load-bearing piercing

A piercing, often a nipple piercing, which is structurally important to an outfit. This can be due to the clothes being held on with a piercing through clothes, or by the clothing hanging off of a ring piercing or similar.

Contrast piercing_pull when a piercing is being pulled on externally, but is not supporting something self-contained to the wearer. Also contrast linked piercing or nipple jewelry, nipple_bells, etc. where the piercing is supporting a relatively small object or decorative accent, rather than some or all of a larger piece of clothing.