technique

Selected freehand piercings

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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
  • Preparing nonwoven gauze compresses for drapes
  • Diamond cutout for drape window
  • Simple setup in the Statim 2000 cassette
  • Male nipple piercing without clamps
  • Eyebrow piercing without clamps
  • Tragus piercing posterior to anterior without clamps
  • Aseptic navel piercing with sterile gloves and fenestrated sterile drape.
  • An example of surgical use for a fenestrated sterile drape
  • An example sterile drape

Skin antiseptics for piercing preparation

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Thoughts on options for skin cleaning prior to body art procedures.

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.

What does the evidence suggest that we use?

I have replaced this two step product in my procedure with a sterile version by Aplicare or Cardinal Health
  • I’ve been using FDA approved skin prep PVP-I, CHG or alcoholic CHG, or alcohol depending on the area, with a preference for sterile products, and keep looking for other safe, appropriate options.
  • For oral preparation, an antiseptic mouthwash containing CPC or dilute H2O2 and friction.

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.

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