If there are no flares, grooves may be cut near the edges to allow rubber or silicone o-rings to hold the jewellery in place. Some flesh tunnels have flares to keep the jewellery from falling out. Flesh tunnels, like flesh plugs, may feature a decorative inlay or semi-precious stones. Flesh tunnels may be worn with a captive bead ring or other object passed through them.įlesh tunnels are fashioned from a broad range of materials, including surgical steel, titanium, Pyrex glass, silicone, acrylic glass, bone, horn, amber, bamboo, stone, and wood. A person may choose to wear flesh tunnels instead of flesh plugs because they weigh less at higher gauges, the weight difference increases. However, the smaller the gauge the smaller the effect to see through the plug becomes. Flesh tunnels are made in smaller gauges. It is also sometimes referred to as a spool, fleshy, earlet, expander, or eyelet.Ī flesh tunnel is usually used in stretched or scalpelled piercings.

Surgical steel flesh tunnels in four different gauges.Ī flesh tunnel is a hollow, tube-shaped variety of body piercing jewelry. A grooved plug is a variation on the straight plug, with grooves carved in the material to hold the o-rings snug. A straight plug (or no-flare plug) is a typical-looking cylinder, without flares, and is kept in place by sliding o-rings against both ends of the plug.These plugs give the aesthetic of double-flared plugs without requiring that the wearer's fistulas be large enough to accommodate flares. The no flare end is held in place by an o-ring and may or may not be grooved. A single flared plug has one flared end, usually worn on the front of the piercing, and one end with no flare.No o-rings are needed to keep the plug in the piercing, but the fistula needs to be wide enough to accommodate the flare when the plug is initially put in. A double-flared (or saddle) plug, flares outward at both ends, and is thinner towards the middle.Combinations of these two methods may also be used. In order for a plug to stay put within a piercing, the ends of its cylindrical shape are often flared out, or the plug is fastened in place by o-rings. They can, however, be inserted into any piercing. Plugs are commonly, and have historically, been worn in the ears. Acrylic glass, metal, wood, bone, stone, horn, glass, silicone or porcelain are all potential plug materials. Because of their size-which is often substantially thicker than a standard metal earring-plugs can be made out of almost any material. Modern western plugs are also called flesh tunnels.

Totonac figurine wearing prominent earspools.Ī plug (sometimes earplug or earspool), in the context of body modification, is a short, cylindrical piece of jewelry commonly worn in larger-gauge body piercings.

Tunnel plug