Removing a belly button ring is straightforward once you know what type of jewelry you have and how to unscrew it. The whole process takes about two minutes, but a little preparation keeps things clean and pain-free. Here’s exactly how to do it.
Make Sure It’s Safe to Remove
Before you touch your jewelry, take a quick look at the piercing site. If the skin around it is red, swollen, warm, or oozing yellow or green discharge, you may have an infection. In that case, leave the jewelry in. Removing it from an infected piercing can cause the hole to close over trapped bacteria, potentially leading to an abscess (a pocket of pus under the skin). The Cleveland Clinic advises keeping jewelry in place during an infection to keep the channel open for drainage unless a doctor tells you otherwise.
You should also skip DIY removal if the skin has started growing over any part of the jewelry, or if the piercing has visibly shifted from its original position. Both of those situations call for a professional piercer or doctor who has the tools to remove the piece safely.
If your piercing looks and feels normal, you’re good to go.
What You’ll Need
- Clean hands and soap. Wash thoroughly with liquid soap for at least 20 seconds before touching the area.
- Nitrile or latex gloves (optional but helpful). Belly button ring components are tiny and often slippery. Gloves give you much better grip and keep bacteria off the jewelry and skin.
- Sterile saline solution or a sea salt soak. Useful both for loosening any dried crust beforehand and for cleaning the site afterward.
- Clean paper towels or non-woven gauze. For drying the area. Avoid cotton balls or regular towels, which shed fibers that can stick to the skin.
Identify Your Jewelry Type
Most belly button rings use threaded ends, meaning one part screws into the other. The two common styles work the same way from a removal standpoint, but it helps to know the difference. Externally threaded posts have visible threads on the outside of the bar, like a tiny bolt. Internally threaded posts hide the threads inside a hollow bar, and the decorative end has a small pin that screws into it. Either way, you’ll be unscrewing a ball or decorative top from a straight or curved barbell.
Some belly button jewelry uses a clicker or snap-close mechanism instead of threading. These have a hinged segment that clicks open and shut. If yours doesn’t seem to unscrew at all, look for a small hinge point or seam along the ring.
Step-by-Step Removal
If there’s any dried crust around the jewelry, soften it first. Soak a piece of gauze in warm saline solution (a quarter teaspoon of non-iodized sea salt dissolved in one cup of boiled or distilled water) and hold it against the piercing for about 10 minutes. This dissolves the dried lymph fluid that can essentially glue the ball to the bar. You can also gently swab around the jewelry with a damp cotton swab to clear away loosened residue.
Once the area is clean and soft, here’s the process:
- Grip the bottom ball or flat disc. With one hand (gloved if possible), hold the bottom end of the barbell steady. This is the part sitting inside or below your navel.
- Unscrew the top ball. With your other hand, turn the top ball or decorative end to the left (counterclockwise). The old saying works here: lefty-loosey. It may take a few turns before the ball comes free.
- Slide the bar out. Once the top end is off, gently pull the barbell down and out through the bottom of the piercing. Go slowly. If it catches or stings, stop and apply a little more saline to lubricate the channel.
If the ball won’t budge, don’t force it. Dried saline buildup or minor corrosion can lock the threads. Try gripping with a dry piece of gauze or the fingertips of nitrile gloves for extra traction. If it still won’t turn, a professional piercer can remove it in seconds with ring-opening pliers.
Caring for the Site After Removal
What happens next depends on whether you plan to reinsert jewelry or let the hole close.
If you’re keeping the piercing, don’t leave it empty for long. Navel piercings are one of the slowest-healing sites on the body, often taking 6 to 12 months for the internal tissue to fully mature. Even a piercing that looks completely healed on the outside may still be strengthening internally. Leaving jewelry out for even a few hours can allow the channel to start shrinking, making reinsertion difficult or painful. Swap in your new piece promptly.
If you’re retiring the piercing, clean the empty site twice a day, once in the morning and once before bed. Spray the front and back of the hole with sterile saline wound wash (the only ingredients should be sodium chloride and water), then pat dry with a clean paper towel or non-woven gauze. Keep this up for at least a week or until the hole closes and any mild tenderness fades. Avoid submerging the area in pools, hot tubs, or bath water while the skin is still open.
How Quickly the Hole Closes
There’s no single answer because it depends on how long you’ve had the piercing. A navel piercing that’s less than a year old can begin closing within hours of removing the jewelry. One that’s been in place for several years may take weeks or months to fully seal, and in some cases it never closes completely. You may be left with a small dimple or a faint line of scar tissue, which is normal.
If you’re removing the ring temporarily (for surgery, an MRI, or a specific event), insert a clear glass or plastic retainer to keep the channel open. Your piercer can fit you with one that’s nearly invisible.
When to Get Help
A few situations warrant a trip to your piercer or doctor rather than handling removal yourself:
- Embedded jewelry. Skin has grown partially or fully over the ball or bar.
- Signs of migration. The piercing has shifted noticeably from where it was originally placed, or the skin between the entry and exit holes looks thinner than before.
- Active infection. Redness, swelling, warmth, or colored discharge around the site.
- Stuck threads you can’t loosen. Forcing a seized ball risks tearing the tissue inside the channel.
Professional piercers deal with all of these regularly, and most won’t charge much (if anything) for a simple jewelry removal.