Piercing gauge converter
Convert body jewelry gauges to millimeters and inches, from a 20 g earring to a 00 g plug.
That's about the same as a navel bar (14 g).
What it means
How thick is that?
Jewelry sizes as sold, which round the wire gauge to the nearest metric size. Stretch slowly, one size at a time.
Every unit
That size in every unit
Learn
Three things worth knowing
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Common sizes
20 g = 0.8 mm (standard earring), 18 g = 1 mm, 16 g = 1.2 mm, 14 g = 1.6 mm, 0 g = 8 mm, 00 g = 10 mm.
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Drawing wire
The gauge counted how many times wire was drawn through ever-smaller dies: more draws, thinner wire. Jewelry kept the numbers when piercing studios started using wire stock.
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A bigger gauge is thinner
16 g is thinner than 14 g. Going “up a size” when stretching means going down a number.
Shortcuts
Popular jewelry size conversions
Background
About gauge sizes
Body jewelry borrows the American wire gauge, so the numbers run backwards: a 20 g earring is 0.8 mm, a 14 g navel bar is 1.6 mm and a 0 g plug is 8 mm. After 0 comes 00 g, 10 mm.
Every two gauge steps, the diameter grows by about a quarter. Above 00 g, plugs and tunnels are sold in fractions of an inch or in millimeters.