-BODY PIERCING INFORMATION

BLACKLINE JEWELRY

Rival Body Jewelry has the latest advancements in body jewelry technology. We now offer exciting new cutting edge bio-compatible surface coatings to the piercing industry. Our Vapor-ized™ jewelry is created through a process known P.V.D.  PVD is short for Physical Vapor Deposition which is a permanent metallic coating on the surface of 316LVM Surgical Steel jewelry.  The vaporized material: Tungsten DLC (diamond like carbon) is ionicaly applied in a vacuum chamber to the surface of the jewelry. These fascinating bio-coatings are wear and corrosion resistant, prolonging the life of the jewelry and enhancing the visual appearance.

316LVM IMPLANT GRADE STEEL

The ASTM & ISO have a standard for wrought stainless steel used for surgical implants. It is called ASTM F-138. The ISO specification 5832-1 is included in this spec. We manufacture all of our stainless steel body jewelry from this implant grade steel. The material composition covered by this specification has been employed successfully in human implant applications in contact with soft tissue and bone for over a decade. The number 316 stands for the type of stainless steel; it's basically a formula for the mixture of elements that make up this alloy. The L stands for low carbon content. Notice the (VM) in parentheses. It stands for Vacuum Melting. It is not a part of the ASTM F-138 specification, but we request it as an additional measure of purity in the metal.

6Al-4V-Eli TITANIUM
Titanium- Atomic #22 is the ninth most abundant element in the earth's crust. It is a lustrous white metal that has unique characteristics: strength, corrosion resistance, biocompatibility, and it is lightweight, weighing 45% less than steel. Titanium is present in the minerals limonite, rutile and sphene as well as in titanates and other iron ores. It is also present in coal, plants, the human body, meteorites and the sun. Titanium can be polished to a high luster resembling that of Surgical Stainless Steel. It can also be colored by a process called anodization. Anodizing is a process whereby an electrical current is passed through the metal. Oxides build on the surface of the metal, and as light is refracted through this film, wide spectrums of vivid metallic colors are available.

Acrylic- (Polymethylmethacrylate) PMMA

PMMA's are also known by other industry trade names such as: Plexiglas’s, Lucite and the generic name Acrylic. These plastics or vinyl polymers are durable and scratch resistant with excellent optical clarity, transmitting light even better than glass. PMMA has applications in a number of different industries, including dental and medical. For the past 20 years the medical field has been using an injected form of PMMA cement to help restore some of the mechanical properties of damaged vertebrae.

14K and 18K Gold

Pure gold is found in nature in quartz veins and alluvial or sedimentary deposits as a free metal or in a combined state. Its color is bright yellow and it has a high luster. Gold is rare, being the 75th in order of abundance of the elements found in the earth's crust. The most malleable and ductile of all the metals. Pure gold is completely biocompatible. Gold has been highly valued for thousands of years because of its appearance and unique properties. It is still used as currency, and the coin and jewelry industry use approximately 60% of the gold supplied annually to world markets. Because of its softness, gold is alloyed with other elements to increase durability and wear resistance. The alloy is called a karat. Rival Body Jewelry uses legally recognized karats of gold (14K & 18K) in all of our precious metal jewelry. 14 karat gold is 58% pure gold and 18 karat is 75% pure gold. We use palladium as a substitute for nickel in our white gold to eliminate any possible adverse reactions to nickel.