Like many transguys, I like my jewelry. I don't wear as much as I used to, but I do have quite a bit and have learned a few things over the years about what kind of jewelry has sabotaged my ability to pass, and other jewelry which has helped me. That is the subject of this essay.
Note: I format this as "stuff I do to pass" because I don't want to give the impression that these tips are going to work for everyone. Also, to aid in your deciding whether these tips are going to work for you, I am white, 5'8", large-framed, and I live in Wisconsin.
Part I: Neckwear
I love ties. I usually wear them with nice dress shirts or relatively casual collared shirts. A patterned tie can help take the emphasis off your chest, but I avoid novelty ties because my mom tends to wear them. Standard ties are also considered fundamentally masculine in most contexts and I've found my passability rises substantially when I wear one as long as it's with a collared shirt. If I wear it with a T-shirt it lowers, probably because punk-ish women around here wear ties with T-shirts.
I only wear regular ties and not cravats or bowties. I don't think these would harm my passability because in the context of the whole outfit they won't take anything away, but they do look dated and looking too dated can invite scrutiny.
I currently only wear one necklace, which is a small silver pendant of the Egyptian God Seth (I am Kemetic Orthodox, and He is my Father) on a black leather cord. I've found that pendants don't harm my passability as long as they are on a plain chain or cord and smaller than a penny. I used to wear a rather large pentacle necklace on a plain cord that didn't harm my passability too much in practice but I still think it came off as rather feminine. Silver and pewter work well, gold doesn't work as well.
For a while I was wearing a chain with a tag that was designed sort of like a military identification tag. It was actually a fundraiser piece for an anti-vivisection organization and it didn't hurt my passability, but at the same time I had a lot of people ask me what branch of the service I was in and it got embarrassing to have to explain that I'm not in the military. I don't really think it's a comfortable leap to go from "What branch of the military are you in?" to "Actually, this is a tag memorializing a rhesus monkey in a lab somewhere." I am considering getting one made as an actual ID tag, though.
When I was a camp counselor, and also when I was more of a hippie, I got away with wearing a lot of hemp necklaces because they went with the rest of the look.
I used to wear beads, they were small dark wooden beads which I thought wouldn't hurt, but it turns out they did. I will in the future stay away from entirely beaded necklaces. They're fine, though, if woven into hemp or if there are just a few of them on an otherwise plain cord necklace.
I've also found that rainbow necklaces don't hurt my passability as much as I'd expect. I would have expected them to project "butch lesbian" but they often project "gay man" if everything else I'm wearing projects the same.
Part II: Earrings
I can't speak on other piercings because I don't have any, but I personally don't wear earrings anymore. They were a great point of discussion among people who gave me unsolicited passing advice (just in case anyone was wondering, I have a disdain for unsolicited passing advice).
I used to think circular barbell earrings were masculine enough for me to get away with it. They are relatively decent if they're plain metal, but if you wear colorful barbells it doesn't work as well. I know this because I used to wear Miracle Ball earrings, which essentially glow and are really quite hypnotic, but after a while I realized that flashy and gaudy aren't very good.
Earrings worked better when I had them gauged (I think the biggest holes I had were 8 ga., which isn't huge but definitely formidable compared to the standard 16-18 ga. holes most of us got as girls).
It seems obvious, but I'll say that stud earrings and gemstone earrings really hurt me passing-wise.
Part III: Wrists
I own a few watches. One is a metal watch I bought because it had a neat gear design. In retrospect it's very gaudy and emphasizes how small my wrists are in comparison. I do wear it with certain outfits, but it isn't really good for its original purpose. I have a sports watch, too, which I generally only wore when I worked at summer camp. This is less of a concern now because most people are using their cell phones as clocks instead of watches. It does give a "grown-up" look to a guy, though, so if you're having problems getting viewed as your own age it may help to get a watch that's proportional to your wrist. That means a leather band (one that matches the shoes you wear and your belt, or faux leather if you don't wear leather) and a relatively small face.
Bracelets tend not to help. I used to be "one of those" who wore a ton of Livestrong-style bracelets, if these are still in fashion where you are you can get away with one. Maybe two. Again, when I was a camp counselor this rule could easily be broken because all of the men were wearing tons of bracelets and anklets.
I think POW-MIA bracelets and survival strap bracelets would actually help passing and not hinder it because at least around here those are considered masculine statements. I have not tested this, but if I do I will update.
Part IV: Rings
Right now my thinking is that the only rings that would not hurt my passability are wedding bands and class rings. My class ring, though, might not be that great. When I bought it I actually had to tell the Josten's salesperson that I was planning a sex change before she would allow me to look at the men's rings. I bought a very traditional men's ring and, while I do love the ring, it is huge on me. Men's class rings are by nature big gaudy things, but most cis men also aren't worried about passing.
Once I came out to the Josten's lady, though, she was very helpful and helped me size my ring perfectly, she even said they'd resize it if I went on hormones and my ring size changed. I can only imagine how awkward it must be for her, though... I wonder if she ever went to a Josten's ring salesperson conference and told me as a story? Oh, the things I wonder...
Also, I am not married, so wedding bands are of no concern. Yet.
Part V: Other jewelry and jewelry-like accessories
This category includes pins, pin badges, tie clips, tie pins, cufflinks (which I guess could have gone in "wrists"), and lapel pins.
Lapel pins are meant to showcase a religious or political belief, but as most of mine are considered obscure I usually just leave it blank. I went on a spree once where I tried looking for lapel pins that suited me and found I was limited to American flags. This wouldn't bother me were I not pretty settled upon not looking like a Republican. You could go the flashy route and get a boutonnière instead, but that's awfully formal and I have yet to find a suit in which the lapel buttonhole is actually a hole and not just a stitch. But now I'm rambling.
Tie pins and bars do in fact help because, although they're flashy, they're also associated with something very masculine.
Cufflinks are the same way. I avoid gaudy cufflinks just because damnit my class ring already takes up enough of my personal gaudiness quota, but they shouldn't hurt too much because they're a traditionally male piece of jewelry. Honestly I don't wear french cuffs often enough for this to matter, though, so I guess you can just ignore that.
Badge pins... these warrant discussion because many of us wear them. I have a huge collection of badge pins. I used to be known for a messenger bag covered in badge pins, and in retrospect I can say that this did not help. If you wear badge pins and want to pass, then keep it limited to one or two pins you really like. You can, of course, rotate if you have a lot of them, but around here having a bag full of pins is a good way to be read as a woman unless you're surrounding yourself with activists who do the same thing.
So in conclusion this is my experience with jewelry so far. Your mileage may vary considerably and of course you are at liberty to just say "fuck it" and wear what you want.
