Not all body jewelry is created equal

      The type and material of the jewelry used in modern body piercing has an impact of the overall health and longevity of your piercing.  With the rise in popularity of body piercing in the past years, there have been many new companies starting to produce body jewelry.  That being said, you can find body jewelry anywhere from popular stores and kiosks in malls, music stores and even flea markets.  The people/stores selling these products have little to no idea about what makes a quality piece of body jewelry and are more worried about making money.  Also, consumers are attracted to this novelty jewelry due to its low cost.  Unfortunately, the majority of these companies are producing "jewelry" of substandard quality and using materials that can be harmful not only to your piercing, but to your overall health.  Those selling/using this poor quality of jewelry are therefore putting your health at risk to make a buck.  Basically, who cares how much you paid for your piercing if the jewelry used is garbage?  On average, my jewelry costs between 8 and 20 times more than shops using jewelry of lesser quality, but my prices do not reflect that!  Therefore, even though they maybe charging less and you end up spending less, they make more money because of poor quality.  I feel that it is my responsibility as professional to offer the best quality to my customers.  I have no doubt in my mind that you can go elsewhere and get a "cheaper piercing", because you absolutely will get cheap quality as well.  Period.

 Jewelry material

      This is why I choose to use body jewelry of the absolute best quality available.  The material I use for all fresh body piercings is made from ASTM F-136 certified implant grade titanium.  I choose to use jewelry in new piercings that is certified to meet ASTM standards that are safe for surgical implant materials. By using this, it gives you the peace of mind that the materials placed in your new piercings have been scientifically tested to be safe for prolonged and repeated wear in the body (longer than 24 hours).  Again, most body jewelry being sold/used is made from materials that may not cause irritation on the outside of your body, but has no business being placed inside such as a piercing.  There are also very few studios that use implant grade titanium for all fresh piercings and we happen to be one of those

  Surface finish

      The jewelry I use also has been finished to ensure the smoothest and cleanest contact with the human body.  The jewelry I use has been hand polished to a mirror finish and then cleaned to remove any surface contaminants which may cause irritation in a piercing.  A smooth, mirror finish not only looks good, but also prevents body fluids from adhering to the jewelry and allows new tissue to generate around a smooth surface.  I have seen firsthand samples from jewelry companies, stores in the mall and what other studios use in fresh piercings with scratches, dings and a not-so-smooth finish.

Internal Threading

     All threaded jewelry in stock is internally tapped, meaning that the ball(s) of the jewelry have a threaded end which threads inside of the barbell post.  One advantage of this type of threading is that it reduces the amount of trauma to a fresh and even a healed piercing because no rough edges are passing through the piercing.  The opposite style of this is called external threading and may cause excess pain when inserted into piercings.  I do not use or even carry external threaded jewelry.  

     Most of the companies producing internally threaded jewelry use a standard thread size for the different size gauges of jewelry they make.  What this means is that the threaded end of a certain gauge will fit an internally threaded post of that same gauge from a different manufacturer.  This also means that if you lose a bead or want a different threaded post, you can purchase all the pieces separately instead of buying a whole new piece of jewelry.  This does not happen very often with external threaded jewelry.

     The threaded end on the ball also tends to have more threads per inch than external threaded posts, meaning that the ends stay on more secure and reduces the chance of losing a ball/end.  Still, the ends should be checked regularly to make sure they are tight.    

     If the jewelry is externally threaded, chances are is that it is made from low quality materials as well.  If the manufacturer does not put the extra time into polishing and making internal threads, they are not going to spend money on quality materials either.  Likewise, it is hard to find cerified implant grade materials with external threading...why spend the extra money on good materials only to still have poor craftmanship?  It would be like having an exotic sports car and using cheap parts on it...you just don't do it.