Good for use in new piercings and healed piercings. Can be sterilized in an autoclave.
Care for Titanium: Wash in warm water with mild soap. You may soak the jewelry for a few minutes as well. Rinse and carefully pat dry with a cloth. Be extra careful when cleaning jewelry with gemstones. Store jewelry separately to avoid scratches.
Titanium has become the number one go to for piercing jewelry because of its low cost, strength, abundance, corrosion resistance and its hypoallergenic properties. The jewelry industry primarily uses Grade 23 Ti-6Al-4V-ELI which contains no nickel or cobalt keeping this alloy hypoallergenic. This means the alloy contains 6% aluminum and 4% vanadium. However, not all titanium jewelry is created equal. Implant grade titanium should follow the ASTM F136 standard (ASTM is the acronym for American Society for Testing Materials). This is the process and testing standard designed for dental and orthopedic implants. Most American jewelry manufacturers follow the ASTM specification. Jewelry made outside the U.S. is Grade 23, but we often can’t verify the ASTM rating. Piercing purists will argue that we should only use ASTM F136 Grade 23 titanium. However, the extra added regulatory cost makes this standard much more expensive to produce adding to the cost of the jewelry. Piercing applications do not undergo the same stresses associated with orthopedic implant and, for the most part, Grade 23 titanium is going to be good for piercing applications. Tribal Rites carries titanium jewelry from an array of manufacturers. If you desire the best titanium buy jewelry from our American manufacturers. If you find you are comfortable with just knowing that all our titanium is high quality Grade 23 jewelry, please feel free to open yourself to our entire catalog. Titanium can also be anodized to a wide variety of colors. Let us know if you would like us to anodize any of your titanium purchases.
Stainless Steel
Good for use in new piercings and healed piercings. Can be sterilized in an autoclave.
Care for Stainless Steel: Wash in warm water with mild soap. You may soak the jewelry for a few minutes as well. Rinse and carefully pat dry with a cloth. Be extra careful when cleaning jewelry with gemstones. Store jewelry separately to avoid scratches.
The alloy steel is an iron based alloy with chromium and carbon giving it its corrosion based resistance. There are many types of stainless steel. Almost all piercing jewelry is made from the 316L standard which adds nickel and molybdenum to the alloy to add strength and corrosion resistance. The L stands for low carbon. Implant grade stainless steel follows the ASTM F138 standard which specifies the process and the percentages of each element that must be followed for 316L stainless steel to be implant grade. All stainless steel products in Tribal Rites catalog follow the ASTM F138 standard. You will find rings and some nostril screws in stainless steel. This is because steel can be annealed making it softer and more easily bent or manipulated. Since all stainless steel has some nickel people with known nickel allergies should avoid stainless steel jewelry.
Niobium
Good for use in new piercings and healed piercings. Can be sterilized in an autoclave.
Care for Niobium: Wash in warm water with mild soap. You may soak the jewelry for a few minutes as well. Rinse and carefully pat dry with a cloth. Store jewelry separately to avoid scratches.
Niobium is a less common cousin to titanium. It is hypoallergenic like titanium and can be anodized as well. It is the only body jewelry material that can be anodized black. While we do not stock niobium, we can order niobium captive and seem rings.
