This story is part of the June 16 edition of Sunday Life. See all 14 stories . “Have you got a stud yet?” My twice-divorced girlfriend leant in conspiratorially, eyebrows waggling.
“You just have to get one!” I glanced over at her latest dating-app beau who was busily flipping snags on the barbecue. A nice enough bloke, but “stud muffin”? Nope. Well, the muffin bit, maybe, I thought, eyeballing his paunch.
Surely the best way to stay relevant and attractive is a piercing wit instead. Credit: ISTOCK My pal suddenly whipped up her shirt. It was then I finally realised that when a middle-aged woman tells you she’s just got a “stud”, she’s not referring to the bit of beefcake she picked up at Pilates.
No, she’s referring to a gold nipple ring or diamond-encrusted bellybutton bar. Forget hipster jeans or high-heeled Birkenstocks – apparently the new look at the office party or school reunion is a midlife piercing, with jewellery brand Mejuri saying its main customers these days are middle-aged women wanting body piercings. And they ain’t cheap.
Mejuri’s most popular stud retails for up to $640, while another jewellery firm, Maria Tash, has a diamond-encrusted navel barbell that is yours for a mere $17,000. My pal’s bellybutton adornment wasn’t expensive, but I examined it with the fascinated awe I’d lavish on the Hope Diamond. Apparently, she and her daughter had opted for the same ornament because identical mother/daughter piercings are “the de.
