World Standards Day at BMXnet

I am teaching Biomaterials standards for body art at the BMXnet conference in Essen, Germany this month for World Standards Day, the celebration of the birth of ISO October 14th, 1946. ASTM International will participate in the U.S. celebration of World Standards  Day, sponsored by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) on Oct. 13 in Washington, D.C. This year’s … Read more

Questionable jewelry project

Have you seen any body jewelry that made you wonder whether or not it was safe to wear?
Please add any manufacturer to this list who makes body jewelry that does not seem to meet appropriate safety standards. Our work group is collecting a list of examples for body jewelry review. You can email pictures, too. Your comments will be used in our ongoing project to help inform the public and improve body jewelry quality worldwide.

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Anodizing Titanium and Niobium Body Jewelry

Sign up for the workshop with Brian Skellie

APP ConferenceOnline 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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Selected freehand piercings

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