear put together.
Why so long? Blood supply to the rim is modest compared to, say, a lip. The tissue is skin folded on skin, which means the channel has two surfaces to line rather than passing cleanly through a structure. And crucially, the site never gets to rest. Every time you sit, the abdomen folds and the rim compresses. Every waistband applies pressure across it for the length of a working day. Sleep on your front and it's pinned for eight hours. A cartilage piercing at least gets left alone between knocks; a navel is being worked on continuously.
The realistic shape of it: the first month is visible healing — some swelling, some tenderness, crusting at both openings. Months two to four feel finished and are not; the outside has closed while the channel inside is still thin and new. This is the stage where people go back to crunches and tight jeans and then wonder where the bump came from. Months four to eight are the real consolidation. Somewhere between six and twelve months you have a piercing that tolerates ordinary life without thinking about it.
What that means practically is that patience isn't a virtue here, it's the technique. Don't change the jewelry yourself. Don't add a dangle at month three because it stopped hurting. Do come in for the downsize once the swelling has gone, because the long starter bar becomes a liability the moment it isn't needed. And treat any bump that appears as information rather than a disaster — the overwhelming majority of navel bumps are irritation from something mechanical, and they resolve when the mechanical thing stops. Come in and let us find out which thing it is.
One more piece of honesty. If you're getting this done in May with a summer of ocean swimming ahead of you, you're starting a twelve-month project in the worst possible month. Navels done in the autumn heal easier for exactly that reason. It's a small thing and it makes a real difference.
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See the BVLA story →Four answers to the same question, chosen by what your rim will actually hold.
Through the shelf of skin at the top of the navel, top ball visible above and lower ball tucked into the hollow. It heals best of the lot because the upper rim is the part of a navel with real thickness and the least direct pressure from a waistband.
The mirror image, through the shelf at the bottom of the navel. Genuinely useful for people whose upper rim is flat, and the main answer we can offer some outies. The trade-off is honest: the lower rim sits closer to where a waistband rides and gets more day-to-day pressure.
Same channel, different jewelry logic: a much smaller lower ball or flat disc that disappears into the hollow instead of sitting against it. If your navel is shallow, a standard lower ball presses on the floor of it all day, and that pressure is what people mistake for the piercing being wrong.
Both rims, which needs a navel with usable tissue at each end and a person willing to run two of the slowest heals in piercing at once. We'd normally stage them. If you do want both, the two-piercing special covers the pair of services at $75.
When neither rim will hold anything, a surface bar on the flat skin nearby is sometimes possible — but it's a different piercing with a different, shorter lifespan, and it deserves its own conversation rather than being offered as a consolation prize. Fee confirmed at consultation.
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If the lip isn't there you'll hear it before you pay, and the check costs nothing either way
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Reserve a body piercing appointment with jewelry, placement, and timing confirmed.
Fast to do, slow to finish — the numbers behind the six-to-twelve month figure
| Piercing Type | Location | Initial Healing | Full Healing | Pain Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Navel (Belly Button) | Above or below navel | 3-6 months | 6-12 months | 4-5/10 |
5000+ clientsSix steps, and the one people skip elsewhere is number three
Gloved fingers on the top rim, feeling for a shelf with depth behind it. This step ends some appointments, which is the point of putting it first.
Two dots on the rim while you're standing normally, not sucked in and not slouched. You look in a full-length mirror and approve them.
You sit, fold forward, and twist. If the navel closes over the marks or the rim rolls, the placement moves. Skipping this is how people end up with a bar that vanishes every time they sit at a desk.
Single-use and pre-sterilized, opened in front of you. Tools from a hospital-grade autoclave, surfaces wiped with EPA-registered disinfectant, piercers certified in bloodborne pathogens.
The needle passes up through the rim in a single movement and the curved titanium bar follows it. Both ends should sit in equal tissue thickness when it's done.
You leave knowing to come back once the swelling has gone so the bar can be shortened, and knowing what an irritation bump looks like versus something that needs a doctor.
Three decisions about a piece of metal that shape the next twelve months
The curve first. A navel rim is a fold, which means a straight bar would have to force a curved piece of anatomy into a straight line — pressure on the underside of both openings, permanently. A curved barbell follows the arc the rim already has. It also can't rotate, which is why we won't start you with a ring: a ring pivots in the channel and works both holes wider with every movement, and a fresh navel gets a great deal of movement.
Then the ball sizes, which is the decision most people have never heard of and which decides how comfortable the piercing is day to day. The top ball is visible and sits above the rim, so it's mostly a style choice. The bottom ball is the one that matters, because it sits down in the navel hollow. If your hollow is deep, a normal-sized lower ball sits in space and all is well. If your hollow is shallow, that same ball is pressed against the floor of the navel by every waistband and every time you sit down — which people experience as constant nagging irritation and blame on the piercing being "wrong." A smaller lower ball or a flat disc fixes it. That's the whole idea behind a floating navel, and it's a jewelry decision more than a piercing technique.
Length third, and this is the one with a deadline. Your starter bar is deliberately longer than the finished piercing needs, because the rim swells and a snug bar would embed. Once that swelling has gone — usually somewhere in the first couple of months — the extra length becomes slack, and slack means the bar rocks in the channel, catches the inside of your clothing, and rubs from within. Come back and let us fit a shorter one. It's a five-minute visit and it does more good than any amount of careful cleaning.
Dangles, charms and gold: all fine, all later. The end of the heal, not the point where it stopped being sore. Weight hanging off the lower hole all day is exactly the kind of steady downward pull a half-healed navel gives way to. Once you're properly settled, come in and we'll fit whatever you like — solid gold, threadless tops, BVLA pieces — and check the channel while you're here.
One service price whichever rim it goes through; jewelry chosen and priced on its own
Jewelry sold separately
Jewelry sold separately
Jewelry sold separately
Jewelry sold separately
Downsizing your bar once the swelling has gone is part of the service, not an add-on — come back for it. A surface piercing beside the navel, for people whose rims won't hold anything, is quoted at consultation rather than listed here, because it's different work with a different lifespan. Gold ends, dangles and BVLA pieces are priced on the piece you choose.
Navels migrate quietly, and the difference between a small mark and a scar is how fast you notice
Start with the distinction, because it saves a lot of unnecessary panic. An irritation bump is a small raised lump right at one of the openings, often pink, usually appearing after something mechanical — a new pair of jeans, a weekend of crunches, a bar that needs downsizing. It's the tissue complaining about a specific cause, and it resolves when the cause stops. It is not rejection and it is not infection, and it doesn't need antibiotic cream, tea tree oil, or any of the internet's other suggestions.
Infection is different and rarer than people think: genuine heat, spreading redness beyond the piercing, thick discharge, throbbing pain, sometimes feeling unwell. That's a doctor, promptly, and you generally leave the jewelry in so the channel can drain.
Migration is the quiet one, and it's what this section is really about. Watch for the top ball sitting visibly lower on the rim than it used to. The skin over the bar looking thinner or taking on a shine, so you start seeing the shape of the metal rather than just its ends. The two holes appearing closer together. Soreness that had genuinely gone and has come back and stayed. Individually any of those could be nothing. Together they're a piercing on the move.
What causes it: pressure and time, mostly. Waistbands riding on the site. A bar that was never downsized and has been rocking for months. A dangle added too early. Sleeping face-down. Occasionally a placement that was too shallow to begin with, which is why the depth conversation happens before the needle rather than after.
What to do: come in. Not next month, this week. If it's early we can often change the bar — shorter, different ball, sometimes a different gauge — take the pressure off, and the piercing settles and stays for years. If it's late, the honest advice is removal, and removal at that point is a genuinely better outcome than the alternative. Jewelry taken out while the skin over the bar is still healthy leaves two small dots. Jewelry left in until the body finishes pushing it out leaves the line it made getting there. That's a five-minute decision with a permanent consequence, and we'd rather you made it with a piercer looking at the thing.
Senior Piercer Senior Piercer
Bunny Vogt, a dedicated Senior Piercer at our studio since 2019, is known for her artistic eye and expertise in body piercings. She excels at navel piercings and takes time to assess each client's unique anatomy for optimal placement.
Founder Master Piercer
Blue Mason, our Master Piercer and studio founder since 2004, brings over two decades of body piercing expertise. His precision ensures every navel piercing is placed perfectly for your unique anatomy and lifestyle.
Shorter than you're braced for. Wear something with a low waistband, eat beforehand, and expect the assessment to take longer than the piercing.
The cleaning itself is almost nothing: sterile saline on both openings twice a day, dry with a clean paper towel rather than a bath towel, walk away. Don't rotate the bar. Don't push the crust off. Don't apply ointment, tea tree oil, alcohol or hydrogen peroxide, all of which do more damage to new tissue than the bacteria they're aimed at.
The real work is everything around it. Dry the navel properly after a shower, because a fold that stays damp under a waistband all morning is the perfect environment for irritation. Sleep on your back or side rather than your front. Skip the ocean, pools and hot tubs for the first several months. Reintroduce core training slowly and not at week three. And change out of sweaty waistbands rather than sitting in them through a workday.
Then come back for the downsize. It's the one appointment that reliably prevents problems, and it's the one people forget because by then the piercing feels fine.
Book AppointmentSwelling, tenderness and crusting at both openings, all normal. This is the month where the clothes you own become the problem — high-waisted anything sits directly on it. Saline twice a day, dry properly after showering, sleep off your front, and don't touch it otherwise.
The soreness goes and the piercing starts feeling like part of you, which is precisely when people go back to crunches, tight jeans and the ocean and then get a bump. Come in for the downsize now that the swelling has gone. Keep out of water. Reintroduce core work slowly at the back of this window, not the front.
Somewhere in here a navel becomes a piercing you stop thinking about. Now the fun jewelry makes sense: dangles, charms, solid gold ends, BVLA pieces. Come in for the first change so we can check the channel while we're at it, and keep half an eye on the top ball's position from here on.
Walk-ins work well for this one, with a caveat worth knowing: about a minute into the appointment a piercer may tell you your rim won't hold a standard navel. That's a real possibility rather than a formality, so come with the outcome open rather than with your heart set on leaving pierced.
Verbatim reviews from Apollo's Google Business Profile
"Had a wonderful and memorable experience at Apollo Tattoo this weekend and highly recommend. Brought my daughters to get their naval pierced while visiting from out of town. Chose the studio bc of their ratings and reviews, and was further impressed as soon as walked in. Shop is extremely clean, bright, friendly and professional staff with beautiful jewelry on display. Blue did both their piercings and spent over an hour ensuring they were properly taken care of - meticulous exam and placement, and most importantly their comfort - he was amazing. One of my girls was starting to breathe a bit shallow due to nerves and he immediately knew how to care for her and did not rush a second of the process. Their follow up care advice access is also appreciated, can’t say enough good things about Blue and Apollo."
"Absolutely perfect studio for both tattoos and piercings. My first experience at the shop was with Bunny, who changed some jewelry for me and did a killer job. Came back for a tattoo that was done by Bri who is incredibly talented and will be my tattoo girl for life now. Had the best time talking and hanging out during the process, she's the sweetest and couldn't have done a better job on the piece. I have also been back for a consultation with Blue dealing with some stubborn piercing trouble from another studio and he couldn't have been more helpful trying to figure the situation out. Will yet again be my piercer for every future piercing. These are awesome people who are extremely knowledgeable and great at what they do, I completely trust them for both tattoo and piercing needs. Shop is beautiful and extremely clean, gorgeous quality jewelry, rad people, and prices that you'll say "damn that's a steal" for the service and art done. 100/10 recommend!"
"My seven-year-old daughter insisted on getting her ears pierced, so I found this place online that had great reviews and piercing specialists that are experienced with children. The place was very clean and everyone extremely friendly. There are SO MANY choices for earrings. I really suggest you arrive early so you can look at all of the options. My daughter chose a pair of rose gold ones with a diamond center. Bunny, our piercing specialist, made her feel super comfortable and talked us through every step. My daughter didn’t flinch or even squeeze my hand. It was painless and quick and I highly recommend this place to all parents looking to bring their kids to get their ears pierced. They even handed us a “fearlessness” certificate at the end which was a cute touch."
Reviews from Google · Read all 623 on Google
5000+ clients2625 Main St, at the Ocean Park end of Main and a short walk from the sand. Street parking runs along Main and on the residential blocks toward Neilson Way. We're open 8am to 8pm every day, which is the useful part with a navel — a downsize or a quick look at a bump fits into a lunch break or an evening without needing a plan.
Santa Monica, CA
Apollo was founded by Blue Mason in 2007. With 20+ years of body art experience, Blue brings master-level expertise to every piece. Read Blue's story →
Candidacy, the long heal, outies, the gym, the ocean and when the dangle is allowed
Stand in front of a mirror and pinch the skin directly above your belly button, at the top rim. If you can lift a distinct lip or shelf of skin — something with a defined edge and a bit of depth behind it — you probably have what this piercing needs. If the area above your navel is flat and the skin doesn't lift into a fold, a standard upper-rim navel has nothing to sit in. That's anatomy, not fitness, not weight, and no amount of skill compensates for it. Come in and we'll check it in about a minute.
Because the appointment is easy. The piercing itself is fast, the pain is moderate, and you walk out feeling fine — which sets up completely the wrong expectation for what follows. A navel is among the slowest healing piercings anyone routinely gets: six to twelve months, and the back half of that is genuinely still healing rather than just settling. People who understand that at the start do well. People who think it's a lobe with a longer name are the ones who come back at month four with an angry navel.
A true outie — where the umbilical scar itself protrudes — generally can't take a standard navel piercing, and we won't try. The tissue involved is different from the rim of skin a navel piercing passes through. Some outies have a usable lower rim and can take an inverse placement. Some don't. The distinction matters and it's worth ten minutes at the counter rather than a guess from a photo.
Cardio that doesn't fold you in half — walking, a bike, easy running — is usually fine within a couple of weeks. Core work is the problem. Crunches, sit-ups, planks and anything that repeatedly compresses the navel are pressing the barbell into fresh tissue dozens of times per set, and doing that at week three is a reliable way to raise an irritation bump. Give it a couple of months, then reintroduce gradually. Rinse the piercing with clean water after you sweat and change out of damp waistbands rather than sitting in them.
Stay out of both for the first several months, which in Santa Monica is a real ask and we know it. Pool chemistry irritates a healing channel and open water carries bacteria a fresh piercing has no defence against. Sea water and hot tubs are the two worst. Showers are fine from day one. If you're a regular ocean swimmer, factor that into when you get pierced — winter is genuinely a better time to start a navel.
$75 for the service, whether it's a standard upper rim, a lower-rim inverse, or a floating placement. Jewelry is priced separately so you pick your own curved barbell rather than paying for a bundled one. If you're getting a second piercing in the same sitting, our two-piercing special covers the pair of services at $75.
A ring rotates and levers both openings; a dangle adds weight that pulls downward on the lower hole all day. Neither is survivable in a fresh navel channel. The starter is a curved barbell, which follows the natural curve of the rim and only moves along its own axis. Dangles and charms become an option once you're properly healed, which for a navel means the far end of that six-to-twelve month window rather than the point where it stopped hurting.
The starter bar is longer than what you'll wear long term, because the navel swells for the first stretch. Once the swelling has gone, that extra length becomes slack — the bar rocks, catches on clothing and works the channel from inside. Come back once things have settled and we'll fit a shorter bar. It takes minutes and it prevents more navel problems than any cleaning routine.
Not sudden. The top ball starts sitting lower than it did. The skin over the bar looks thinner, sometimes shiny, and you can begin to see the shape of the metal through it rather than just around it. The two holes drift closer. Often there's soreness that had gone away and has come back to stay. Come in when you notice any of that — caught early we can often change the jewelry and settle it, and even if we can't, removing it before the body finishes leaves a far smaller mark.
Not one we can give you medically — talk to your doctor, and we mean that rather than saying it defensively. What we can tell you from the piercing side is practical: as the abdomen stretches, the tissue the bar sits in changes shape, and many people switch to a flexible retainer or take the jewelry out for a period. A well-established navel channel often reopens or can be re-pierced later. A new one usually won't survive it.
Something with a low waistband, or something you can fold down. High-waisted jeans and leggings sit exactly where the fresh piercing is, and going straight from the chair into a tight waistband is an uncomfortable first evening. A loose dress or low-rise trousers make the whole first week easier, and it's worth planning a few outfits around it.
Apollo sits at 2625 Main St in Santa Monica, a block from the beach and easy to reach from anywhere on the Westside. Here's roughly how long it takes to get to us for tattoos and piercings:
There's metered street parking on Main Street and Ocean Park Blvd, plus a public lot on 2nd Street a short walk away. We recommend giving yourself an extra 10 minutes to park on weekends — Main Street gets busy with the farmers market and beach traffic. If you're running late, text us at the studio and we'll hold your appointment.
Blue Mason founded this studio and has been in the trade since 2007; Bunny Vogt has been piercing here since 2019 and does a great many navels. Both will pinch your rim, tell you what's there, and say no when the answer is no. If it's yes, you get a bar sized to your anatomy, a downsize visit that's part of the deal, and somewhere to bring it when something looks off eight months from now. 2625 Main St, Santa Monica. 4.9 stars across 623+ Google reviews.
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