Slippery balls, lost balls, darn fiddly little balls.
Those little round things on body jewelry–barbells, CBRs, circular barbells, and other threaded ends–sure give piercees a lot of grief. There’s nothing worse than losing a ball down the drain, or in your sleep, or worse–having a ball fall off and bounce down the hallway at work in full view of all your coworkers. Believe me, it’s happened.
Ball Handling Tips:
1) Check your balls every day to make sure they’re not loose.
2) Buy quality jewelry that’s been precision machined.
3) If you have a continual problem with your balls falling off, you can try adding something to the threads to make them stickier. Various piercees have tried beeswax, archery wax, Loc-Tite, or superglue.
Get a Grip
To get a good purchase on your balls, try wearing latex or nitrile gloves. For slippery oral jewelry, try tearing a bit of paper towel off and using that to handle the balls. Or, as my friend suggested, you could try these:
These are sold as “barbell grips” at Steel Navel (from whom I totally stole the picture, but you can buy them here ).
When I saw this, I about fell off my chair laughing. Those are my “rubber fingers” that I use every day at work! I’m addicted to the things, and can’t handle paper without them. It’s a running joke with my coworkers and family. (If you want a laugh, try handing one of these things to a baby and watch their reaction. )
So, I’m thinking, in some skewed, chaos-theory fashion, I made this happen. Cloud + piercings + rubber fingers = barbell grip!
Spooky!
Top photo courtesy of Tomsaint11’s photostream at Flickr.
January 16, 2009 at 1:48 am |
Coffee filters also work really good for tightening/loosening ends on jewelry. I’ve used them many times to tighten/loosen the ends on mainly my oral and septum piercings when I’ve had nothing else to use. It works a bit better if they’re slightly wet/damp. I much prefer using the filters instead of papers towels not only do paper towels have a funny taste but I don’t like it when they stick to my tongue. EWW!
April 9, 2009 at 7:56 am |
I would definitely suggest if you’re getting gloves for the occasion, go with latex. Nitrile gloves are nice, and will give you grip, but they’re much thicker than latex, making it harder to feel what you’re doing.
In a pinch, when on the move with nothing available, I’ve often used my shirt to grip barbells or balls.
You can also, if it’s a real tight one, use a pair of pliers.. HOWEVER, do not use them bare.. wrap some tape around them first (i use electrical tape personally) to prevent scratching the finish on your jewellery, as bacteria can build up in any scratches or imperfections on the surface.
April 11, 2009 at 6:49 pm |
Great comment, thank you!