The Soapbox

Soap Delay

As I mentioned in my post on soap, The Dope on Soap, two antimicrobial soaps made specifically for wound care, Provon and Satin, are often recommended for fresh piercings.  However, Care Tech, the maker of Satin, was ordered to suspend shipping by the FDA while they investigate unauthorized claims.

“The FDA is concerned about Care-Tech’s products because they lack FDA approval, do not conform to any applicable over-the-counter drug monograph, and are not appropriately manufactured.”

Here’s the link to the FDA press release.

In addition, I’ve heard from more than one source that Provon’s manufacturers may be behind in their supply and distribution, so while these situations are no doubt temporary, if you can get your hands on Provon or Satin at your piercing studio or elsewhere, grab ‘em!

Meta, Pics & Flicks

Flickr: I’m slowly uploading all my piercing pics to my Flickr Photostream.  I don’t want to upload all of them at once, because the Flickr strip on the blog changes as I upload, and I want a variety for you.

Delicious: Also, I’m working  on moving my bodymod links to my Cloudlb delicious bookmarks account to post all of the links there. In a similar vein as the Flickr pics, they show up on the sidebar as I post them, and there are a lot of them, so keep an eye out for new ones as time goes on. If you have a delicious account, you can add me to your network to get them that way, too.

7000 Years of Jewelry

I’m so excited!  I got this wonderful book — and got a really great bargain on ebay — about the history of jewelry.  It looks to have some great information on body jewelry in history which I hope to share with you once I digest it.  Here’s the link to the Amazon page of the book.

Midnight Baby!

And finally, Welcome to GrandBabyCloud No. 8! BD#2 in Portland had a little girl this morning at midnight.  At home, with a midwife, and in the birthing tub.  Oy.  No name yet, no pics or anything so far, but we are so happy!

fin

Ed./clarity

Orion the Hunter

Please welcome Orion, Grandbabycloud No. 7, to the Earth!

…

Some Meta and a Good Sale:

Yes, it’s snowing on the blog, courtesy of WordPress.  Ho, ho, ho.

And I changed my header once again, although I’m still not satisfied with it. I thought the purple would go well with the blue background, but I like the contrast better.

The pics now showing on my Flickr strip are still Art from My Body–this time taken with the Lolo function on my iphone app.  Still pretty cool, I think! You can see all the piercings pics I’ve posted so far on my Flickr photostream.

BodyArtForms has a sale this month:  Use coupon code LIGHTS2009 at checkout and receive 20% off your entire order for the entire month of December! This sale can not be combined with other coupon codes.

How to Save Money on Body Jewelry

Bargain Box

I’ve looked and looked for a nice jewelry box to put my jewelry and tools in, to no avail.  I wanted a large compartment below to put tools, tapers, etc. in, and all of the “jewelry” boxes I find are too small, too fancy and weird for body jewelry (I’m not putting my barbells in a cherry veneer armoire).  So I found this box at my local Hobby Lobby on sale for 50% off!  Making it a true bargain  box for $2.50.! You can find bargains on body jewelry, too, if you look.

First, a word of warning:

DO NOT compromise on the quality of your initial piercing jewelry, or jewelry to be worn in unhealed or troubled piercings. This includes when you are in the process of stretching.  You are trying to convince your body to heal around a wound, and therefore you need highly polished, well machined simple jewelry from an appropriate material for your new piercing.  This means high  quality stainless steel, titanium, stainless steel, glass (or gold or platinum, but this post is about saving money.)  For your initial jewelry purchase, ask your piercer what brands and grades of piercing jewelry they carry, and buy the best starter jewelry you can afford! This is very important for healing your piercing, and not a place to be cheap!

Well-healed piercings can usually wear a wider variety of body jewelry. In fact, you can spend quite a bit of money collecting wonderful jewelry for all your holes.  I never recommend cheaply made, inferior quality body jewelry, but in stable piercings you can compromise a bit, if you know what to look for.

In honor of Black Friday, here are some ways to save on body jewelry: (Note:  Some of the specific deals and offers described are time limited, so if you come across this blog post much past Black Friday 2009, they will be gone.)

Ask Your Piercer

Your first piece of jewelry should normally be purchased from your piercer.  You should never compromise on quality, nor should you choose a piercer or studio on price.  However, it never hurts to ask if your piercer is offering any special deals or discounts. For instance, some piercing studios will offer a second piercing or jewelry at a discount.  They may have some jewelry they are willing to let go on sale, too.  Studios generally buy they jewelry wholesale and mark them up in accordance with standard business practice.  This gives them a little wiggle room for negotiating.  If you develop a good relationship with your piercer and are a good customer, they may be willing to discount your jewelry a bit–it never hurts to ask.  Don’t be obnoxious about it–remember that jewelry sales can be an important part of a piercing studio’s income (and we want to keep those good studios in business!).

Comparison Shop

Always check different retailers for the item of jewelry you are shopping for, including shipping!  Look for deals on shipping.  This can be tedious and time-consuming, though:  maybe I’ll feature some discounts in future posts to help you out.  Steel Navel and BodyArtForms offer free shipping (via USPS mail) on orders over $25. Many retailers also offer freebies and perks with orders–free o-rings, stickers, gauge cards, and even free jewelry!.  Those gauge cards come in handy, believe me!

Sales, Clearances & Seconds

Most online retailers will have a sale link or bin.  Jewelry seconds are also offered sometimes, particularly by manufacturers.  These seconds may be mis-sized slightly, or have irregularities or imperfections, but they might be all right for your purpose.

Steet Navel has both a Sale page and a Clearance Page. BAF also has a Sale page and a Clearance page. Clearance deals are limited and go fast, but you just might find the perfect jewelry for your hole.

Body Circle Designs frequently has sales.  Right now they are having a “Huge Holiday Sale” offering 20% everything.  They are also offering deals on overstocked items. Body Circle Designs manufactures and sells awesome, super  polished, extremely  high quality jewelry.  Highly recommended!

BodyArtForms is offering 30% off Anatometal Super Gemmed Eyelets through November 30. Great deal on these coveted and rather expensive pieces!

One Tribe runs Current Specials–always worth a look!

Newsletters, Special Offers, and Contests

Sign up for all the retailer newsletters you can.  To varying degrees, these newsletters will have special offers for loyal customers.  Some online retailers reward loyal customers with “points” earned, early discounts, or contests.

The winner in this category has to be Steel Navel; the great people at SN are creative in thinking up special offers and contests for their customers.  They have a ton of free stuff to choose from when ordering.   Contests, Twitter Fridays, and special surprises if you participate in their forums.

Tribe Rewards: From Tribalectic.com.  Earn points by uploading pictures and participating.  100  points=$5 off

BodyArtForms, one of my favorite all purpose retailers, has: “free basic mail shipping on orders over $25 (for jewelry only in the USA & Canada). We offer Free jewelry on orders over $30, 4 free black o-rings, a free gauge/measurement card, and a free BAF sticker.”  BAF is also running a Print Ad Contest for a $250 jewelry prize.

Used Body Jewelry

People do sell or trade their body jewelry.  As people go up or down in gauge, retire their piercings, or just need to clean out their jewelry box, they put their used body jewelry up for sale.  I myself would never purchase used body jewelry in acrylic, wood, or organic materials that could not be sterilized in an autoclave, though, and I would take any used jewelry to my piercer for autoclaving first.  (Please keep in mind there’s a difference between cleaning, disinfecting, and sterilizing, and protect yourself!)  Steel Navel offers Classified Ads for forum members.  Other sites may have special boards where people discuss trading, bartering, or selling used body jewelry.

Discount Retailers

Type in “save money on body jewelry” and you’re likely to get a score of cheap ads and marketing come ons.  You can find all the inexpensive “belly rings” and acrylic jewelry you want.  You can save money buying cheaply made, imported jewelry by shopping discount retailers, or buying from mall shops, Wal-Mart, etc. You can save money by shopping Ebay–maybe.  I personally don’t buy this kind of stuff unless it’s for limited wear in healed piercings or emergency replacement jewelry. Keep in mind there’s a lot of cheap crap on the market, of uncertain grade and poor finishing.  If it looks cheap, and the price is too good to be true, consider it second tier jewelry; that is, not to be worn long-term or in new or healig piercings.

As you can see, my bargain jewelry box has plenty of room for tools and –oh! Shh!  Someone’s sleeping!

Note:  I am not affiliated with or compensated by any of the jewelry retailers mentioned.

fin

http://www.steelnavel.com/category.asp?Type=CL

Mirror, Mirror

Little Seven Spirals

New jewelry again! I got my new pair of Little Seven “shortys.” I show them above along with my Little Seven swan spirals, to show the difference in size (the shorty is on the left). These are 8 gauge pieces.  I love the spirals,  but they are heavy, and a little over the top for work.  The shortys I can wear all week without discomfort, and they are just right for work.  Very nice!

Little Seven is a company that makes beautifully crafted hanging spiral jewelry.  There’s a great picture of their wares on their website here:  Little Seven.

The Mirror Finish

One of the reasons why I’m really loving my Little Seven jewelry is the  finish.  The APP jewelry specs specify a “mirror finish” for initial piercing jewelry.  Why?  Because well manufactured, highly polished jewelry is free from nicks, burrs, etc. which can irritate your piercing. (See my post, Body Jewelry: The Least You Need to Know.)

The Piercing Bible describes it like this:

When jewelry has an uneven surface, the new cells that are formed during healing grow into the irregularities.  Then, when the jewelry shifts or moves, these areas tear.  As this cycle is repeated, scar tissue forms and healing is delayed.  A faulty finish can also introduce bacteria into the wound and cause infection.  (p. 79)

Ouch!  This is one reason why cheap body piercing jewelry Is Not Good! It takes a lot of hand-polishing to get the finish this smooth, and of course that translates into a higher cost. But it’s worth it!

You will have no fear of that problem with any of the Little Seven products.  The finish is not only “mirror,” but satiny smooth to the touch and sensual.  Your fingers just want to slide around the swirls and spirals of the jewelry like fondling a worry stone.

Here’s a pic of what the shorty looks like on.  I tried to get a pic to show the way the two pieces are reverse images of each other . . . but my face kept getting in the way!  You can buy Little Seven jewelry from fine piercing studios and a variety of online retailers.  I got mine from the good folks at Steel Navel.

fin

Oooh, how I love new jewelry!

As much as we love getting pierced, and all that goes with that process, sometimes it’s all about the jewelry! I just got this pair of large “saddlebag” horn ear bobs from One Tribe. Simple, classy, black, to go with all my black stuff.  Nice enough for work, easy to insert and not the type of in your face, “hello! I’m pierced!” jewelry that could cause employment problems.  These are 8 gauge, and the ends are very sharp and brittle, so they would not be for sleeping in.

Here’s what they look like on.  There’s also a “short,” or smaller version.  Since they have a nice large surface area on the saddle part, One Tribe points out they can be customized, with the addition of gems, etc. Maybe next time!  I ordered these on a Saturday, and received them in the mail on the following Thursday.  That’s pretty swift!

Here’s the link  to buy these at One Tribe:  Long Saddlebags.

Making Body Jewelry

I found this on squidoo, an instructional site.  It’s an interesting pictoral/article entitled, “How Organic Body Jewelry is Made,” which is a somewhat misleading title as it basically refers mostly to horn jewelry made from water buffalo horn, as well as some wood pieces.

The article is  produced by a company called Siam Intercontinental Handcrafts.  I know nothing about this business, other than they wrote a very nice article.  And apparently sell body jewelry.  Still, the article goes step by step into how they make their jewelry, which is quite interesting.

Step 5  After the piece has taken on the correct shape and approximate size the hand sanding and hand polishing is begun. Different grades of sand paper are used starting with 120 grit, then 240 through 360 and 600 grit. After the piece has become very smooth we hand polish it using natural bees wax with a small amount of sand added and a strip of natural cotton cloth. The cotton strip is tied to a point at one end and the jewelry is rubbed back and forth along the length of cotton until a high luster is achieved.

Be sure to read the entire article, here.  The pics above belong to Siam Intercontinental Handcrafts, not me.

I was going to do a nifty compare-and-contrast thing here, because there was a great little instructional page on how to machine a steel barbell.  But I can’t find it anymore.  If anyone has a link to that, please let me know.

Keep those holes open

If you love your piercing, keep your jewelry in at all times!

Occasionally I run across people who are having problems with a piercing, and it turns out–they’re removing the jewelry regularly–either for cleaning, or for concealment purposes.   No wonder.  Piercings, especially fresh or not-all-the-way healed piercings, get aggravated with a lot of jewelry changes or messing around.

Don’t think you can remove and re-insert jewelry daily for football practice, work, or school.   Piercing jewelry, especially while healing, isn’t like regular jewelry–it’s meant to be left in!

Piercings can close up fast! They can also stay open forever if you take them out.  But none of this is predictable for every piercing or every person.  Piercings are quirky that way!

Thanks to puroticorico’s photostream at Flickr.

Santa, baby!

ETA: In an ironic and sad twist, the world mourns for Miss Eartha Kitt, famed for (among other things) singing, “Santa, Baby,” who died this Christmas morning, after I posted this.

Yes, it’s Christmas morning, and the jolly old elf came to my house, and look what he brung!

A beautiful lavaliere from Black Phoenix Alchemy lab.  It’s a locket that’s pierced (!) and you put a little bit of gauze with scent on it to waft around and add perfume to your every movement.  And that’s a phoenix on it–if you know me, you know why that’s appropriate.  If you’re not familiar with Black Phoenix Alchemy lab perfumerie, check them out! You won’t be sorry.

Black Phoenix Alchemical Laboratory: Purveyor of fine esoteric goods, perfurmes, and potions.

and, that’s not all:

Cloud got herself some beautiful Little 7 swan spirals from Body Art Forms:

Little 7 stuff is awesome, if you haven’t seen it.  Beautiful, heavy, polished to perfection.  These  are 8 gauge, “medium” sized (2 1/4″ I think) and echo the shape of my curly hair perfectly!

Little 7: Implant Grade Body Jewelry

Body Art Forms

Both these pieces came fast! I guess they were hustling their bustle before Xmas, but I got them both on Christmas Eve.

And yeah, fine–I bought them for myself.  There’s no one to bestow such things on me, not even Santa, but I can pretend!

Have to hustle my own self–must finish wrapping, then off to BD#1 for Christmas morning, mimosas, and eggs benedict casserole!  Happy Holidays to everyone!

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Anti-Experience: Pt 2

Part one can be found here.

Marking

I can’t begin to tell you how important it is to take your time about the marking.  This is the time to communicate lifestyle considerations such as plans for further piercing near to the new one, purpose of the piercing, or what style of jewelry you would like to ultimately wear.

Communication is key! If you have doubts, always ask the piercer.  Often they have benefit of experience and will tell you why they want to place it a certain way.  Proper placement can mean a more stable and aesthetically pleasing piercing.

Take the time with the marking and prep work until you are comfortable.  It can be hard to assess by yourself, so having a friend give a second opinion is valuable.

Noah is doing cleaning and prep work on me, and we discuss placement.  I also asked for an unusually large starting gauge for my nipple, 8 gauge, and he had to carefully assess whether my anatomy was suited.  After looking at my other, long-healed 8 gauge nip, he agreed to do it.

Wonderful shop that had all the jewelry I needed! ‘tho the 8 g needle and jewelry had to be statim’d.

The Piercings

BD#1 went first with her Monroe.  It was very quick.  She let out a subdued moan, but was very brave.

Here’s BD#1 caught in that, “oh shit” moment, right before the piercing.  Noah is well into his aftercare speech, which he wants you to focus on instead of dwelling on the pain.

Right.

Noah asked me which piercing I wanted first.  I opted for the chest piercing–ouch with the needle + a hard painful push on my chest to get the anchor inserted. Then the nipple piercing.  That was pretty painful–it seemed to take forever, but he had to push that 8 gauge needle pretty hard to get it through.  It really only took a few seconds.

In my mind, piercing is a significant event, and should be treated as such.  Pain has been a part of human transformative rites forever. You walk out of a piercing experience a different person, transformed through ritual.

So, yeah, it hurts a bit, but it’s worth it.

The Jewelry

Dazed and Confused. Again.  Immediately after piercing, you’re so high on endorphins and jazzed and relieved it’s hard to pin down the little details.  Like jewelry and aftercare.

Make sure you know what jewelry you just bought! This can become important if you need to replace part of it, plan to stretch, or just want to buy new jewelry.  Or maybe that piercing you just got is having problems and you suspect the jewelry.   Is it stainless steel? Titanium? Who is the manufacturer?

They gave me a receipt with all the jewelry spelled out, if in abbreviations.  So, uh . . . what are all these abbreviations again? “am-at-18″? “is-tbop4″? omgwtf?

The following pics are an experiment to document my jewelry purchases.

the surface anchor

the barbell

BD#1′s labret jewelry

Bye Bye, Evolution! We’re pierced, poorer, and pumped up! Why doesn’t my town have cool places like this? We’re so podunk! Next time I’d like to have a little more time to hang out in Albuquerque.

About two hours down the road.  Badge of courage.

A great experience altogether, but I have to say that two intense piercings, plus an 8 hour drive makes for one tired Cloud and BD#1.  Now, I can concentrate on . . . the aftercare!

See ya!

Thank you, of course, to Noah Babcock at Evolution Body Piercing who very graciously let me take the photos during the whole thing.

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What a deal–NOT!

If you are shopping for body jewelry, or looking for a good piercer, I have 3 words for you:

Don’t be Cheap!

In our consumer society, we are conditioned to shop for the best value, looking for a sale, getting a deal, negotiating for a bargain, and getting the most bang for the buck.   Unfortunately, when it comes to piercings, this type of bargain hunting doesn’t apply well.

In terms of looking for a piercer or choosing jewelry, I’ll tell you flat out: You get what you pay for! Oh, it’s not an absolute guide–I’m sure there are crappy piercers out there who may overcharge their customers.  But as a general rule, studios who charge a little more for their services can be depended upon to be more professional, cleaner, and carry better quality jewelry.

Piercers and Studios: If you call up two shops and compare prices for a particular piercing, and one is higher–go with that one! Furthermore, don’t try to be cheap and say, but “I can get that ten bucks cheaper over at XX.”  Instead, ask why.  If you ask the more expensive place to explain why their prices are higher, chances are you will get an earful of why their jewelry is top quality, how their clean and safe shop procedures require good quality decontamination equipment and disposable, sterile equipment, like needles and gloves, to be purchased.  Good piercers take pride in their professionalism, and hate to be undercut by hacks or people just in it for the money.

Look for the most skilled, experienced piercer you have access to, with a clean shop, and a good portfolio.  When I look for piercers, I don’t even consider the pricing at all. I find a piercer I like and pay whatever they ask.  And I tip!

Jewelry: Top quality jewelry costs more.  It’s worth it. Why? Oh . . . let me count the ways! Implant grade metal which won’t cause allergic reactions or skin sensitivities; precision machined parts so the beads and balls don’t fall off; premium finishing and polishing so there are no nicks and burrs to irritate your healing flesh or capture pockets of bacteria.  Ask for and check! that your jewelry is made from a reputable manufacturer and is smooth and gleaming to the eye.  It’s kind of like the  plumber guy from the movie, Moonstruck:

“Then there’s copper, which is the only pipe I use.  It costs money.  It costs money because it saves money.”

(Love that movie!) This is not to say that you can’t look for specials or negotiate.  If you find piercers you like and develop a good rapport with them and are a good client, they may be willing to work with your budget.  Sometimes shops have coupons, or run special deals for the holidays, or give a discount for a referral.   Lots of online jewelry retailers have special deals, points earned, sales, etc.  Look for those, but don’t buy cheap.  And don’t buy your jewelry at the mall! (Yes, I know, I’ve said that before, but it bears repeating.)