AWFUL MODS: As an employee of Hot Topic in Virginia, I would like to point out...

tobiasxva:

awfulmodifications:

As an employee of Hot Topic in Virginia, I would like to point out that our body jewelry is tested to be nickel free. Also, the wonderful man who does all my piercings (20+ years experience in the best shop in my town, the owner, Joe Hagerty, shits awards for his tattooing) agrees with me, that…

All stainless steel jewelry contains nickel.  Even ASTM F-138 ‘Implant Grade’ stainless steel (albeit a very minute amount).  HT does not test nor guarantee any jewelry to be nickel free, that’s crazy.  The only high quality jewelry they sell is Kaos.

As for “20 years experience”.  The website for that shop shows the piercer has been working for ~12 years according to their website, so that’s already throwing me off a bit.  Everything on his site including aftercare seems fine though, so I’d be really hard pressed to imagine that he’s OKing Hot Topic jewelry. 

Thank you. <3

Also, I am really having trouble with all these comments about how HT jewelry is nickel free. like “our body jewelry doesn’t have any more nickle than the FDA allows” okay…great… maybe the FDA allows it, but that doesn’t make me not allergic to it and that means to me that your jewelry is cruddy…because it makes me break out in a gross rash. The FDA also allows peanuts, but if you’re allergic to peanuts, YOU STAY AWAY FROM PEANUTS. Nickel allergies aren’t uncommon. If you KNOW you aren’t allergic, by all means, go ahead and buy it, but I wouldn’t go near the stuff.

And yes, ALL steel has nickel in it. Even implant grade, but that is SUCH A SMALL AMOUNT that my body doesn’t react to it. Hell, I can even wear shitty metal mafia jewelry in my industrial piercing, but if my skin anywhere else comes in long-term contact with 316L “surgical” steel, I break out. (I realized that before I realized that steel jewelry had nickel in it, if i knew what i was buying at the time, i probably wouldn’t have bought it…)

Anyway. That’s enough rambling about this and I don’t even know how you all can argue that steel jewelry, especially not the implant grade steel, doesn’t have nickel in it. Here, take a look, 316L steel (the type of steel economy jewelry is made of) has 10 - 14% nickel content.

And on page 5 in the middle of the right hand column, you can find out why ASTM F-138 steel pretty much doesn’t cause reactions.

-Kat

(via tobiasxva-deactivated20130224)

Source: awfulmodifications

34 Notes/ Hide

  1. skullfly reblogged this from awfulmodifications
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  6. cheyennemorgan said: I used to work at HT. Their plugs DO have nickel in them; my manager told me to stretch with silicone and use scotch tape to wrap my plugs (I didn’t listen to him, but I’m sure customers did). In short, don’t go to HT to gain piercing knowledge.
  7. mintaroth said: nickel and copper are both common skin allergens, and hypoallergenic things usually don’t mention copper. I’m allergic to both.
  8. patches240sx said: Shitty jewelry = shitty results. Idk what piercer would condone such poorly made items. Spend the money and get yourself better made jewelry. BVLA, Industrial Strength, omerica organics, just to name a few good ones. check them out or ask your piercer.
  9. arianaxnoelle reblogged this from awfulmodifications
  10. glisteningbutts said: Mildly abrasive reply.
  11. reeshardzeekay said: Once I heard a HT employee tell a customer to stretch with electrical tape. There was another employee there who had a safety pin in his ear. They has a sign up on their jewelry case that read: “FAUX PLUGS! LOOK COOL WITHOUT THE PAIN!” SMH.
  12. awfulmodifications posted this