Do piercings of a relatively flat surface work?
Surface piercing
Updated Wednesday May 07, 2008
Brian Skellie
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Committee F04 on Medical
and Surgical Materials and Devices
Committee F04.12 on Metallurgical
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We will install surface piercings as long as you understand that they might not work out: Our first instinct has become to immediately convince people not to try surface piercings based on our years of experience and review of surgical and clinical studies. We respect and understand your interest in unusual forms of self-expression. This is a piercing that we did more often for people at one time, before we could be sure beyond reasonable doubt that the results were not representative of the caliber of work we are capable of in nearly every case.
We are looking forward to experiment with jewelry that is softer than skin in the future. We theorize that could be a solution to healing and avoiding some of the major long term problems with damaging surface piercings.
We have consulted with hundreds of individuals with such a piercing, having been done nearly every imaginable way, and with exceptionally creative methods for jewelry, the initial insertion as well as the aftercare and healing. What we have found is pretty simple, and we should elaborate upon it for your benefit, so that you may make an informed decision.
A superficial piercing creates no more significant or immediate danger for infection than from any common earlobe piercing. When you pierce through a flat area of skin such as on the neck to wear jewelry, the complications are similar to the application of sutures or surgical staples assuming the appropriate level of safety precautions are taken. Full forced air removal autoclave steam sterilization, suitable hand scrubbing, high filtration surgical mask, examination and skin preparation, proper use of sterile gloves, isolation of the area with sterile drape, and atraumatic tissue handling to be specific should prevent disease, infection and serious irritation in any piercing procedure. Considering options for jewelry, the most common and seemingly feasible choice would be some close fitting bar, shaped to your anatomy, perhaps even flexible or shaped similar to an upward turned staple, also known as a surface bar. The material must critically be tested and certified for human implant applications for it to be suitable for healing and wear. Most common options and sources of body jewelry do not even come close to these specific standards for F67 or F136 Titanium with a F86 surface finish, or short-term implant materials such as F138 steel and flexible Silastic©, PTFE (Teflon©) or S-50-HL Tygon©. This is particularly noticed in the lack of jewelry meeting requirements for F 86 surface finish for metallic implants. The skin surrounding body jewelry heals similarly to any cut or scratch, and does so in the simplest and swiftest when left alone, without chemical or biological irritation such as soap, antiseptic or even tap water. Keeping it clean and dry like you would a scab or stitches allows it to grow faster than when any soaking or washing is done with any solution, pharmacological or natural. Because the wound bed is internal and supplied by surrounding circulation, unlike an external cut, it is not necessary to irrigate and or debride the affected area. Throughout the healing process the tissue around the piercing will keep the area sufficiently moist and emit any excess healing cofactors as shed material from the openings. That dried substance will usually fall off on it’s own as a scab would. Within two weeks, the first layers of skin should have sealed the wound around the jewelry. This seems to begin the circulatory problems for superficial piercings like the neck or any other flat area of skin, including some flatter eyebrows and nipples. Excessively granulated scar tissue from overgrowth of capillaries tries to feed new skin at the edges while the skin on the inner edges dries and sheds as its circulation is cut off. Tissue dehesion sets in after a few more days, followed by further granulation of scar tissue along the outside of the openings trying to fill in the recently vacated spaces the jewelry once lived in. As all of this occurs, acute cellulitis sets in, causing the area to redden significantly and swell. At this point the risk for infection increases greatly as more raw tissue is exposed and shedding cells feed scavenger organisms. Unattended cellulitis or further infection in the area may harm the thyroid gland, lymph nodes and major blood vessels. Severe infection can mean a trip to the emergency room, and the grave risk of emergency medical treatment. Timely antibiotic treatment often will temporarily reduce or get rid of any infection, but the tissue dehesion continues unabated. Hot compresses or soaks do not reduce the rate of tissue loss significantly, nor does any application of chemical or natural substances. Piercing underneath the scar tissue formed does not consequently make a more sturdy foundation for a second try, or third or fourth... We have tried just about everything within our means to encourage this type of piercing to work, and even to trick the body into letting it live there. We will perform surface piercings as long as you understand that they might not work out. Our experience is by no means dissimilar to what other piercers with a similar level of expertise have found. Isolated piercers may still be somewhere out there trying such things in different ways, but we assure you that the probability of a surface piercing looking attractive and healthy for more than a scant few days or weeks (long enough to get a picture to go in a portfolio, on the internet or a magazine) is too low for us to suggest it as a viable adornment. The all too rare occasion when a superficial piercing lasts for longer and still looks and feels good without secretion is cause for celebration and amazement. There are a few people who happily wear their scars, and others who may even have a bit of tissue left in which to hold a piece of jewelry, but not enough to suggest that this type of decoration is at all stable enough with current methods and technology.The art and science involved in this pursuit are constantly changing, and as the interest persists, it is possible that the future will bring new techniques and materials that make it fun and easy.
We only want the best for you, and will
be happy to give you a great number of further suggestions for unusual decoration
with body jewelry. Please feel free to call or drop us a note
at your nearest convenience if you would like to discuss this or other possibilities
call us or drop by the studio.
A good honest look at some of the issues
and scars is followed up on by Shannon Larrat of BME:
Seriously, WTF-
Start doing CORSET PIERCINGS properly. [The Publisher’s Ring]
Surface Piercing- The BME
Encyclopedia
Surface Bar- The BME Encyclopedia