This piercing is one of the most common and popular body piercings today. Popular culture has played a large role in the promotion of this piercing. The navel piercing first hit the mainstream when model Christy Turlington showed her navel piercing at a fashion show in London 1993. The popularization of the piercing, however, is accredited to the 1993 Aerosmith music video for their song "Cryin'", wherein Alicia Silverstone has her navel pierced. It also played a major role in pop culture after popular singer Britney Spears' navel piercing appearance. The easy concealment of a navel piercing with clothing, even during the lengthy healing process, has contributed to the widespread adoption of this piercing, especially by young people.

The navel piercing is relatively simple to heal. In some cases, depending on how a person sleeps, it can be a harder case to deal with.

It is preferable that one sleeps on his/her back while healing a navel piercing.

You should clean it once or twice a day with saline, or a sea salt solution. Put enough saline in a small, disposable cup so that when you lay down, the piercing will be fully covered. Let the piercing soak for 10 to 15 minutes before removing the cup.

Most kinds of ring or bar jewelry can be worn in a navel piercing, although navels are most often pierced with a barbell, which is recommended to be worn until the piercing has fully healed. A wide variety of decorative jewelry is available for navel - simple navel barbells, navel barbells with dangling pendants, and navel barbells with attached belly chains are a few of the options.

There has been a special standard established for navel barbells (also called "banana-bells" or "banana-bars", reference to their curved shape). The standard banana-bell is 1.6 mm (1/16") thick and 9.5 mm (3/8") or 11.1 mm (7/16") long, most commonly referred to as a 14-gauge post. The silver caps on either side of the simple barbell post usually measure 5mm in diameter for the upper and 8mm in diameter for the lower.

Although navel banana-bells are different from full rings - like captive bead rings (or CBR) that also can be worn in navel - there is tendency by the Internet body jewelry retailers and wholesalers to refer to these barbells as belly button "rings".

A new version of navel jewelry is on the market for those without pierced navels, which is based on the idea of clip-on earrings.