What Your Bellybutton Piercing Says About You
Whether we think about it or not, every choice we make about our appearance sends a sign to the world around us. As Psychology Today reports, first impressions take around just seven seconds, with people basing their opinions off of clothing, accessories, hairstyles, makeup, and even roundness of facial features. Six Degrees explains that it might take just the blink of an eye to construct an idea about someone. It's clear even the smallest of details can make a big difference — and that may include your belly button piercing.
While you're not likely to show off your belly button piercing at work or school, when you do wear a crop top or head to the beach, it might just say a lot about your personality. Of course, first impressions aren't always accurate, and as per Healthline, are heavily based on biased opinions about others and cultural norms. For example, as Insider explains, humans naturally equate stereotypically "feminine" or "baby-like" facial features with trustworthiness, deeper voices with capability, and yes, thick glasses with intelligence. While we know intellectually that a simple pair of horn-rimmed spectacles won't change anything, our inherent need to make first impressions will act up on its own. Since we mostly communicate with other humans through facial expressions, body language, and other kinds of "nonverbal" cues (via Six Degrees), it's clear something as non-effacing as a belly button piercing can have a big impact. Wondering what your navel piercing says about you?
It might mean you're rebellious
As you can expect from parents' usual reactions to their teenagers wanting their belly button pierced, navel jewels are societal signifiers of rebellion, youth, and a devil-may-care attitude. While belly button piercings have been around for centuries — historically, an aspect of Middle Eastern and Asian dance styles like belly dancing (via Body Candy) — many people in the West first heard about them in the early-1990s. Still seen as a quintessential '90s trend by publications such as Vogue, we'll never forget stars like Christina Aguilera and Lindsay Lohan pairing their belly button rings with low-rise jeans. Put on the map by the epic Aerosmith music video for "Cryin'" that shows Alicia Silverstone getting her belly button pierced in a shop (via AV Club), these piercings have always been seen as daring and downright untamed.
Even if you don't consider yourself a rebel at all, preferring drinking lavender-honey tea on your couch on Friday nights with your dog, a belly button piercing can inspire you to live louder. As per Her, people automatically see belly rings as subversive, so might as well go with it! Explained by Our Everyday Life, this piercing has a certain shock value, and is designed to go against society's expectations. Marquette University social scientist Steven Franzoi has studied these piercings. Our Everyday Life says he deems them a way for teens "to distinguish themselves from their parents." Even if you're past that stage, your navel piercing might make you seem younger to others around you.
It can also show off your unique identity
Apart from showing off your rebellious side, a belly button piercing sets you apart from the crowd, demonstrating your unique attitude to life. If you have a belly ring, you might find run-of-the-mill conversations about work-life or the best honeymoon spots pretty boring, and feel more fulfilled by soul-sparking one-on-one's. Instead of devoting weekends to farmer's markets or laundry days, you probably prefer going on reckless adventures into the unknown, or buying a plane ticket for a same-day flight just because. Not just reckless or wild, you genuinely like to keep things unique in your life, and won't apologize for taking the road less traveled.
Psychology professor Christina Frederick-Recascino studied belly button piercings in college students, finding that most of them chose to get their piercings to evoke "their personal identity," says Our Everyday Life. Much different from what their parents might have thought, these piercings weren't necessarily meant to rebel against anything or make them as cool as their peers — they were seen as merely another way to express themselves. If you have a belly button piercing, you probably love grabbing a blank canvas and splattering rainbow paint all over it, or driving around town with your favorite song playing at full volume. You aren't likely to submit to pressures from family, friends, or your significant other about your life's timeline, and you live on your own terms. Deeply unique, no one will label you as "basic" anytime soon.
Belly button piercings can also signify power
Another trait your belly button piercing might be evoking is more unexpected, and comes all the way back from ancient history: power. Yes, belly rings might have been donned by ancient Egyptians as a way to signify royalty (via Basic Body Piercing Advice). As Tribu London writes, legend has it that only pharaohs were allowed to wear belly piercings, and that common folk would be executed if they did the same. Of course, with one in every four American millenials now reporting a piercing in an area other than the earlobe (also via Our Everyday Life), navel piercings aren't as imperial as they once were. Still, old cultural norms live on, and your belly piercing might give off a regal spirit when you least expect it.
Apart from pharaoh-like, majestic Cleopatra vibes, your navel piercing symbolizes strength, intensity, and vigor. Your piercing most probably hurt, so it symbolizes that you're willing to go through difficulties to get worthwhile rewards. Plus, this piercing isn't for the faint of heart, and shows you're willing to think outside the box and defy social constructs in your daily life. This represents power and vitality in itself, and let's just say: total Daenerys Targaryen energy. Plus, as per Our Everyday Life, Hinduism teaches that belly piercings align the third chakra, which can boost your confidence and emanate positivity. Try showing off your belly piercing the next time you go out, and feel like a warrior princess when you do so.