What is High Quality? Externally vs Internally vs Threadless
A huge part of being a piercer and offering professional body piercing services is - whether we like to admit it or not - educating our customers. Piercers are confronted with all sorts of questions about topics from placement, healing of a fresh piercing, jewellery options to the simplest but important question "Why?".
One of the biggest questions involving "why" deals with why we for example do not offer externally threaded jewellery (pictured above on the right), while maybe another shop does offer this type of body jewellery. In almost all cases it comes down to a matter of quality. In this blog post we at Ronin Body Arts try to make it clear which one you should go for and why. Parts of this blog entry can also be found in our aftercare brochure.
Externally threaded jewellery
Externally threaded jewellery is body jewellery which offers a threaded on the respective post. The specific top to this piece is then screwed onto the post. This style of jewellery comes with a lot of potential risks, which have been proven true with years of experience and which makes it unsafe and unusable not only for fresh piercings, but all body piercings in general:
the threaded end sits on the outside of the post and is therefore in contact with the pierced tissue when inserting. The poor manufacturing quality of this style of body jewellery leads to the thread causing a grinding effect on the surrounding tissue, causing damage and prolonged / problematic healing.
Externally threaded jewellery is usually made using lower standards of manufacturing, leading to an inferior surface finish. Every scratch and every unevenness including the external thread offers potentially harmful bacteria a place to manifest and subsequently cause inflammations and infections.
Internally threaded jewellery
Internally threaded body jewellery works exactly opposite to the previous type. The end of the post is hollow with a thread on the inside, while the top attachment carries a small protruding thread which screws into the post. Examples for this can be seen when looking at internally threaded jewellery in our shop. While this jewellery comes with a marginally higher price tag, it boasts a range of important benefits:
Internally threaded jewellery is usually made using higher manufacturing standards using a mirror polishing finish on the surface of the pieces. This massively reduces the risk of potential spaces for bacteria to settle on the jewellery.
The absence of any threading on the outside of the jewellery removes any tear damage caused by inserting or changing jewellery.
Internally as well as threadless jewellery opens the wearer to a very wide range of choices when it comes to attachments. All premium body jewellery manufactures only produce jewellery for internally threaded or threadless posts.
A lot of internally threaded and threadless jewellery comes with a lifetime guarantee on any manufacturing faults. In the unlikely event, that jewellery breaks or faults without any exterior influence, please contact Ronin Body Arts and we will get in touch with the manufacturer for a replacement free of charge.
Threadless Jewellery ("Push-Fit")
The way threadless jewellery works is not too different from internally threaded jewellery. The post itself is hollow, but does not contain any threading while the attachment comes with a small pin attached. When inserting the attachment into the post, we stop once half the pin is inside the post and slightly bend the top away from the post before pushing the rest of the pin into the post. In doing so we create a small kink in the pin which will hold the top attachment in place through inertia and pressure. Apart from the difference in threading - or the absence of it - the benefits are pretty much the same compared to internally threaded:
Highly polished surface finish
No threading on the outside possibly damaging the surrounding tissue of your piercing
Huge range of options of attachments
Possible lifetime guarantee on manufacturing faults
In conclusion, this should give you an overview of the different styles of piercing jewellery and which one you should go for. Nonetheless, this merely scratches the surface of what the term "high quality" entails in regards to body piercing and all the surrounding procedures that are put in place in our studio in order to provide Ipswich and the rest of Suffolk with the highest standard in hygiene, service and professionality. Ronin Body Arts strives to combine your personal wishes and ideas with our experience and skills to help you heal your piercing safely and keep it happy for the future.
Check out our shop for our range of internally threaded and threadless jewellery.