Brian W Skellie – Sharing ideas
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.
Previously Presented at BMXnet, UKAPP, APP, LBP, 2º Congresso Educativo para Perfuradores Corporais da América do Sul – ATPB 2013 & more events
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”.
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.
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.
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. 
Other than making people shiny, my job is to help my fellow piercers and tattoo artists make their work easier, cleaner and safer
A study inadvertently proves that externally threaded jewelry can harbor bacterial colonies in biofilm.
A curious and hopeful article about a transdermal implant modified for a practical palliative use.
In brief: A surgeon saw this type of mod at a piercing studio when taking his children to have their ears pierced, and made a version for helping patients swallow.
It is well founded to wear a mask during your procedures for your clients safety and your own.
I prefer not to use the term “freehand” to describe the precise and simple practice of body piercing without the use of mechanical means to grasp the tissue.
