Titanium surface bars vs PTFE 90 degree staples.

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Friday July 4th, 2008 @ 11:45 PM

Filed under: Surface/Unusual

Whenever I see advice on surface piercings, I always see people advising titanium surface bars.

However, my piercer uses 90 degree PTFE staples (custom made). He says that the flexibility is an added advantage over the titanium surface bars. Of course, it is still 90 degrees, so in that way, it is similar to the surface bars.

What are your opinions on this? Are PTFE staples better than the traditional surface bars?

Thanks.

First things first, do you know what PTFE your piercer is using? Second, does your piercer even know what PTFE they are using?

The ONLY PTFE that should be used in surface piercings, will come with an ASTM standard for Implant Grade Capability. So regardless if your piercer says: “Its pure PTFE” or “Extra Virgin PTFE” blah blah blah it all means squat unless the PTFE they are obtaining comes with a ASTM certification for implant grade material.

Also you have to ask HOW your piercer makes the 90 degree bends in the PTFE. Know that heating the PTFE up enough to force the straight cylindrical material into a 90 degree will alter the molecular structure of the PTFE (thus compromising the ASTM standards), and even release toxic vapours in the process.

If they simply just force the bends and autoclave them,etc the result quite often is that in the end the PTFE will want to straighten itself out since it comes from a coiled collection of PTFE

You also have to realize that with PTFE the only thing remotely capable of being used is Externally Threaded Balls on the jewelry. This creates a shoddy External Threading on the PTFE, which can often strip and be problematic.

My personal preference is to exclusively use Internally Threaded ASTM F136 6Al-4V ELI Titanium either in a regular surface barell shape or the more recent mass produced design of a flat surface barbell. Not to mention the use of internally threaded flat discs to reduce catching/snagging.

Now these are my opinions based on my own research I’ve done, there ARE other piercers out there who use other flexible materials (Tygon,etc) and will claim sucess with said material. I will not knock them nor say anything bad about them, PROVIDED THEY DO THE RESEARCH AND KNOW WHAT THEY’RE TALKING ABOUT….

Key example of that is in 2007 I was at the APP Conference and I took a Surface Piercing class and to my surprise the majority of the class could not tell the difference between: 1) Tygon(Silicone Tubing), 2) Teflon(PTFE) or 3) Bioplast(Udel Polysulfone)…Not only that but virtually NONE of them knew about any ISO or ASTM specs for any of these materials. And sadly that just wasn’t in my class either, apparently it occurred in the other surface piercing class as well….Which to me is VERY shocking/disturbing because how can these people USE these materials, if they don’t even know the bare essential facts that are so easily obtainable?

But like I said these are my OWN opinions based on my OWN research and that is why I am personally more a fan of proper Implant Grade Titanium Surface Bars over PTFE or Tygon or Sacred Zombie Jesus Pubic Hairs Woven Together Into Jewelry, Blessed By Peter Popoff Himself.

However like I said if a piercer is using said jewelry for however many numbers of years and has been having good success and able to prove so via their portfolios/knowledge,etc. Then I will not go off the crazy end screaming they are horrible hacks or anything like that.

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