Can You Get Pierced If You Have a Nickel Allergy?

If you’ve ever worn a necklace or belt and gotten a rash where the metal came into contact with your skin, you may have a nickel allergy. Also known as contact dermatitis, a nickel allergy is a lifelong autoimmune response. Your body views the nickel as something foreign and then attacks it to protect you. What results is a rash in the same location where the metal touched your skin.

Because most body jewelry is made from metal, you may be wondering if it’s still safe to get pierced if you have a nickel allergy. Fortunately, the answer is yes, as there are many allergy-safe body jewelry materials and piercing supplies.

What Is Nickel And Why Is It In Some Body Jewelry?

When you purchase jewelry made from stainless steel, it often contains other alloys to preserve its quality. Steel jewelry contains nickel because it is an alloying element that helps:

• Strengthen steel without sacrificing it’s ductile nature
• Toughen steel
• Steel’s ability to resist corrosion
• Refine the grain size to increase steel’s strength and toughness
• It’s ability to be welded or bent

What Are the Symptoms of a Nickel Allergy?

While one of the main symptoms of a nickel allergy is the itchiness, other symptoms of a nickel allergy include:


• A red rash or bumps on your skin
• Itching, which can vary in intensity going from noticeable to severe
• Blisters
• Patches of dry skin that look similar to burns

The symptoms can appear as soon as 12 to 48 hours after your skin comes into contact with the jewelry.

When it comes to piercings, these symptoms can lead to problematic or prolonged healing. Even worse, it could cause you to have to retire the piercing altogether.

What Causes a Nickel Allergy?

The exact causes of a nickel allergy are unknown. A person can present symptoms of an allergy upon first wearing a metal with nickel in it or after prolonged exposure to nickel. All that is known is a nickel allergy occurs when the body reacts to a normally harmless substance as if it is dangerous. In doing so, the body produces an inflammatory response, which causes the skin to become puffy, red, and itchy.

One of the reasons nickel allergies are so prominent is because nickel is used in just about everything, including buttons on clothing, eyeglasses, cellphones, belt buckles, and jewelry.

What to Avoid If You Have or Suspect You Have a Nickel Allergy

While it is possible to safely get pierced and wear body jewelry if you are dealing with a known or suspected nickel allergy, it is important to know what to avoid.

The first thing to avoid is getting pierced with a gun. While professional piercers have been explaining the dangers of them for years, piercing guns should also be avoided because they could contain nickel. Not only that, but the jewelry that is compatible with piercing guns typically contains nickel.

Most fast fashion brands manufacture and sell body jewelry made from stainless steel because it is cheaper, more readily available, lightweight, unable to oxidize, and durable.

Therefore, those with nickel or other metal alloy allergies, such as zinc, copper, brass, or cobalt, commonly experience reactions when they wear jewelry bought from somewhere in the mall or on Amazon.

This also means you should avoid anything being labeled as “surgical steel.” Unfortunately, surgical steel is often a misnomer used by companies to mislead customers into believing that the jewelry must be safe because it has the word surgical in it. However, all it means is that the jewelry is not corrosive. It could contain a number of the alloys, like nickel, that people have reactions to.

How To Safely Get Pierced If You Have a Nickel Allergy

The first step to an allergic reaction-free piercing experience is to go to a professional piercer to have your piercing done. One thing you can do is go to a well-known shop in your area. If you don’t know of one, the Association of Professional Piercers (APP) has a piercer finder on its website.

Finding a professional piercer to perform your piercing will ensure that you’re being pierced with quality body jewelry and materials free of common allergens.

The next step is to purchase biocompatible and hypoallergenic body jewelry, which is jewelry with acceptable levels of alloys that make them less likely to cause allergic reactions.

One way to guarantee the jewelry you’re purchasing has a low risk of causing an allergic reaction is to pay attention to whether the jewelry you’re purchasing has a specific designation given by the International (formerly American) Society for Testing and Materials Standard (ISTM/ASTM) or the International Standards Organization (ISO). These two organizations have set standards for materials used for medical purposes, and as such, professional piercers and piercing organizations, like APP, follow these standards when it comes to body jewelry.

The safest materials for those with nickel allergies include:


• Implant-grade titanium Niobium
• 18 or 14-karat gold
• Platinum
• Glass

 

When you’re shopping online, many reputable companies, including Urban Body Jewelry, will list the material the jewelry is made out of as well as any classifications of the jewelry into the standards set by the ASTM and ISO.

To ensure you’re getting hypoallergenic and safe material, look for the following compliances: 


• ASTM F-138
• ISO 10993-(6,10, or 11)
• Implant certified titanium (Ti6Al4V ELI) that is ASTM F-136 compliant
• ASTM F1295 ISO 5832-3
• ASTM F-67

Fortunately, Urban Body Jewelry has a large stock of hypoallergenic, titanium, and gold jewelry suitable for many different piercings. Browse through our collection and stock up today.