Gold-plated body jewellery almost always contains a nickel barrier layer under the gold. When that gold wears off, nickel makes direct contact with a healing piercing. Here is what plating actually means, which materials are genuinely nickel-free, and how to verify what you are buying.
What the full article covers
Gold-plated jewellery almost always contains a nickel barrier layer between the base metal and the gold.
Once the plating wears through, a matter of weeks to months in a piercing, nickel is in direct contact with tissue.
Solid 14k to 18k gold and anodised titanium or niobium are the only reliably nickel-free ways to achieve a gold appearance in body jewellery.
Terms like "nickel-free" and "hypoallergenic" on packaging have no legal definition. Ask for an alloy standard or an EN 1811 test report.
Nickel sensitisation is permanent. There is no treatment that reverses it once the immune system has learned to react.
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First published on poliinternational.com. This is a summary of the original engineering article.
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