Body piercing has seen an explosion in popularity over the past few years. This in turn has lead to a massive improve in the range of body jewellery offered, both in style and in supplies. It wasn’t lengthy ago that surgical steel jewellery was the ‘norm’ for body piercings with a tiny amount of silver and gold jewellery obtainable for healed piercings. Even so, this has changed and you can buy body jewellery in a large range of supplies that include steel, silver, gold, titanium, plastic/acrylic, glass, bone, horn and even wood.
The range may well now be extensive but there is a issue… what sort of jewellery is suitable for your piercing? Not all of the above supplies might be suitable, especially if your piercing is still relatively new and/or unhealed. For new body piercings there are only a few materials now recommended. It utilized to be the case that surgical steel jewellery was the automatic option for new piercings. Nevertheless, it has since been found that a really little minority of folks can have a reaction to the little nickel content in most surgical steel, so a directive from Brussels has since stopped the use of steel for new body piercings. While there is a form of surgical steel obtainable that’s nickel free of charge, high production costs and the emergence of newer, far more readily accessible supplies have prevented this from becoming well-known.
So what is ‘safe’ for a new or unhealed piercing? Titanium is perhaps the No1 choice for new body piercings at the moment. Available merely polished or with a quite wide range of inert, anodized or PVD coatings it is our jewellery of option by far. From belly bars and ball closure rings to labret studs are all available in titanium and at a price nearly on par with steel.
Another choice, specially suited to those who want their piercings a little much less visible, is bioplast or flexible acrylic. Being a form of plastic the material is very inert making it ideally suited for all piercings and with the capacity to flex a little it is typically far a lot more comfy than conventional jewellery such as titanium. The only drawback for some is that it basically isn’t as attractive as titanium jewellery; specifically the coloured or gem set titanium pieces.
So what is not recommended for newer piercings? It is critical to tension that for brand new piercings, or those still weeping, you ought to only consider really inert and ‘safe’ materials such as titanium or bioplast/acrylic and all jewellery really should be correctly sterilised prior to use. Surgical steel is no longer suggested for unhealed piercings for the factors stated above. Gold is only ever suitable for totally healed piercings (i.e. usually 6 months+ after the piercing and no weeping or discharge) due to the very high level of impurities most gold carries. Organic materials such as wood, horn and bone need to only be utilized for healed piercings basically due to the fact they can carry contaminants and are quite difficult to sterilise fully.
As a final word of advice, as with all issues body piercing related – if in doubt consult your piercer.