Just a note about Wildcat jewelry, since a recent post sparked my thoughts:

About half a year ago, I decided to stretch my frenum from 10 to 8 gauge. It had been 7 months since the piercing, I used plenty of water-based lube, took it very slowly and gently, etc. It was fine for a few days, then after day 2 or 3, it went through a VIOLENT rejection in less than a week that left me with more scar tissue than I'd like. I'm getting my frenum redone, and wondered why the old one rejected. Then, the Wildcat BB in my appy started getting some extra unusual crust around it, which I NEVER had with other barbells, and it dawned on me: a metal reaction probably spurred the rejection. Now that I look back, I remember the skin was red and puffy, looked and felt very tight around the entire area, and had an almost wet appearance, which is mostly what the tribe guide describes for a metal reaction. And considering that Wildcat's steel isn't implant grade as far as I know, and has reacted negatively with my other piercings, it makes a bit more sense.

I've always endorsed Wildcat and it's still nice for temp stuff, but I've really realized that you get what you pay for. With the prices I've seen Anatometal stuff go for recently, it's not that hard to suck it up and go with the good stuff right away.

When I ordered some Anatometal stuff recently I was shocked to see how inexpensive their CBRs had become. Barbells remain another story....

is steel skin any good?

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and read Shadark's jewelry list.

Agreed, chuck. I've seen Anatometal (at least I'm pretty sure they were Anatometal) titanium cbr's in 18, 16, and 14 ga for $6. Barbells are still damn expensive, but Anatometal isn't too much higher than anything else out there.

LastBoyScout, I've heard steelskin is great for most stuff, but after finding out that their barbells are not countersunk, I'd try to avoid those.

Edit: Bowlingballmom, I'm slow, just now figured out you were talking to LastBoyScount. Whoops, sorry.

According to the wildcat webby:

'Wildcat use either Composition D Implantation Steel, 316L or 316LVM surgical steel for all our body jewellery. Although these high grade steels do contain nickel they do not release nickel salts into the body and do not induce nickel dermatitis.'

That implies nothing of implant grade. Hot Topic sells jewelry made of 316L as well. :-)

They can make that claim, but someone can also tell a bee-allergic person that their special bee won't cause bee dermatitis. The person can still get stung and have an outrageous reaction, and find out the proprietor of bees didn't do all their research. I've read too much about slight complications with even excellent quality steel to fully believe that wildcat's stuff has no chance of inducing a reaction, without any further research. I'm not totally blaming their product though; it was an informed risk. It may have not even been a metal reaction. Either way, I'm using Anatometal titanium this time to be safe.

The term "surgical steel" came about when surgical tools that could be cleaned and resued became availiable -and that was before any of us were born.

-well, most of us anyhow

ASTM F-136 is the one form of implant grade stainiless steel that has tested for decades now.

If you are allergic to nickel you will have a problem with ANY form of stainless steels used in body jewelry today.

Tambo made a perfect scenario with allergic reactions to bees. I have that problem, and there is no bee that I am safe from.