education

Safe steel for body jewelry?

by

A forum participant asked:

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“

The easy answer:

Neither are surgical implant materials. These are engineering specifications.
*AISI and SAE do not establish standards for biocompatibility.

me+.lMore 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.

ASTM F04 and ISO TC 150 have merged to facilitate the flow of information.

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.

home-logo2[1]

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.

Read more

Sponsorship for BMXnet 2013 infection control

by

My company Piercers.com and I are pleased to sponsor a Statim autoclave for sterilization at this year’s event again! I will be there to educate and to learn, as well as to sell infection control equipment and anodizers. The Statim 2000 G4 is on the way, and the new Optim 33TB Blue version for surface disinfection as well. — at Unperfekthaus for the BMXnet … Read more

APP Conference soon!

by

  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

Pronouncing an open tone towards other forms of modification

by

I've been a member now since 1996
I’ve been a member now since 1996

Here is some progress to be proud of:

The Association of Professional Piercers is an international non-profit organization dedicated to the dissemination of vital health and safety information about body piercing to piercers, health care professionals, legislators, and the general public. Socially and legislatively, body piercing is situated within the greater body modification community. As a result, we recognize that our role extends beyond the discipline of body piercing. Our position on body art practices such as tattooing, cosmetic tattooing, branding, scarification, suspension, and other forms of body modification is as follows:

Read more

Returning jewelry(explants) to clients

by
Do not buy or sell used body jewelry brnskll dot com

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.

Please regard the discussion in the comments below

Question

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/

Read more

Sharpies for labeling

by

Can we label sterilization packages with a Sharpie brand marker?

Question

Our staff used to label all of our cardiovascular sets and supplies with a red Sharpie brand permanent marker and we would use a black Sharpie for all other items. This provided a quick and easy method to visually identify these special critical items. The labeling was restricted to the autoclave tape on the outside of wrapped packages and the film side of peel pouches.

Read more