• jewellery
• Initial jewellery
• Biomedical plastic jewellery
• Changing your jewellery
• Gauge to mm conversion chart

 

 

FAQ - Jewellery

Day in, day out we see people who have paid good money for a piercing only for the piercing to be damaged by insertion of the wrong jewellery. Most of these people have been wanting their piercing for a long time and have saved up to get it done. We used to fix piercings for nothing in Liverpool, but found as time went by we simply couldn't afford to do that anymore. You can check on bmezine.com or even wikipedia (links on the links page) if you want to know what jewellery should be inserted in your piercing. Check it before you go. Sometimes a little homework is well worthwhile. It could save you a lot of time, money and heartache.

Go to the top of the page

 

Initial jewellery

The jewellery that you wear in your piercing during healing should be appropriate for you if you have used a good piercer. Unfortunately we see many people with wholly inappropriate jewellery who stand no chance of getting the piercing healed and even risk injury.

• Straight bars or rings in eyebrow piercings will usually migrate, leaving a very nasty, very noticable scar.


• Putting barbells in lip piercings, instead of labret studs, could cause the ball on the inside to embed, needing surgery to remove it.


• Surface piercings made with curved bars, instead of staple shaped bars, will migrate, usually in less than 2 months, leaving a purple grooved scar that lasts for the rest of your life.


• Using balls smaller than 6mm on a tongue bar could mean you having to have the bottom one cut out of your tongue.

Go to the top of the page

 

Biomedical plastic jewellery

ALL metal jewellery reacts with the body. It doesn't matter how pure that metal is. That means that your body has to fight the metal AND heal the piercing. Many metals contain trace elements like nickel, aluminium, copper, zinc and such that can cause health problems over time. Titanium alloys are notoriously difficult to polish and usually end up looking dull in comparison with steel alloys. The lack of a polished finish means that the surface is prone to harbouring bacteria, and can be difficult to clean. This extends healing times and can even cause problems with rejection and infection.

Since the introduction of the EU nickel directive ( which states how much nickel the jewellery you use in an initial piercing is allowed to contain ) piercers have tried to find a suitable alternative to 316L surgical steel. We have been using low nickel surgical steel, but there isn't much of it about, it's very expensive, and the choices are very limited. We have looked at using P.T.F.E., but this can be TOO flexible for some piercings and you are limited to the designs available.

We now have access to a revolutionary material that is clinically proven to provide complete bio-compatibility, which means there is no risk of rejection by the body's immune system, making it particularly suitable for initial piercings.

This material is a Semi-flexible Medical Plastic

This is the most revolutionary jewellery ever to hit the piercing world. It is a high density plastic, which is flexible enough to be easily fitted and resist injury from snagging or knocking, but will not lose it's shape with wear. It won't break inside the piercing (I've tried to snap a piece and can't). All this, combined with it's light weight, means the piercing will not be strained or stretched, add to this 100% biocompatability and a surface that resists "crustiness" and you have jewellery that has been clinically proven to promote quicker healing (reducing the healing time by as much as 1/3rd in some cases).

The posts can be either invisible or a range of colours. The post can be cut down to size to suit your anatomy once the piercing has healed, so you no longer have to put up with jewellery that is too big (or be left with no choice but to buy more jewellery). Add to your post any of a wide range of balls (coloured, jewelled), cones or other "add ons" to make your jewellery unique to you.

Go to the top of the page

 

Things to consider when you want to change your jewellery

It is important that you do not change your jewellery too soon, otherwise all the hard work that you have done to heal the piercing will be wasted. Your piercer will be able to tell if your piercing is ready.

It is vital that you leave some jewellery in the piercing for 12 to 18 months. If you leave the jewellery out for any length of time during this period, your piercing will more than likely heal up completely.

When changing your jewellery, it is advisable to use a good quality lubricant to ensure that you don't snag the fragile scar tissue inside the piercing. We have found that KY liquid (not gel) is good.

The jewellery that you use in your piercing is just as important as the aftercare you use. Body jewellery is a specialist area and good body jewellery retailers tend to be where the good piercers are.

They have an intimate knowledge of appropriate jewellery, composition of metals, appropriate anatomy (just because the jewellery suits your friends anatomy doesn't mean it will necessarily suit yours) and the reaction of the body to certain metals and trace elements that is gained by years of experience.

Because piercing has become even more popular over the last few years, many jewellers, high street stores, market stalls and even home catalogues have started to sell body jewellery to take advantage of the profits that can be made by bulk selling. It is so sad when someone arrives in our studio with an expensive item of jewellery, only to be told that it can't be used in their piercing. We don't like upsetting people, and we feel very frustrated when we have no choice but to do that. Many items of jewellery are turned away because of bad design, exposed threads, it's made of unsuitable material or it is simply the wrong size.

We all know that no two people are the same, and even identical twins have major differences in physiology. Is it really likely that the jewellery is going to be suitable for everyone? Some kind of body jewellery version of 'One size fits all?'. This has to be taken into account when buying body jewellery. It must be obvious that there will be a wide range of sizes to suit every piercing. The navel can be pierced with 4 different thicknesses and 7 different lengths, and unless your piercing is measured properly for jewellery, it is unlikely that you will be given the correct size for your piercing.

The composition of the metal is also important. The jewellery you buy must be tested for nickel release. A European Union Directive has been passed that states that any metal used under the skin must not contain more than 0.05% nickel. This is very difficult to check for and just as difficult to police. Some low grade steels contain 10 times this amount of nickel and you can't tell by looking at it. Gold and silver are just as bad. 9ct gold is only 37.5% gold and tends to contain high levels of nickel. Nickel free gold is available from good piercers. Silver should never be used in piercings, as it will oxidise under the skin, causing a black substance ( Silver oxide ) to leech into the surrounding cells. I think we all know people who look like they have a tattooed black spot on the nose from silver nose-studs don't we ?

Many piercers use materials such as Titanium Alloy, Low nickel surgical steel, Niobium, P.M.F.K., P.T.F.E. and other Medical Grade plastics (worth remembering that some plastics are not as good for piercing as others, just like with metals) and more information on these can be found at good piercers.

Before jewellery can be used in a piercing it must be tested for nickel, ultrasonically cleaned to remove traces of dirt and polish, and then sterilised in an autoclave. Good piercers will keep stocks of jewellery that have gone through this process already, prepacked in sterile packets. This process is very expensive (we charge 5 pounds to cover costs if the jewellery comes from a shop other than ours) and often means that the cheap jewellery you bought actually turns out to be quite expensive.

Remember the saying - Let the buyer beware !

Go to the top of the page

 

Gauge Conversion Chart

Jewellery thickness is measured in two ways. In the UK the measurement is in millimetres. Most other countries measure in gauge. This table shows the measurements in both gauge and millimetres as a comparison.

Go to the top of the page

 

Website design by Carl. Copyright©ThePiercingBodz 2010. All rights reserved.