Body Art

Anodizing Titanium and Niobium Body Jewelry

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APP Conference / Online “Anodizing is Awesome!”

Previously Presented at BMXnet, UKAPP, APP, LBP, 2º Congresso Educativo para Perfuradores Corporais da América do Sul – ATPB 2013 & more events

1) What is Anodizing?

Anodizing is a process where a coating is built up on the surface of certain metals (titanium, niobium, tantalum, aluminum, magnesium and zinc) by heating, with chemicals, or by electricity. In the case of titanium, the coating that is built up is a layer of titanium dioxide. Titanium dioxide, which is also known as titanium oxide, occurs naturally on the surface of titanium. Anodizing the surface of titanium can be done by the use of heat but the results are not easily controlled. The most common method is to form an oxide layer on the surface with the use of electricity. The way that this is done is with a variable power supply in which an electrode is connected to the positive side (anode), and one to the negative side (cathode).  Both are then submerged into a mildly conductive solution, thus completing the electrical circuit. The piece that is to be anodized is connected to the positive side, and that is why the process is called “anodizing”.

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Nonconforming Imported Titanium

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Ti: what can slip by undetected

Ti: what can slip by undetected*En Español*

Some of my colleagues have already learned of this from my biomaterials presentations at APP 2010 and BMXnet conferences. This reflects upon imported jewelry, and the situations that can arise when quality controls are not normalized. So far, most of the response I get from US distributors of medical titanium alloys is for ELI material they only use domestic melts.

I’ve been talking with fellow ASTM committee members about international sourcing for F136 Ti in particular. They all only use domestic melts for ELI material from Perryman, ATI and Fort Wayne Metals for example . Therefore when companies in China or elsewhere want to make jewelry from F136 they either have to buy from a US or EU source that has a distributor in their area, eg Taiwan, or buy from an local mill melt, that quite possibly won’t meet FDA, BSI, ISO etc.

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Selected freehand piercings

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Here is a glimpse of a few piercings I performed during an exhibition for colleagues in New England. I enjoy sharing ideas and techniques with my peers. Let me know what you think.

My goal is an atraumatic aseptic technique: Primum non nocere

All of these piercings were performed without clamps using the STATIM 2000 autoclave, sterilized single use equipment, sterile nitrile gloves, and the titanium jewelry was anodized with the Reactive Metals Micro anodizer.

A video of a few procedures by Brian Skellie
  • Preparing nonwoven gauze compresses for drapes
  • Diamond cutout for drape window
  • Simple setup in the Statim 2000 cassette
  • Male nipple piercing without clamps
  • Eyebrow piercing without clamps
  • Tragus piercing posterior to anterior without clamps
  • Aseptic navel piercing with sterile gloves and fenestrated sterile drape.
  • An example of surgical use for a fenestrated sterile drape
  • An example sterile drape

Skin antiseptics for piercing preparation

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Thoughts on options for skin cleaning prior to body art procedures.

If a product is not labeled for surgical preparation, it really doesn’t matter how good of a hand and body soap or cleanser it is. It would only be a really strong hand wash product, or possibly aftercare for our purposes.

Choose a product that has claims as a “surgical skin preparation” because “scrub” alone is only the first step as cleaning. A two step “scrub then paint” process is appropriate and advised by CDC.  That involves a solvent or detergent scrub to clean followed by the surgical antiseptic to kill microbes to an irreducible minimum level of contamination.

What does the evidence suggest that we use?

I have replaced this two step product in my procedure with a sterile version by Aplicare or Cardinal Health
  • I’ve been using FDA approved skin prep PVP-I, CHG or alcoholic CHG, or alcohol depending on the area, with a preference for sterile products, and keep looking for other safe, appropriate options.
  • For oral preparation, an antiseptic mouthwash containing CPC or dilute H2O2 and friction.

I’m still looking for a universal surgical preparation agent, and have not found anything on the market that is both proven and FDA approved other than PVP-I, CHG based products and alcohol. I don’t want to recommend anything unless it is tested and labeled for the purpose.

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