Brian W Skellie – Sharing ideas
“This article presented some sound information, but there’s still much more to know. When piercings are performed by a trained professional using sterile equipment and high quality jewelry, and appropriate aftercare is followed, the risks are drastically minimized.” — Elayne Angel, APP President
You are a pierced woman, he said, looking into my eyes and smiling.
I lifted my head so that I could take a peek: Brian Skellie, my piercer, had successfully stabbed me with a needle so I could wear a silver ring with a hematite stone on my navel.
One of the most commonly used materials for body jewelry, the ASTM F136 – Standard Specification for Wrought Titanium-6Aluminum-4Vanadium ELI (Extra Low Interstitial) Alloy for Surgical Implant Applications (UNS R56401) has been revised to F136-13 developed by Committee F04.12, ASTM BOS Volume13.01.
The new version changes are in section 9. Special Requirements
please discuss 316l and implant grade 316lvm grade stainless steel
They added a link to an essay titled
“Body Jewelry Materials. Understanding Implant Grade Surgical Steel“
Neither are surgical implant materials. These are engineering specifications.
*AISI and SAE do not establish standards for biocompatibility.
More detail: ASTM ? ANSI ? ISO ?One thing to know is that ISO and ASTM are both international organizations for standards, but ISO is restricted to members of national standards bodies such as ANSI. Individuals or companies cannot become ISO members.
ASTM members are comprised of representatives of both government and stakeholders in related business, such as me. I joined ASTM in the mid 1990’s to represent the needs and learn more about the responsibilities of the body piercing business, and have been able to attend conferences, contribute my research based evaluations and vote for standards that affect us as body artists.
ISO voting is done for the USA by ANSI. ASTM makes recommendations to ANSI. ANSI has typically voted in accordance with the recommendations of the ASTM.
The 2013 update that my ASTM F04.12 committee just voted to approve for the most common steel alloy for surgical implant is also most the commonly used for body jewelry, F138.
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ASTM F138-13a specifies chemical, mechanical and metallurgical refinements for 316 series steel alloys for surgical implant. It doesn’t really matter if the material is 316L, 316LVM, etc. The material is only acceptable for body jewelry when specified for human surgical implant and validated for this purpose to a peer reviewed scientific standard such as ASTM or ISO provides. AISI/SAE
As an aside: I don’t personally use steel alloy jewelry for initial piercings. I prefer pure unalloyed metals or simpler alloys with a greater margin of safety and less reactivity in the body.
CONFERENCE IS ALMOST UPON US! THE CONFERENCE ADVANCED (ONLINE) REGISTRATION WILL SHUT DOWN AT MIDNIGHT ON MAY 17TH, PST ANY CHANGES TO YOUR REGISTRATION SHOULD BE MADE BEFORE THEN (OR WILL HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL WE ARE ONSITE IN LAS VEGAS) BANQUET DINNER SPONSORED BY INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH BODY JEWELRY; ANATOMETAL, INC.; LEROI, INC.; AND KAOS SOFTWEAR THURSDAY JUNE … Read more
What Titanium materials are best for body jewelry? My articles at https://jewelry.piercing.org/ and https://brnskll.com/shares/titanium-standards-why-not-g23/ explain that the two most effective Titanium standards are alloyed ASTM F136 and pure ASTM F67, the most common being the former as it is stronger, harder and easier to polish. Both are used for permanent surgical implants.
An interesting observation on safety issues raised in returning contaminated items such as jewelry to clients, as voiced by this medical professional’s concerns for their patients. It is evident that infection control measures should be carefully considered when previously worn jewelry or other contaminated personal items are to be returned to a customer.
I am an OR nurse and recently started a new job in a prestigious orthopedic hospital. At the request of a surgeon or patient when implants are removed we have been cleaning and flashing them and returning them to the patient in a plastic bag.
[NOTE: Flashing is an outdated term for sterilizing items unwrapped for immediate use]
https://brnskll.com/shares/flash-faq/
Learn how to relate a certificate of tests (Mill Certificate) to an appropriate standard for body jewelry biomaterials
For the modern body artist, OPTIM offers a number of advantages for cleaning and thorough and safe disinfection in one minute for:
This could be due to a number of sources of irritation or infection that can result in overgrowth of scar tissue when the healing process is disrupted. There may be a single, simple solution though it commonly may take a combination of protective measures to help this turn out well.