body piercing jewelry

Want to know what to look for in a professional body artist or piercing studio, well look no further:

Tattoo removal can take four to ten 15-minute treatments, and doctors suggest a healing duration between visits of four to six weeks. The cost, which is considered cosmetic surgery and therefore not covered by health insurance, can be as much as $600 so you want to be sure you're getting a quality tatto that you're going to be happy with.  You're going to have to live with it for a long time.

Piercing is often considered secondary to tattoos because you can always have them removed, but that isn't always true. Sure you can take out the piercing but is the initisl piercing wasn't done well or you didn't take proper care of it you can end up with scars that will either never go away or require surgery to remove.

Keloid scars are chunks of scar tissue that extend beyond the origional site of the wound.

What to look for in a tatto or piercing studio:

Some important factors are whether or not piercing and tattooing are done in separate rooms, how instruments are sterilized and what types of metals the shop uses for its body jewelry.

Body Jewelry should only be made of surgical grade stainless steel, 14- or 18-karat solid gold, niobium or titanium.

For the initial piercing, even gold isn't recomended because the nickel content can cause allergic reactions in some people.

The types of threading on body jewelry is also important.  A thread is the part that 'screws' if its on the outside or 'external thread' it can tear at the wound.  Internally threaded (screwy bit on the inside) jewelry avoids contact with the wound. Its more expensive but if you've ever seen a keloid scar you know that its well worth the money.

To guarantee hygienic service and high quality look for studios that are members of the Association of Professional Piercers.

The APP is a body of professionals that have rules and regulations for body art that are usually higher than federal standards.

For example, all needles used for tattoos must be disposed of after a single use, as well as razors, applicators and ointments.

Instruments not thrown away are sterilized in an autoclave. An autoclave which uses a combination of heat and pressure to sterilize equipment. It's effective but the autoclaves aren't cheap. Not every studio uses them. Some studios simply wipe equipment with alcohol which isn't 100% effective.