Titanium Jewellery

One of the most popular materials for body jewellery is titanium – this is because it is a relatively lightweight metal that doesn’t cause many allergic reactions. There are many reasons that piercings get infected, by purchasing jewellery for your piercing that’s made from a high-quality material, such as Titanium, you dramatically improve your chance of having a worry-free piercing experience.

Within Europe, titanium is particularly popular because other, similar metals are often alloyed with nickel and EU directives prohibit the use of metals containing over 0.05% nickel as part of the alloy. Body jewellery sold as ‘titanium’ is either pure titanium or a surgical-implant-grade alloy known as Ti6Al4V ELI. The alloy includes aluminium and vanadium – both metals not known to cause an adverse reaction following prolonged exposure.

Pure titanium jewellery for body piercings is a bit softer, and can be scratched by instruments used in the piercing process or surgical instruments. Scratching, apart from damaging the aesthetics of the piece, might lead to an irritated piercing. Alloyed titanium is stronger, but retains the hypoallergenic and light-weight properties of pure titanium.

Titanium body jewellery is available in a variety of colours, thanks to the process of anodising. Yellow, bright blue, dark blue, green, purple and pinkish purple are quite common colours, as is a rainbow effect. The various colour effects are achieved by creating a layer of titanium dioxide on the surface of the metal, the colour created depends on how thick the layer is made. Though anodizing isn’t proven to provide any additional benefit to the piercing jewellery itself, the array of colours available is increasingly popular.

When you’re purchasing titanium body jewellery online, ask the merchant to clarify whether it’s pure titanium or the alloyed sort – pure titanium is often more expensive. Also, if you’re considering an anodized piece, ask for additional photos as the colour is often difficult to capture accurately.