quality

Safe steel for body jewelry?

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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.

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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.

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Sponsorship for BMXnet 2013 infection control

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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!

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  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

Processing Devices

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Standards are useful, and guidance based on evidence is often even more so.

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This guidance provides recommendations regarding reuse instructions in labeling for reusable medical devices and the validation of the recommended reprocessing process in the instructions. The recommendations are applicable to the three device reprocessing situations below.

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OPTIM 33TB protocol

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OPTIM 33 TB is a One-Step Cleaner Disinfectant with no hazardous ingredients.

For the modern body artist, OPTIM offers a number of advantages for cleaning and thorough and safe disinfection in one minute for:

  • Temperature sensitive Body jewelry materials for healed piercings
    Such as wood, horn, stone, bone, certain polymers
    Break the chain of infection for MRSA, VRE, HCV, HBV, HIV, Mycobacteria and other pathogens for non-critical items that can not withstand the heat of an autoclave. 
  • Tattoo machine frames, coils, springs, clip cords
  • Mayo trays and other work surfaces
  • Exam tables, massage tables, tattoo chairs
  • Display cases
  • Furniture in your waiting area including fabric covered items.
  • Suspension rigs and equipment

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Questionable jewelry project

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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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